5 Card Draw Strategy

Draw Poker (often called “Jacks or better” since this is the minimum opening requirement in many games) was once the most popular form of poker and almost all of us will have seen a film with a group of grizzled cowboys huddled round a filthy table in a dusty saloon, chewing cigars, shooting cheap whiskey and eyeing each other through narrowed slits whilst playing draw poker.

In the modern world, draw poker may no longer be the most popular form of poker but it still has a healthy audience in home games and is a fun variant to try your hand at. Here’s a introductory strategy guide to winning some money should you find yourself in a game.

Patience, Discipline, Aggression

These three qualities are at the very heart of correct draw poker strategy. It’s much harder than you might realise to improve your hand (if you have a pair and draw 3, you’ll only improve around 40% of the time), so make sure you start with a strong base. Your position is crucial in determining what sorts of hands you should play, as the more players who have yet to act, the more likely it is there is a hand out there that can beat you.

Additionally when you play, you should nearly always open the betting for a raise. This is important as it will help narrow the field and ensure not too many people are drawing against you.

Here’s a quick run-down of the sorts of hands you should play in an 8 handed draw game.

This is a guide to opening, based on the maths of likely holdings. If you stick closely to it, you will gain an edge over your opponents.

Deciding how to react to other players raises is a little trickier. How they play is key to your decision-making process.

Categorise Your Opponents

This is crucial to determining your strategy against different players. You will face loose opponents who will play any five garbage cards in a bid to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. If you notice this happening, be sure to punish their looseness by raising to isolate them with your good hands.

Contrastingly, other players will be too tight too and when they raise, you know you will be having to draw against a monster, meaning you can comfortably fold medium strength hands.

Careful observation of player’s habits, their raising frequency and betting patterns will give you some healthy indicators as to their behaviour with different strength hands. Soak this information up like a sponge and use it to inform your decision-making process when in marginal situations.

Further Reading

There are a wealth of other nuances to the game that could be touched upon but this has just given you a short idea of some of the things to think about when you play draw poker.

To learn more, there is some great literature to take you further on your journey.

Super System – Mike Caro wrote a great section on draw poker in the original Super System and as well as being informative, it is one of the funniest sections in the book. Definitely worth looking into.

Education of a Poker Player – If you find dry analysis tough reading, then try Herbert Yardley’s timeless classic, as he interweaves draw and other poker strategy with anecdotes from his accomplished and exciting travels.