What Happens In A Draw In Poker

Hand Guide: Preflop > Flop > Turn > River

Draw Poker games are any games where players get at least one opportunity to discard a certain number of cards from their hand in exchange for new cards from the deck. It gives each player the chance to get rid of cards that are doing nothing to help their overall hand and hope for something better.

River strategy overview.

When you make it to the river (which actually happens a lot less often than you might think), all the players have been given the final card on the board with which to make their best 5-card hand. River strategy is different to strategy on other betting rounds because with every other street there are always more cards to come to help players improve their hands, but on the river you are stuck with what you are given.

The river betting round is free from all the complications of pot odds, implied odds and all other types of mathematics that are involved with drawing hands.

  1. In a fixed limit game, the size of the bet is normally doubles after the second draw, so that the last two rounds have big bets. It happens fairly often in this game that the dealer runs out of cards.
  2. Usually this limit varies with the stage of the game: In Draw Poker, if the limit is five before the draw, it might be ten after the draw. In Stud Poker, if the limit is five in the first four betting intervals, it is 10 in the final betting interval (and often ten whenever a player has a pair or better showing).

However, this does not necessarily mean that the river is an easier round to play. River strategy can become very tricky as players will either ‘have it’ or they won't, and so the players who don't make the hands that they were hoping for will sometimes make one last effort to try and take down the pot with a big bluff.

Therefore to play the river well, you should always think about all of the information you have gathered from each street in the hand you played against your opponent up until this point to help influence your decisions.

How to play the river.

As I just mentioned, you have to think about the way your opponent has played the hand on each street to help inform your decision on how to play on the river. The more information you have, the more pieces to the puzzle you can fit together to build a bigger picture of what your opponent may be holding.

By the river it is often likely that your opponent will have given off enough information through the way they have played to indicate what kind of hand they are holding, so it is just a case of thinking through the hand and looking for it.

Always take your time to evaluate all of the plays that have taken place up to that point on the river. You can find a lot of useful information if you think about the hand carefully.

If your opponent has been playing as if they had a drawing hand on each street, and then comes out with a bet when the river comes with a card that could not have helped them, you can be fairly sure that they are bluffing be happy to call their bet if you have a decent hand. Similarly, if an opponent has been playing very aggressively on previous streets by betting and raising but plays very weakly on the river by checking, you can happily sense they are trying to trap you and trying to induce a bluff.

Position on the river.

Playing the river can be a lot easier if you have position over your opponent. Acting after your opponent will prove to be a huge advantage on the river because you can see how your opponent reacts before making your final decision. When you reach the river you will be in one of the following situations regarding the strength of your hand:

  • You are confident you have the best hand.
  • You are confident you have the worst hand.
  • You are unsure about whether you have the best hand.

The first two situations are easier to play in, both in and out of position, but things can become very tricky when you are not sure about whether or not you have the best hand. So here is a quick guide on how to play in or out of position when in each of the situations mentioned above.

Playing the river in position.

- You are confident you have the best hand.

If you are confident you have the best hand, you want to get as much money from your opponent as possible. This means that you should definitely bet and raise to get more and more money into the pot. It is better to make big pot-sized bets on the river rather than smaller bets to try and entice your opponent into calling. It will be more profitable to make big bets even if your opponent calls less often, as it is explained in the article on maximizing value.

- You are confident you have the worst hand.

When you feel that you have the worst hand, you should be happy to fold the majority of bets your opponent makes on the river. It is unlikely that opponents will bet into you out of position with a poor hand, so always lean toward folding rather than raising in an attempt to bluff.

If your opponent checks to you, you are now faced with the tough decision of whether or not to bluff. It is in these instances that you should use all the information from the way your opponent has played up until this point to decide whether a bluff is likely to work. Always try and be at least 80% sure that a bluff will be successful before making one, and fold if you have any doubts in your mind at all.

- You are unsure about whether you have the best hand.

If our opponent checks to us, then we should almost always check behind them and turn the cards over to see who has won. This is because if you ever bet in this position, it is unlikely that you will get a call from a player that we have beat, but it is likely that we are going to get a call from a player that has us beat. So just check it down and hope that your hand is the winning one after they have been turned over.

Don't bet marginal hands on the river. You are only going to get called by better hands the majority of the time.

If your opponent is betting into you on the river in this spot.

If our opponent is betting into us, once again we have to make the decision about whether or not we should call based upon the information we have gathered from previous betting rounds.

You may also need to factor in the odds that your opponent is giving you to call, because if your opponent makes a very small bet, you may well be given the correct odds to call because of the likelihood that your hand will sometimes win. But at the end of the day, there are no concrete rules for these situations and it is just a part of poker that will take time, patience and a thorough understanding of the game to master.

Playing the river out of position.

- You are confident you have the best hand.

It is nice to feel that you have the best hand, but unfortunately we do not have position to help maximize our winnings in these situations. If you feel that your opponent has a half decent hand, you should look to make a decent bet and hope that they will call, as it is not likely that they will bet if they are unsure about whether they have the best hand.

If you think that your opponent missed a draw and has a very weak hand, it may be more profitable to check in an attempt to induce a bluff. If you bet and it turns out they have no hand at all, then you are not going to win any more money because they are just going to fold. If you check however, you are giving them the opportunity to make a bluff and squeeze out that little extra money from them at the end.

- You are confident you have the worst hand.

It's pretty unfortunate to have the worst hand and be out of position, but its not all that bad. At least in these situations you will have a clear idea about what to do… check and fold to any action. It is rarely a good idea to try and bluff when out of position in these spots, so save your money for another time. Only bet if you are incredibly sure that you can get your opponent off the hand, otherwise betting out here is not going to be profitable at all.

- You are unsure about whether you have the best hand.

Although this might seem like a bit of a dilemma, its not as bad you think. The last thing you want to do here is bet out… its one of the biggest mistakes you can make in poker when you think about it logically. When you bet out not knowing if you have the best hand or not, you are only going to get calls from hands that beat you, and you are not going to get calls from hands that you are beating. It is a completely lose-lose situation, so never bet out if you are unsure about whether you hold the best hand or not.

Never bet out when first to act on the river if you have a hand that could easily be either the best or worst hand.

The only hard part in these spots is when your opponent comes back at you with a bet. In these situations you have to once again consider the way the hand has been played out up to that point, as well as think about they way your opponent has been playing in other hands as well as this one.

If you think you have a decent chance of winning because your opponent is loose and bluffs frequently, then you have a good reason to call. However if you are not confident that you are ahead, you should be looking to fold unless you are being given good enough pot odds to make the call to see if you are ahead. It's all about practice and a good knowledge of your opponent's playing style.

Other river strategy tips.

Don't bet on the river if you are unsure about whether or not you have the best hand. I know I have mentioned it before, but it is something that you should always remember. You are only going to get a call from a better hand and a fold from a worse hand, so don't make that bet!

Always think about each play that led up to this point into the hand, and use it to influence the decisions that you make on the river. There is no better tell than the way an opponent has played their hand and the information they have given you by the way they have checked, bet or raised.

Always bet around the size of the pot when you want a call when you hold the best hand. Even though you may well get called less often than if you made small bets, you will be winning more in the long run. Its more profitable to win $50 1 in 10 times than it is to win $5 8 out of 10 times. It's all about maximizing value from your hands over the long run.

Useful river strategy articles:

  • Playing Styles (Intermediate)
  • Taking Player Notes (Intermediate)
  • The Blocking Bet (Intermediate)
  • Maximizing Value (Value Betting) (Advanced)
  • Putting Opponents On A Hand (Advanced)
  • Thin Value (Advanced)

Go back to the thorough hand guide.

Introduction

Lowball or Low Poker is poker in which the lowest ranking hand wins. Most poker variants can be reversed in this way, but the name 'Lowball' is most often used to refer to a low version of Five Card Draw Poker. On this page several versions of this game are described. They differ in the hand ranking, the drawing procedure and whether a wild card is used, and these are described on this page.

The different possible rankings for low poker are explained on the hand ranking page. The differences depend on whether Aces are counted as high or low, and whether straights and flushes count. Paired cards always count, so in the absence of straights and flushes a hand of five different ranks always beats a hand containing any duplicate ranks.

When drawing to a five-card hand to make a low hand, it is seldom worth drawing more than one card. If you draw two cards you will make a pair about half the time, and however low the three cards are that you keep, your chance of getting a 9-high or better is never more than 25%. For this reason, there are versions of lowball in which players have more than one opportunity to draw. In such a game you can afford to draw more than one card the first time, but if you stay for the last draw you will either stand pat or draw just one card, hoping for a low card that does not pair with any of your other four.

Although Draw Poker is perhaps the most usual form of Lowball game, the Lowball version of Five Card Stud also works well, and Seven Card Stud Low is also played under the name Razz. The name Lowball is also occasionally used to refer to the game called Jacks Back on this site, which begins as Five Card Draw Jacks or Better and is played for low if no one has a good enough hand to open.

California Lowball

What Happens In A Draw In Poker

Also known as Ace-to-Five Single Draw, this game is similar to Five Card Draw Poker, but in the showdown the lowest hand wins, using ace-to-five ranking. That is, aces are always low and straights and flushes do not count, so the lowest hand is A-2-3-4-5, then A-2-3-4-6, A-2-3-5-6, etc. AS always the highest cards of an unpaired hand are compared first, so for example 7-5-4-3-2 beats 7-6-3-2-A.

It is possible to play with an ante, but in formal games it is more often played with blinds. The dealer places a small blind and the next two players to the left of the dealer each place a big blind equal to the minimum bet.

Everyone is dealt five cards and there is a round of betting. If an ante is used this begins with the player to the left of the dealer. When blinds are placed, these count as bets and the first betting round begins with the player immediately to the left of the blinds; the players who placed big blinds are allowed to raise when the turn comes around to them even if no one else has done more than call.

After the first betting round, surviving players in turn, starting to the dealer's left, can discard any number of cards (in practice seldom more than one card) and are dealt replacements. There is then a second round of betting. If the game is played with blinds this is started by the first active player to dealer's left. If there are antes and no blinds, the second round is begun by the player who opened the first round of betting.

When Lowball is played as a fixed limit game, some play that the size of the bet is doubled after the draw and others play that it remains the same.

This game is often played with a joker added to the deck. The joker, sometimes known as the fitter, represents the lowest rank not present in the holder's hand. For example 8-6-4-A-joker is equivalent to 8-6-4-2-A.

Betting Sevens

Some play that a player who checks after the draw with a hand that is 7-low or better (five different ranks with nothing higher than a 7) and has the best hand at the showdown can only win the chips that were in the pot at the time of the draw. Any chips that were bet after the draw are placed in a separate pot that this player is not eligible to win.

What Happens In A Draw In Poker Real Money

Betting, calling a bet or raising after the draw entitles you to win the whole pot with your 7-low or better if you have the best hand at the showdown, provided that you did not check at your first turn to act after the draw. It is therefore unwise to check after the draw with such a hand, unless you intend to fold if another player bets against you.

Kansas City Lowball

Kansas City Lowball is also called Deuce to Seven Single Draw or sometimes Billy Baxter Lowball after the player who won the world championship in this game several times. In this game, Aces are always high and straights and flushes do count (and are therefore bad), but A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, because the Ace is high. The best hand possible is 7-5-4-3-2 (hence 'Deuceto Seven'), followed by 7-6-4-3-2, ... K-Q-J-10-8, A-5-4-3-2, A-6-4-3-2, ... up to the usual royal flush, which is worst. In other words, it's the exact opposite of normal high poker except for the A-2-3-4-5 rule.

What Happens In A Draw In Poker Tournament

The deal, draw and betting are similar to California Lowball. So far as I know, this game is normally played without a joker, and there is no equivalent of the 'betting sevens' rule.

The Deuce to Seven page of the Play Lowball Poker site has further information on this game.

Ace-to-Six Lowball

This is Five Card Draw Poker using ace-to-six ranking, in which straights and flushes count but aces can be low. Normally A-A should be the lowest (and therefore best) pair, but A-K-Q-J-10 would count as a straight - but opinions may differ, so these details should be agreed in advance among the players.

This game is often ignored or said to be unusual in books and on poker web sites. This may be because it is not played in public card rooms on the American West Coast and rarely offered as an online game. However, I suspect it is fairly widespread in home poker games, particularly on the American East Coast and in Europe.

Triple Draw

In this game players have three opportunities to improve their hand. According to some sources the maximum number of players for this game is six. Certainly with a larger number of players the cards will frequently run out and discards will need to be recycled.

Normally it is played with blinds: the player to dealer's left posts a small blind, and the next player to the left posts a big blind, equal to the mimimum bet for the game.

The dealer deals five cards to each player and there is a round of betting beginning to the left of the big blind. As usual in games with blinds, the big blind player is allowed to raise even if the others have all folded or called. Then in clockwise order, starting to dealer's left, players may discard any number of cards and are dealt replacements. There is a second round of betting begun by the first active player to dealer's left. This is followed by a second opportunity to discard and draw, a third round of betting, a third discard and draw, and a fourth round of betting. In a fixed limit game, the size of the bet is normally doubles after the second draw, so that the last two rounds have big bets.

It happens fairly often in this game that the dealer runs out of cards. In this case all the discarded cards (the 'muck') are shuffled and cut to form a new deck from which replacement cards are dealt to players who are still waiting to draw.

There are two versions of this game, depending on the hand ranking used in the showdown (see low poker hand ranking):

  • Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, which uses deuce-to-seven ranking, is perhaps the more popular game.
  • Ace to Five Triple Draw, using ace to five ranking is also sometimes played.

The Triple Draw page of the Play Lowball Poker site has further information on the history and variants of this game.

Double Draw

What Happens In A Draw In Poker Games

This game is similar to Triple Draw, except that players only have two opportunities to improve their hands by drawing cards. There are therefore three betting rounds: after the deal, after the first draw and after the second draw. Either ace-to-five or deuce-to-seven (or even ace-to-six) ranking can be used, as agreed by the players.