How to Play Five Card Draw Poker – Rules for Beginners. Five Card Draw is a poker game, which is one of the most popular in the world. Today, it is represented in all the world’s casinos and even in many slot machines. Moreover, it is one of the easiest poker varieties, that is why very often it is the game the beginners start with.

Cash Draw Poker video poker creates an interesting twist on basic video poker play. This online-only game offers a special pay table that can be unlocked whenever you’re dealt more than one ace or face card. As you raise your bet, you’ll get more benefits from this special feature of the game.

• Draw Poker Game Structure Once the blinds have been posted, the dealer gives each player five cards face down. Players can inspect their hand and then the first round of betting starts.
• How to play “Three Legged Race” Draw Poker A high/low triple-legged game, where the winner of the game is the first player to win three “legs”. At the end of each round, one leg is awarded to the player with the best hand at the table, ANOTHER leg awarded to the player with the lowest hand at the table.

It makes sense that video poker is one of the most popular games at online gambling sites. First of all, video poker in any form is a beneficial game for gamblers. Many of the best elements of other casino games are included in video poker, while it includes many special characteristics that draw in gamblers.

On top of that, video poker is a perfect game to play online. There’s no difference between playing the game in a casino or on a gambling website. You get the same kind of excitement and payback potential.

For that reason, many video poker manufacturers have come up with games that are unique to online play. Instead of just copying the format of popular casino video poker games, they have their own special features and twists. Cash Draw Poker video poker is one of those special online games.

In most ways, it mimics common video poker action, so it won’t send too much of a shock to the system of regular players. You’ll still be trying to make the best possible five-card poker hand, with rare hands paying the most on the pay table. You’ll still have a five-card deal and a draw round to make it happen.

But Cash Draw Poker video poker offers a bonus for players who receive at least two aces or face cards (jacks, queens and kings) on the deal. Anytime that occurs, you’ll get to play with a special pay table. This pay table offers boosted paybacks on winning hands compared to what you would normally get.

The more aces and face cards you get on the deal, the better the special pay table will be. Since aces and face cards tend to be valuable in video poker anyway, you ‘ll be glad to see them when playing Cash Draw Poker video poker. You can see your winnings take an immediate jump, even with a hand that’s relatively easy to make.

More good news about Cash Draw Poker video poker is the fact that you don’t have to bet extra for the special feature. Most video poker games require a bet higher than the normal max bet of five coins to enact any extras. You’ll be incentivized to make the max bet, however, since that’s where you’ll get the most benefit from the special feature.

But the fact that you’re getting this feature for free in Cash Draw Poker video poker means that you have to pay for it somewhere else. In this case, it comes on the normal pay tables. They’re a bit weaker than what you could expect from a typical draw poker video poker variation.

We’ll tell you everything you need to know about Cash Draw Poker video poker. We’ll explain how to play basic video poker and discuss how the twist in this game affects play. Finally, we’ll look into how to play the game with ideal strategy while also talking about what you can expect from the game in terms of payback percentage.

The Advantages of Video Poker

Have you ever played video poker before? Maybe you’ve taken a chance at playing a few hands of it in a casino. Or maybe you’ve even tried an online version of the game such as Cash Draw Poker video poker.

In any case, you might not have thought too much about the game itself. If you did, it’s possible you compared it to slot machines, since they’re both one-person games and they’re usually found in the same portion of the casino.

It turns out that you might be underestimating how excellent video poker can be for you. There are indeed elements of it that are like slot machines. But there are also aspects of it that resemble table games.

In fact, video poker provides the best of both worlds for gamblers. You get all of the good stuff without any of the stuff that drives some players crazy. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages you’ll enjoy when playing video poker.

• You’ll play video poker all by yourself. No interruptions from other gamblers or casino employees. And it also means the ability to play at your own pace and with absolute privacy.
• You’ll have a great of variety of video poker games at your fingertips. Whether you’re in the casino or on a gambling site, there are hundreds of options for you. That means that you can choose the game that is absolutely right in terms of all of the factors that are important to you.
• You’ll learn to play video poker much faster than other casino games. Once you’ve played a few hands of video poker, you’ll have it down solid. That’s the case whether you just learned to play or have a great background in poker.
• You’ll have an impact on whether you win or lose in video poker. That’s the biggest difference between video poker and slot machines, which leave you no chance to impact play. Getting a chance to exert some strategy on the game is a real draw for video poker players who like a little bit of a challenge.
• You’ll know what you’re getting from video poker. Playing card probability will let you know about the chance you have of making a winning hand, while the pay tables will tell you what you’ll make from your winning hands. There is nothing hidden from you.
• You’ll do pretty well in terms of payback when playing video poker. On average, video poker is one of the highest-paying casino games that you can play. That’s important if you’re looking at the bottom line when choosing your gambling options.
• You’ll be able to play video poker without missing anything. We mentioned this above, but it’s important to stress it, because many casino games can’t say the same. This is especially the case with table games, which often don’t translate well to the online realm.

These advantages are really the province of all video poker games, and Cash Draw Poker video poker certainly qualifies. Before we can talk about how that game stands out, it’s a good idea to get a refreshed on how video poker works in its most basic form.

How to Play Video Poker

Step 1: Create Your Bankroll

The bankroll is a necessity in video poker so that you can make wagers and have a place for your winnings to collect. Online players will create their bankroll by getting an account started and funding that account by credit card, cryptocurrency or other accepted methods. Players in casinos simply have to insert money into a machine.

The money in your bankroll will be transformed into units known as coins, or credits. These units will be equal to the denomination that you’re playing at the time. For example, five credits on a 25-cent video poker game equals $1.25 (5 times .25).

Step 2: Place Your Bet

Betting is actually part of video poker strategy. The correct way to bet is to wager the maximum amount, also known as the max bet, on every hand. This is especially true with Cash Draw Poker video poker, which provides many incentives to make the max bet.

You’ll be able to choose between one and five credits for the size of your bet, in increments of one credit. And you can change up your bet on every hand if you want. But you’ll hurt your payback potential by not making the max bet.

First of all, you’ll receive the highest payback ratio on the royal flush with the max bet. At one through four coins wagered, the royal flush pays 250 to 1. But that payback for the royal flush jumps to 800 to 1 when you bet five coins.

In addition, the payback on the special pay tables that can be activated when playing Cash Draw Poker video poker is at its highest when you make the max bet. If you feel like the max bet is too expensive, you should try to lower your denomination. That will allow you to get the best payback percentage while easing the burden on your budget.

Step 3: Play a Hand

A hand of video poker plays out much like a hand of the card game known as Five-Card Draw. You get five cards on the deal and then decide which of those cards you want to keep. The ones you don’t want will be replaced by others from the deck for your final five-card hand.

Since Five-Card Draw is a game for multiple players, there are also betting rounds included. And, to win, the hand, you either have to form the best hand or get other players to fold their hands.

Video poker is a much simpler process. Your five cards at the end of the hand just have to form one of the winning combinations listed on the pay table. Here are the winning hands you’ll be trying to achieve when playing Cash Draw Poker video poker:

• Pair of jacks or better
• Two pair
• Three of a kind
• Straight (five cards of consecutive rank, like 3-4-5-6-7)
• Flush (five cards of same suit)
• Full house (three of a kind and two pair in the same hand)
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush (straight with five cards of same suit)
• Royal flush (ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit)

On this list, the hands at the top are ones that will appear relatively often during gameplay. They also pay the least. The hands at the bottom of the list pay very well but are rarely seen during gameplay.

That little dichotomy is at the heart of all video poker strategy. You have to determine when it’s worthwhile to go for a high-paying hand that might take a lot of luck to achieve. And you also have to know when it’s better to play it safer and shoot for the lower-paying hands as a way of sustaining your bankroll.

When you make your wager and signal the deal, you’ll see five cards appear on the game screen. These will come from a simulated deck made up of the same 52 cards you’d find in a standard deck. Your chance of receiving any of these cards are completely random, and that randomness stays in place when you get to the draw.

It’s important to remember that to prevent you from making poor decisions on your video poker hand. Don’t make your selections based on what has happened on previous hands. That will have no impact on what happens going forward, since a random number generator inside the software will keep that from happening.

You’ll have to decide which of the five cards you receive on the deal are worth holding and being part of your final hand, if any. The cards you don’t want to hold you can discard. On the draw, you get fresh cards from the deck to replace the discarded ones.

Remember that the draw deck will contain 47 cards. After all, the five cards from the deal will have been removed.

Sample Video Poker Hand

Let’s take a look now at a sample hand to see how this process works. Imagine that you receive the following five cards on the deal:

In this deal, you don’t have any winning combinations right off the bat. But you do have the “seeds” of several winning combinations, meaning that there are cards you can hold which will require only one or two cards on the draw to get a winner.

For example, you have a pair of threes. If drop the other three cards from your deal, you’d need another three to get three of a kind. And you’d also have the potential for draws to two pair, a full house, or even four of a kind.

There are also four spades in the deal out of the five you received. Just one more spade will give you a flush. In that scenario, you’d have a nine (spades in the deck) out of 47 (cards in the deck) chance of drawing the card you need for the flush.

Finally, the three, five, and six of spades presents an interesting possibility. If you were to hold only those cards, you’d leave open the chance for a straight flush. That’s one of the highest-paying hands in the game.

You have to decide which of these possibilities are best. When we get to the strategy section, we’ll explain how to make these choices.

For now, you just have to know that you’ll click the icons on the screen which correspond to the cards you want to hold. You can then initiate the draw to complete the hand. Then, your discarded cards will be replaced and your hand will be scored, meaning that any winnings will be added to your bankroll.

By repeating the steps above, you can play as many hands of video poker as you want. You can also quit and cash out your winnings, depending on the withdrawal procedures of the gambling site you’re using.

That’s how basic video poker works. Now it’s time to take a look at the way that Cash Draw Poker video poker separates itself slightly from this format.

Playing Cash Draw Poker Video Poker

The first thing you need to know is that there is no alteration of basic game play in Cash Draw Poker video poker. You’ll still be getting five cards and drawing to replaced discarded cards. And you’ll still be trying to make the same winning hands on the pay table.

The difference comes when you are dealt at least two of the following cards:

• Aces
• Kings
• Queens
• Jacks

When you are dealt at least two of these cards, the special feature of Cash Draw Poker video poker comes into play. This is the case whether you get multiple of the same card (a pair of aces) or multiple separate cards that qualify (an ace and a queen, for example).

These cards will open up a special pay table for that specific hand. The pay table is only in place for that hand and you’ll see it highlighted on top of the screen. Once the hand is over, you’ll go back to the basic pay table unless you again receive multiple qualifying cards.

You don’t need to hold the qualifying cards to still earn the feature. Obviously, you would still need to form a winning combination on the draw to get any benefit from the special feature.

To understand how all this works, we first need to take a look at the basic Cash Draw Poker video poker pay table.

These pay tables are then separated depending on how much you bet. A separate one will show up depending on the size of your bet that also takes into account the special feature. Here’s what the Cash Draw Poker video poker pay table looks like when you wager the max bet of five coins.

This pay table looks a little different because the top numbers refer to the number of aces, kings, queens, and jacks that you might receive, instead of the coins you bet. You’ll see that when you get zero or one of these cards, the payout totals are the same for the five-coin column in the basic Cash Draw Poker video poker pay table.

But once you start achieving the multiple aces and faces on the deal, you’ll see that the totals start to rise. And keep in mind that there’s no extra net needed to reach those totals. Your bet would remain at the five-coin level.

Let’s take a look at how this Cash Draw Poker video poker special feature works in action. Imagine receiving the following deal:

You can see that you’ve received three of the qualifying cards here for the Cash Draw Poker video poker special twist. That means you’d refer to the column that says “3” to see what your winnings might be.

At that point, you’d have to decide about holds and discards for the hand just as always. In this case, your best strategic play would be to hold the pair of fours. And, as we said above, you can discard the three qualifying cards without losing the special twist on the game.

Let’s take a look at how the draw might turn out.

You received a very beneficial draw which left you with a full house. Look at the row for full house payback and connect it to the column for three aces and faces. The number 55 is waiting there.

You’re looking at a 55-coin payback for a five-coin wager, which is a 50-coin profit. If you had achieved a full house without the qualifying cards and the bonus, your payback would have only been 40 coins. That gives you an example of how the Cash Draw Poker video poker special twist works in your favor.

Keep in mind that the example above is for the five-coin wager. The special pay tables for one through four coins bet would return different amounts than the five-coin wager. As always, you do better with the max bet.

Remember, there is no guarantee that you’ll form a winning hand with the bonus in action. As a result, game play in Cash Draw Poker video poker leans to the volatile side, which means you could be in for wild swings between winning and losing.

The basic pay table for Cash Draw Poker video poker also feeds into the volatility level. Let’s take a look at why that’s the case.

Comparing Video Poker Pay Tables

Pay tables are crucial pieces of information for video poker players. And it goes beyond just knowing how much each winning hand pays. Knowing what’s on the pay table will also help you figure out the proper strategy to take when playing the game (more on that in the strategy section below).

In the case of Cash Draw Poker video poker, you have a game that offers you a special feature without requiring an extra bet to obtain it. That’s relatively rare in the world of video poker. But the game makers wouldn’t put such a twist in there without finding a way to atone for it.

They do this by adjusting the basic pay table for Cash Draw Poker video poker. This is the one that shows what you’ll get for one through five coins wagered, assuming you don’t get the multiple aces and faces you need to set the special pay tables into motion.

Let’s take another look at that pay table.

Now, for some context, let’s take a look at the pay table for Jacks or Better, which is the most popular of all video poker variations, both online and in casinos. In this case, we’re looking at the full-pay, or highest-paying, version of Jacks or Better.

Jacks or Better Pay Table

Comparing the two pay tables reveals some very important differences. On the one hand, the Cash Draw Poker video poker pay table offers a little higher payback on the four of a kind pay table. But, other than that, all of the advantages go to the Jacks or Better game.

For starters, the Jacks or Better pay table offers more payback on the full house and flush hands. These mid-priced hands can make a big difference for players in terms of boosting their bankroll.

But even more crucial here are the discrepancies in payback for three of a kind and two pair. These hands are common in video poker, showing up with semi-regularity. The payback you get from these hands will help to boost your bankroll while you’re waiting for bigger, high-paying hands to show up.

On the Jacks or Better pay table, the three of a kind pays 3 to 1 and the two pair pays 2 to 1. But the Cash Draw Poker video poker offers just 2 to 1 payback for three of a kind and only 1 to 1, or even money, for the two pair.

Those discounts will make it harder for you to keep your bankroll at a steady level. They’ll also force you to raise your starting bankroll a bit. Otherwise, you run a bigger risk of losing all your money before you can get some of those winning hands.

Normally, games like Cash Draw Poker video poker which offer those low payback totals for two pair and three of a kind compensate by boosting four of a kind payback amounts much higher than what’s the case here. You’ll see that as a common characteristic of some of the more aggressive Bonus pay tables.

Of course, those games don’t include the special bonus that Cash Draw Poker video poker does. Getting winnings on those special pay tables, even if it doesn’t happen that often, will help to offset the weaker pay table.

Again, this all feeds into the volatility of Cash Draw Poker video poker. You might have longer stretches of losing hands playing this game, which will stress your bankroll. But your opportunities for jackpot-style payback will rise as well.

Payback Percentage for Cash Draw Poker Video Poker

We’ve talked about the volatility for Cash Draw Poker video poker. But long-term video poker players will be more interested in knowing about the payback percentage for the game. The payback percentage will give you a good indication about what your results will be on a certain game once you’ve played it often enough over a long period of time.

Payback percentage is computed by combining the amounts on the pay tables with the probabilities you have of making those hands. With a game like Cash Draw Poker video poker, the special feature also is taken into account.

If you look at the help screen of Cash Draw Poker video poker, you’ll see the graphic “RTP = 96.95 %.” “RTP” stands for “return to player,” which is another way of labelling payback percentage.

When you play an average session of Cash Draw Poker video poker, your expected payback is 96.95%. You’re expected to lose 3.05% of your bankroll during that session. That 3.05% is the house edge.

Of course, this is just an average amount. In a short session with a small statistical sample size, you might do much better or much worse than that percentage playing Cash Draw Poker video poker. But once you played the game enough over multiple sessions and thousands and thousands of hands, you can expect your results to resemble the payback percentage.

In terms of online video poker variations, 96.95% is a solid enough number. It will probably be much better than any online slot machine you might find.

But in terms of other video poker games, it’s lacking a little bit. For example, the Jacks or Better pay table that we listed will return 99.54%.

Usually, 99% is the goal for serious video poker players in terms of payback percentage. When the expected payback is that high, you have a chance of making up for expected losses through perks offered by gambling websites or casinos. You could even hope to make a profit playing long-term.

You probably won’t have that chance with Cash Draw Poker video poker, as the payback is too low. But that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it as an option.

If you’re someone who wants to earn a better chance at potential jackpots at the higher risk of losing your bankroll, Cash Draw Poker video poker can certainly fill that bill. The special pay tables will definitely provide you with that opportunity if you can hit one of the higher-paying hands after you’ve been dealt several aces or face cards.

Strategy for Cash Draw Poker Video Poker

Learning ideal strategy for video poker is the only way you can hope to maximize your payback potential. Every incorrect play you make on Cash Draw Poker video poker will lower your expected payback. That’s money out of your pocket.

You might be able to get away with the wrong selections about what to hold and discard in the short term. Luck on the draw will help you.

But the more you play, the more mathematical mistakes will hurt you. In every deal, there are 32 possible combinations of holds and discards from which you can choose. Only one of those combinations is correct in terms of the probability math, and that’s what you have to try to figure out for every possible deal.

The good news is that the special feature of Cash Draw Poker video poker doesn’t really add to that strategic burden. Even though the pay table changes with each ace and face card you get on the deal, it does so in relatively proportionate form.

In other words, you don’t have to learn a specific strategy for two qualifying cards, one for three qualifying cards, and so on. Just learn the strategy tailored to the totals on the pay table and you’ll be fine.

Tips for Learning Strategy

Many beginning video poker players make the mistake of trying to learn strategy for a specific game like Cash Draw Poker video poker on their own. They think they’ll be able to figure it out after playing the game for a while.

The problem is that you make mistakes based on results that don’t tell the whole story. For example, you might play a certain deal incorrectly based on the math. If you get lucky on the draw, you could end up forming a winning combination anyway.

That win could reinforce your incorrect notion. As a result, you might go on playing deals like the first one in the same incorrect way over and over, doing damage to your payback in the process.

Figuring out the mathematically correct play on the fly isn’t really an option either. That math is pretty involved, especially when you’re trying to churn through hands of video poker at a fast pace. You’re bound to both slow down your play and make the mistakes as well.

What you should do to learn strategy for Cash Draw Poker video poker is to get some help. There are resources out there who can tell you the correct plays on every deal and provide you with the best tips and advice for playing video poker. These teaching methods have already done the math in every situation, allowing you to reap the benefits.

Here are two methods of video poker instruction that should allow you to achieve perfect play in Cash Draw Poker video poker.

Video Poker Training Software

It’s important that you make sure the software is set up to teach you based on the specific pay table totals for Cash Draw Poker video poker. If not, you could end up getting incorrect information. Luckily, most training software is set up so that you can input all the pertinent data.

Once you’ve done that, you can then set about learning the right plays. You’ll play sample hands of Cash Draw Poker video poker and be faced with decisions about what to hold and discard. The software will push you in the right direction so that each correct play becomes second nature.

Strategy Charts

In the case of Cash Draw Poker video poker, the game might be rare enough that there aren’t strategy charts dedicated to it on the internet. But you might get away with a Jacks or Better strategy chart, since the basic structure of the pay tables are the same. You could also use a video poker calculator to see how the specific pay table alters the strategy.

How To Play Draw Poker

Once you have a chart in place, you need to memorize it. A video poker strategy chart ranks all possible card combinations in terms of their value when you receive them on the deal. You’ll hold the most valuable combination in your current hand.

Cash Draw Poker Video Poker Pros and Cons

• Bonus Poker pay tables can really boost your winnings for a single hand
• No extra strategy required for the special feature
• No extra bet is necessary to enable the pay tables with higher payback

• Basic pay table features discounted payback on many winning hands
• Bankroll could suffer because of poop payback for common hands
• Overall payback percentage won’t ensure a long-term profit

Cash Draw Poker Video Poker Conclusion

Cash Draw Poker video poker, which can be found at many top online casino gambling sites, will make your eyes light up when you see aces and face cards on the deal. If you can follow that up with a nice winning hand, your winnings could really spike. You just have to decide if you can handle the volatility to reach that point.

If you want to learn how to play the simplest form of poker, Five Card Draw is the right choice. Most new poker players resort to this version before they go on to playing other varieties of the game. You may not find it often at casinos, but it has been around for long definitely a useful poker game to learn.

Here is our beginner guide to Five Card Draw poker.

Make sure that you do some reading before you join the poker table. Get to know the essentials of the game to get a general idea how to approach play. Go over the rules and try to remember the highlights and main points.

Draw poker is typically played with 6 players at a table, and it can be a limit, pot limit or a no-limit game. It uses a standard 52-card deck, shuffled before every hand.

Standard hand rankings still stand; make sure to review them before playing. The highest rank is the Royal Flush (10, J, Q, K and Ace of the same suit), while the lowest is the High Card (no combination formed, the highest card determines the hand value).

The objective is to complete the best 5-card poker hand (being a draw game, initially dealt cards can be discarded and replaced with new ones).

How To Play 3 Card Draw Poker

The session begins with the Big Blind and the Small Blind. This helps stimulate the action. The bets are assigned to the players to the left of the dealer. Once both Blinds are placed, the dealer can begin to distribute cardsstarting with the player to the left.

The hands are underway and each player receives 5 cards facing down. When the circle around the table is complete and every player has a hand to play, the first round of betting ensues.

The player to the left of the Big Blind gets to take action first. Available options include folding their hand, calling the current bet or raising it up.

If nobody raises, the player who placed the Big Blind receives the opportunity to check (make no bet, but still retain their hand and not fold).

After the first round of betting is complete, the players enter a stage where they have the option to discard any or all of their cards. Should they opt to do so, they can draw new ones.

Those who prefer not to discard anything, they should go for the option “Stand Pat” when it’s their turn to act.

Once the draw is concluded, another round of betting takes place. It is the final round of betting, during which players have the option to bet and take actions as before.

How To Play Straight Draw Poker

If there are at least two players left in the game after this, the remaining hands go into the showdown. If everyone has folded and one player remains, he or she wins the pot.

How To Play 7 Card Draw Poker

The showdown is the final stage of the game during which hands are compared. The player with the best 5-card poker hand wins the pot.

Should there be a tie between two final players, they will split the pot in two equal halves.