Five-card stud is the original form of poker and dates back to the time of cowboys and outlaws sitting and gambling in old West saloons. It's not as popular as it was during the American Civil War, but it is still a game worth learning because it's the basis for many other games and it's super easy to learn.

1. Five Card Poker Game
2. Five Card Poker Draw

OBJECTIVE OF FIVE CARD STUD: To survive the game with the highest hand and win the pot at the final showdown.

Five Card Stud Poker Introduction. Stud poker first appeared as early as the 1860's in America. Formerly all poker games had been 'closed'. Five Card Stud can be played low (lowest hand wins). This game is sometimes called Lowball, though this name is. Five Card Stud High-Low. Poker Game Guide: Five Card Draw. Five card draw is a classic poker game. Most people learn to play as kids. It’s not only fun–it’s also easy to learn. For beginners, five card draw is the best place to start learning poker. This page presents an overview of how to play, what the rules are, and how strategy works. 5 card draw is one of the oldest and simplest variants of poker. There are many people whose introduction to the world of poker was through this game. If you are new to 5 card draw, then you’ve come to the right place. Players new to 5 card draw have to learn the rules of the game, betting options, and strategies.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-10 players

NUMBER OF CARDS: standard 52-card deck

RANK OF CARDS: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

TYPE OF GAME: Casino/Gambling

AUDIENCE: Adult

HISTORY OF FIVE CARD STUD

Stud poker originated in the 1860s, during the American Civil War. Five card stud poker was the first game of its kind. Previously, all other poker games were “closed,” meaning an individual’s cards were kept secret from other players. Stud poker, however, is “open,” with player’s cards visible on the table. Each player keeps a “hole” card which remains secret until the final showdown. Do to the nature of Stud poker it is easier for players to place more accurate bets according to the strength of cards their opponents have.

THE DEAL & THE PLAY

Before the deal, each player pays the pre-determined ante to the pot.

Deal starts with the player to the left of the dealer.

First, the dealers hand each player one card face down (hole card) and one face up. If you choose to play with a ‘bring in’ bet, the player with the lowest face-up card pays then betting proceeds as normal. Players paying the bring in bet has an option to bet more than the minimum. If there is a tie for low card use suit rankings to break the tie. Suits are commonly ranked in reverse alphabetical order. Clubs < Diamonds < Hearts < Spades

Second Street: After the face-down and face-up cards have been dealt, starting with the player who has the best hand (highest card) and passing clockwise. Players either bet (small amount) or fold. All bets are added to the pot. The player who begins the betting may choose to check if there was not a bring-in bet.

Third Street: Each player remaining (who did not fold in the previous hand) is dealt a second face-up card. The betting begins with the player with the best hand. Pairs (of the highest rank) is the best hand, if no player has a pair the player with the two highest ranking cards begins the betting. Players either bet (small amount) or fold.

Examples:

Player A has 7-7, player B has 5-5, and player C has Q-9. Player A begins the betting.

Player A has 6-4, player B has Q-2, and player C has Q-J. Player C begins the betting.

Fourth Street: Players are dealt the third face-up card. The player with the highest hand starts the betting. Triples > Pairs > High Cards. Bets from fourth street on are double.

Fifth Street: Players are dealt the last card face-up. Another round of betting ensues, as always starting with the player with the highest hand. Players may bet, raise, and fold. At the end of betting, dealer calls and the showdown begins. The players who remain flip all their cards face-up. The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. Check out the page Poker Hand Rankingfor a fleshed out description of different hands and how they rank.

SIZE OF BETS

Bet size is for players to determine. Five card stud is typically played as a fixed limit game. Here are various bet specifications not covered in the instructions above:

• Small bets and big bets are fixed at the start of the game, for example, $5 and $10 respectively.
• In the case of a bring-in bet, the ante is a very small bet, much smaller than the small bet. For example, it could be $0.65. Bring in bets are typically higher than the ante, perhaps $2.
• The first player to bet can either bet the minimum ($2, the amount of the bring-in bet) or a full small bet ($5)
• If the player who placed the opening bet puts in the minimum ($2) other players must either complete a small bet ($5) or fold. If the opening bet is a complete small bet, players may raise.
• Players are not allowed to place big bets in the first round of betting. Big bets are allowed in the second round if one player (or more) has a pair.
• There may be only one bet and three raises per betting round.
• If you choose to raise, the general rule is that raises are either equal to or greater than the last bet or raise.

VARIATIONS

Lowball

Five card stud (and also draw poker) can be played low-card wins, both refer to this variant as Lowball. Low hand rankings can be found on the Poker Hand Ranking page. Casinos commonly use ace-to-5 ranking but, household games usually use ace-to-6.

Five Card Stud High-Low

The same betting and dealing of Five card stud apply. However, even if pairs are showing, there is not an option to place a big bet or raising.

This variant gets its name from the showdown action, both the players with the highest and lowest hands split the pot. If there is an odd amount of money (or chips) the high hand gets the extra dollar/chip. Low hand rankings are used.

Players, typically in home games, may also choose to play with a declaration. After the last bets have been placed, players declare either high or low. It is generally not allowed for players to declare “both” unless they are using ace-to-5 ranking. The player with the highest hand who declared high splits the pot with the lowest hand.

REFERNCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-card_stud

https://www.pagat.com/poker/variants/5stud.html

http://www.pokerlistings.com/five-card-stud-rules-and-game-play

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_card_by_suit

When the poker boom hit in 2003 after Chris Moneymaker famously won the World Series of Poker Main Event, Texas Hold ‘em was all the rage. But for many in the years prior, their introduction to poker came through a very different game.

Five Card Poker Game

Five Card Draw has always been one of the games that people would play around the house or at parties. For anyone that didn’t know how to play poker, the simplicity of the rules made it an easy variation of the game to start with.

It is one of the earliest forms of poker on record. In addition, it is one of the most famous as any movie that poker was a part of in the pre-poker boom era most likely featured Five Card Draw.

Five Card Draw is the game believed to have been played during the days of the Wild West when “Wild” Bill Hickok was famously shot to death while playing. As legend has it, he was holding two pairs, Aces and Eights, a hand that is now nicknamed “The Deadman’s Hand” due to this ominous occasion.

The game is no longer spread in brick and mortar casinos unless requested. Online you can find plenty of games, however. Luckily, if you’ve never played before, Five Card Draw is one of the more basic and straightforward forms of poker.

The best place to start when discussing the basics is the hand rankings. Before diving into how the game is played it is important to know what constitute a good hand so that you can determine what you should do when it is your turn to draw cards.

Five Card Draw follows the same high hand guidelines as all of its fellow poker game variants. To understand the hand rankings of a poker game take a look at the graphic below:

Five Card Draw will usually be played 6-handed. Because of the draw nature of the game, anything more than 6 and you risk not having enough cards in the deck to cover everyone’s draw.

The hand will start in one of two ways depending on the betting structure being used. In Five Card Draw you will sometimes see it played where everyone posts an ante, but the more popular way and the way that you will see it played online is that there will be a small blind and a big blind.

If you’re familiar with Texas Hold ‘em or Omaha than you know this format quite well. If you are new to poker entirely here is what we mean by small blind and big blind:

Small Blind

The small blind is the first forced bet by the first player on the direct left of the dealer. The amount of the small blind will be half of the big blind, which is considered the full bet amount.

Big Blind

The player to the direct left of the small blind will post the second forced bet known as the big blind. This big blind amount constitutes a full bet.

Once the blinds are posted the dealer deals each player five cards face down.

At this point, the first round of betting occurs, starting with the player on the direct left of the big blind. Once this round of betting has completed it is now time for the players to draw.

The “draw” in Five Card Draw is the heart of the game. After the first round of betting, players have the option to discard cards they do not want and draw new ones from the top of the deck.

If a player likes the first five cards they were dealt they can choose not to draw any cards. This is known as “standing pat”.

After each player left in the hand has had a chance to discard and draw new cards, another round of betting occurs. After this final round of betting the remaining players table their hands and the player with the best hand is declared the winner.

The betting structure of Five Card Draw resembles that of Texas Hold ‘em. Each hand starts with a small blind and big blind posting their bets. The game can either be played in the fixed limit structure, or the no limit structure.

In fixed limit Five Card Draw, betting is done in increments of the big blind equivalent. In no limit Five Card Draw the only limitation to how much you can bet is the amount of chips in your stack.

Overview

By now you have found that the rules of Five Card Draw are fairly simple and straightforward. A quick recap of the game sequence is as follows:

• Each player is dealt five cards.
• A round of betting, starting to the left of the big blind occurs.
• Players discard the cards they do not want and draw new cards
• A round of betting starting with the first live player to the left of the dealer.

In Five Card draw you will most likely always be drawing cards. It is fairy rare to be dealt an extremely strong hand on the first deal.

For reference, take a look at this mathematical chart below of the chances of being dealt certain strong hands prior to the drawing round:

• Royal flush <0.001%
• Straight flush (not including royal flush) <0.002%
• Four of a kind 0.02%
• Full house 0.14%
• Flush (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.20%
• Straight (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.39%
• Three of a kind 2.11%
• Two pair 4.75%
• One pair 42.30%
• No pair / High card 50.10%

At this point it is pretty safe to say that you have a solid understanding of the rules of Five Card Draw.

Five Card Poker Draw

To understand the game even deeper and to get some tips and tricks on how to be more profitable at the tables check out our Guide to Five Card Draw section and best of luck along the way.