This is the first of a series of articles about Draw Poker. We hope you enjoy the reading and find all this info helpful to put your game in shape 😉

The game is known also as California or Californian Poker. Before the beginning of the game and before the cards are dealt, all players place their ante bets i.e. they put the chips in front of them. The dealer, making sure that all bets are correct, moves them to the center of the table. This order of placing the bets (through the dealer) should be observed in the course of the game. All bets placed in the center of the table are called pot. All the players try to win the pot. After placing the ante, the dealer deals each player five cards face down. Thus, each player sees only his /her own cards and has no idea what cards other players hold.
Then the first betting round begins. The player who’s been dealt the cards first should act first.

If he is sure that he has a good hand, he could open the game, and place the first bet. If the cards are weak, he can also check, and in this case, the player to his left is to act. Of course, he also has the right to check. If all the players check, the dealer collects the cards, shuffles them and deals again. If this is the case, players who earlier placed their ante, place a new one i.e. re-ante. Thus, the pot in the next game will be twice as much. If during the next hand, nobody opens the game, everything should be repeated i.e. once again the cards will be shuffled, dealt and the players will place their ante. If any of the players opens the game (places a bet), the next player cannot check, he should either call, or raise, or fold. If at this stage of the game any of the players is not satisfied with his cards, he refuses to continue playing the game i.e. he does not place any bets and folds. In this case the player should not show his cards to other players. If all the players fold, the player who opened the game wins the pot. If a player says “call”, he is to place the same amount as the previous player. If a player says “raise”, he is to raise the previous bet. All the rest, if they want to stay in the game, should answer this bet. The players, whose bets were raised, should place the needed amount in the pot. Raises might be repeated. The total numbers of the raises depend on the rules of the casino.