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Five Card Draw Poker
In this
page
we
are going to focus on regular poker, or an
Online Poker game
better known as 5-Card Draw. Five card draw is the most
basic and the easiest game of Poker for you to learn (we
hope).
The
Game:
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First, each player
places token bet (an ante) into the pot before the
cards are even dealt. The ante (yes, the token bet
from last sentence) can be anything from a penny (if
you are a *&^%$^&…….) to thousands of dollars (“do
you feel lucky, punk?”). You need an ante because it
guarantees that someone will always win something on
each hand.
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Once all players
placed their ante, the dealer deals the cards face
down around the table, starting at the player to his
left and continuing clockwise. The dealer (watch him
carefully if he's also playing) always deals to
himself last. The dealer deals everyone their first
card, and then goes back around the circle to deal
the second, and so on. As soon as everyone has five
cards, the remainder of the deck is placed in the
middle of the table, and let the games begins.
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Each player looks
at his or her cards (make sure no one else can see
yours, some people have wondering eyes), and then
the first player places a bet. While there are
several ways of deciding who bets first, poker
experts are best off letting the player directly to
the left of the dealer make the first bet. Then on
the next hand, the person to his left will bet
first, and so on around the table for each new hand.
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Players have
several options as far as the first round of betting
goes. If no one has made a bet yet, you have two
choices
Open:
If no betting has begun when your turn
comes, you may "open" the pot .This simply means that
you make the first bet, it can be any amount under the
betting limit (if you placed one).
Check:
The opportunity to "check" only occurs if no one
has yet opened the betting when it comes time for you to
decide what to do. When a player checks, it means that
he or she doesn't want to open the betting, but doesn't
want to quit either. It basically means "I'm not going
to open the betting, but I'll stick around and see what
happens." (not for the adventurer types)
Now if
someone opens the betting (lucky him/her). You now have
three choices:
See:
When you "see" another player, it means that you match
their bet. So if someone bets $1 and you want to stay in
the game, you have to "see" their $1 by putting $1 of
your own into the pot.
Raise:
When you "raise," it requires you to first "see" the
previous bet, and then increase the bet. For example, if
the previous person bet a nickel and you want to bet
more than that, you would say "I see (match) your
nickel, and raise you (increase the bet) another
nickel."
Fold:
When someone else opens, you can always jump ship and
cut your losses. In other words, you "fold." The act of
folding is to "give up," place your cards face down on
the table, lose whatever you've bet so far. In other
words, you give up early and lose your money (sometimes
it is better safe than sorry). This option is used when
you think your hand is too weak to compete.
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At this point, all
the players who haven't folded are allowed to get
rid of the cards they don't want and take some new
cards. A player is permitted to get rid of up to 3
unwanted cards and receive up to 3 new ones from the
deck. No one sees what anyone else discarded (threw
away) or drew (got as a new card). It's all done
face down. (again be careful of your peers wondering
eyes)
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After every player
draws his/hers new cards, the betting begins again.
You have the option of opening or checking, and once
someone opens, you can see, raise, or fold. The game
ends when there are no more raises (everyone saw
everyone else's bet), or everybody folds (except for
the winner, of course).
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Now it's time for
everyone to turn their cards over and see how they
did in comparison to their peers (or enemies at the
game, depends how you feel about them). The player
with the highest hand wins the pot. Some winners
have been known to laugh hysterically, dance around,
yell “in your face” as they grab everyone else's
money. If you do that, you're friends will despise
you, yet we highly recommend it (what are you
waiting for?). Enjoy the moment; your friends will
hopefully get over it one day.
Now that you have learned the principals
of the Five Card Draw Poker game you will want to read
and learn the rest of the variations of Poker that are
mentioned on
Online Casinos USA
Poker Game rules pages. Once you have done that all that is left
for you to do is practice, practice, and
than practice even more until you have perfected your
game, before you start playing for some big numbers.
Good Luck
The
Online Casinos USA team
online poker overview
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Poker hand
ranking
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Poker Glossary
five card draw |
five card stud
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Seven Card Stud
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Texas
Hold'em
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Omaha
Omaha High-Low |
Pai Gow
Poker
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Three
Card Poker
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Red Dog Poker |
