Hi all,
I wanted to ask if you know any casinos in US with 5 card draw tables.
Thank you.

Not that I know of, but I haven't been everywhere, and I haven't been looking for five card draw. (I'll be surprised if anyone replies affirmatively to your thread).

Years ago casinos set five card draw tables, and I think casinos will still set a table for the game if there is a demand for it, but casino management probably prefers to set tables for Texas hold 'em and there doesn't seem to be much of a demand for five card draw. The reason casino management prefers Texas hold 'em to draw is simple. Texas hold 'em is a faster paced poker game than draw, generating the casino a higher profit.

Nobody even deals draw any more in our weekly, long running, friendly, dealer's choice private home game. Someone occasionally deals "cannon ball" a high/low/declare draw game where after the draw the cards are arranged face down in a certain order and then exposed one by one with a betting round after each new bit of information.

Buzz

IDK I read in Super System 1 about Gardena Draw so I assume there's games in that locale? Then again the book was written in the 70s or so I've heard.

I bet you could try to start a list for the game at the casino.

Draw games in California died with the legalization of hold 'em and stud in the late 80s.

There isn't a regular high draw game in the U.S. that I've ever heard about.

There are still two casinos in Gardena California (Los Angeles County). (1) Larry Flint's Hustler casino and (2) the Normandy casino. So far as I know there are no draw poker games at either one of them (or Omaha-8 either). Texas hold 'em is the main, perhaps only game, currently dealt at either one of them.

Buzz

When I was in college at UC Berkeley in the early 1980's, there was a daily No Liimit Draw Poker game in Emeryville at the Key Club. $0.25 ante, $2 to open the pot. We played with a joker which served as a fifth ace, or wild in a straight or a flush hand. Whoever opened the pot would act first exchanging cards and betting after the draw. So if three people checked and you were sitting on AA Joker XX ... you'd have to risk checking to get position in the hand, or open the pot yourself which meant you'd be first to draw and first to act after the draw.

It was a great introduction to poker .. I played it three-four times a week ... and I often wish I could find another draw game, just for kicks.

After awhile, the better players never draw a card .. they are just always pat regardless ... two pair .. they are pat. Trips, they are pat. Especially if they are last to act. They check .. then somebody opens and they raise. Raiser calls to draw one or two cards .. the raiser is pat. It's pretty much impossible to bet into a pat hand ... so people just give up if they miss their hand .. and even when they hit they still check hoping to c/r.

In my "later years" playing draw, I don't think I ever drew a card. Just wait for spots to check raise, then wrap pat and decide what to do after they check to me. It's a really boring game when played with people who know it.

I played in Gardena a bunch of times, there the game was Jacks or better to open, and it was always played straight limit. But in Northern CA we played No Limit Draw, and it was more "exciting" .. more bluffing spots ... more "action" if you will.

One big problem with NL Draw High is you can play your entire life and never once hold the nuts. So this obviously slows the game down quite a bit, which is why five card lowball eventually took over ... much more gamble.

The only live draw high game I've seen in the past 25 years was in Havana Cuba. I played $5 ante No Limit Draw there about five years ago ... everybody played with old greasy stained $5 bills .. I think I bought in for about $500 .. 100 bills. Big pots were just a mountain of $5 bills .. it was fun except it felt sort of dangerous. Seedy backroom behind the laundry room at a hotel. I think the game is still dealt there ... they told me it had a long standing history. Wur hotel bellhop walked me to the game and he was paid right out in front of me by the girl who sold me my stack of $5 bills

Yeah, it felt like they were cheating, but I really didn't care that much ... I figured for a few hours entertainment, who cares? Anybody could call for a cut of the cards mid hand, thus eliminating serious cold decks, and the cards themselves were so old and worn ... that it would have been trivial to somehow mark the aces, or certainly the joker. Anyway, i didn't care ... it was back room poker in Havana and people were smoking cigars and I was in poker heaven for a few hours. I mean, it's not like I could call the floor man. I was happy to have only lost a small amount after a few hours,. it was well worth the $50 or so that I was downn when I left .. I actually wouldn't have felt comfortable hitting and running anyway.

Interesting reading. Thanks for sharing.

Buzz

Yeah great story man.

i just checked with the commerce club, they say that no one is spreading draw anymore.

thanks

Draw lowball at the Commerce shows up on the Bravo Poker app fairly often. Don't know if it's real.

The only time I see single draw high is in the rare "History of Poker" type tournaments.

Five card draw poker is back and will be showcased at The Commerce Casino very soon. It's on their web site under promotions. It's called Five Card Hold Out which showcases 5 cards dealt to each player face down. Players may discard up to 4 cards after the pre-flip bet is made. Four community cards are then in 3 betting rounds, dealt using a flop - 2 cards, turn - 1 card, and river - 1 card, which are utilized to replace discarded cards. The game is approved in WA State where the company owning the game is headquartered. Google "Five Card Hold Out" to see the official game rules. It's going to spread like wildfire very soon.

I was Googling the subject of 5CD high's popularity and I found this and another thread. Given the mindless quibbling that took place in the other one, I'll pose my questions here. I'm trying to get an approximation of some key points on the timeline of the game's popularity, at least within the 20th century:

1. When, if ever, was it the dominant game, similar to what NLHE became by the mid-2000s?
2. When was it still fairly popular but you might have to hunt to find it in a casino, similar to something like PLO8 right now?

Some of the previous posts answered my other two questions (3. when it last appeared at the WSOP, 4. when it truly began to disappear from casinos).

Anyway, just curious. Someone in a group for The West Wing pointed out to me that 5CD is by far the most frequently shown game in movies and TV. And that makes sense, as it's the form of the game used in video poker, plus it's likely the version even non-poker players have tried at some point in their lives. This also created a chicken-and-egg scenario for me: was it popular in family games because writers tended to use it in TV/movies, or was it shown in TV/movies because writers knew it was popular in family games? And so on and so on.

Yes, this is the stuff that goes through one's head when you live by yourself and still mostly observing stay-at-home guidelines.

i grew up in socal (i am 74). seems like that was what everyone played (when i waa a kid).

i started playing in gardena back the 70's. but stopped about the time holdem came in.

from wikipedia: "... The game is named after the city of Gardena, California, where this game was especially popular from the 1930s to 1970s (though it was always secondary to lowball). At that time, there were more public poker tables in that small city than in all the rest of the United States. ..."

the commerce casino sill lists lowball. they would know if anyone in the area is spreading draw.

I've noticed in most modern TV shows and movies, Texas Holdem has replaced 5-card draw.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew plays five card stud.

I'd start studying now.

Yeah, but they're all bots

By the time of the US civil war 1861-65, the game of Bluff with a 20 card pack changed into a game using the 52 card deck which allowed a "draw". Hence, draw poker. From then until the legalization of stud in California in the late 80s it is either the number one game or thereabouts (with 5 stud, 7stud and draw lowball bumping shoulders with it over that time).

In one of the James Bond movies, Casino Royale (novel 1963, film's 2006 adaptation - its third) Texas hold'em replaces

Single Draw lowball was the game until lhe/hold em came in. And 7stud on east coast.

Commerce was spreading it iirc pre vid.