Five Card Draw Through History
Five Card Draw is perhaps the oldest known poker game played in the United States. Over the years the popularity of this game has grown and faded. Although Draw poker might not be as popular today as other forms of poker, it can still be found in some brick-and-mortar casinos and online poker rooms.
Believed to have been first introduced in the United States by the French in the mid-nineteenth century, Draw poker (originally known as Bluff) quickly spread up and down the popular Mississippi River trade route on riverboats and gambling steamships.
Businessmen loaded with cash and other commodities were used to playing card games involving skill and chance. Players playing draw poker early on found that the game with is bluffing capabilities they were able to often wager money and win big pots without necessarily having to reveal their cards. By the mid-1800s, the joker had been added which increased the number of possible hands and thus made even bigger pots!
During the Civil War many soldiers played poker to win coveted commodities, such as cigarettes, food, and money. In the early twentieth century draw poker got an even bigger boost when legislation was passed outlawing Stud poker as a game of chance and legalizing draw poker, which had come to be considered a game of skill.
However, around the mid-1950s Draw poker began falling out of favor. This was especially true in casinos that needed to make room for newer poker games that emphasized the use of community cards, such as Texas Hold 'em and 7 Card Stud. Since the late 1980s Five Card Draw enjoyed an unexpected renaissance of sorts, starring in the world of slot machines as video Draw poker. Traditional slot players believe video poker is more beatable than regular slot machines, where the playoffs are purely based on random algorithms.
As the name implies Five Card Draw lets players exchange cards of no value for new cards. To begin a hand, each player antes and is dealt five cards. The player to the left of the dealer opens the betting round and players who wish to play the hand can either call the bet or make a raise. After the initial betting round players choose which cards in their hands they would like to exchange and place them face down on the table. The dealer exchanges each player's down cards for new cards. After every player in the pot is dealt new cards another betting round takes place and then player's showdown, or reveals their hands to see who wins the pot.