--- name: five-card-draw-strategy description: 5-Card Draw doctrinal guide — predraw hand selection, draw decisions, postdraw value, no-community-board strategy category: game-class version: 1.0.0 --- # 5-Card Draw Strategy ## When to Use Load this skill on every 5-Card Draw decision. This game is fundamentally different from NLHE and PLO — there is no community board. Your final 5-card hand is what's in your hand after the draw round. NLHE / PLO postflop strategy does not apply. ## The Structure Each hand has exactly four phases: 1. **Predraw**: 5 cards dealt face-down to each player. First betting round. 2. **Draw**: each remaining player discards 0-5 cards and receives replacements from the deck. 3. **Postdraw**: second and final betting round. 4. **Showdown**: best 5-card hand wins. That's it. No flop, turn, river. No community cards. No card- selection restrictions like Omaha's must-use-2/3 rule. You simply play whatever 5 cards you have at the end. ## Core Concepts ### 1. Predraw is the entire strategic spine In Hold'em / Omaha, postflop play does most of the heavy lifting. In 5-Card Draw, your predraw HAND SHAPE determines what you can do. You can't catch up on later streets via board texture — there is no board. Made hands win at showdown. Draws miss far more often than they hit. If your starting hand is bad and you draw 3+ cards, the math says you'll arrive postdraw with a worse hand than the player who started with a high pair and drew 3 themselves. ### 2. Pair-tier predraw classification Score every starting hand: - **MONSTER** (raise pot, slow-play sparingly): straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight. Already-made premium hand. Draw 0 (stand pat). - **STRONG** (raise + draw 2): three of a kind. ~12% chance to improve to quads or boat on the draw. - **PLAYABLE** (call/limp + draw 1): two pair. Draws 1 card; ~8% to improve to full house. Vulnerable to bigger two-pair if villain hit something on the draw. - **MARGINAL** (call from late + draw 3): one HIGH pair (jacks or better). Drawing 3 cards gives ~2/3 odds of improving in some way, but most "improvements" are just a higher kicker, not a stronger hand category. - **TRASH** (fold unless free): one low pair, four-to-a-flush, four-to-an-open-ended-straight. These are essentially bluff hands postdraw — you need to hit a near-miracle AND get paid off. ### 3. Draw signals leak information The number of cards you draw tells your opponent what range you're on: - **0 cards (stand pat)**: you have a made hand (straight, flush, full house, quads, straight flush) OR you're representing one. Opponents fold hands worse than a high pair. - **1 card**: you have either two pair (hoping for a boat) or a 4-card draw (flush, straight, or 4-to-a-quad). - **2 cards**: trips (drawing to boat/quads). - **3 cards**: one pair, drawing for two-pair or trips. - **4 cards**: holding an ace (or high card) and shipping the rest. Sometimes a "show the ace" rule applies — this is the "throw away nothing of value" signal. - **5 cards**: dumping the whole hand. Extreme — usually a bluff setup or pure variance gamble. **Implication**: if villain draws 3 and you drew 0, after the draw your range is much stronger than theirs. If villain draws 0 and you drew 3, you're way behind. Adjust postdraw betting accordingly. ### 4. Postdraw is information-dense At postdraw, you know: - How many cards villain drew (their range) - How many you drew (their model of your range) - Your actual hand strength after the draw Apply this: - **You stood pat, villain drew 3**: bet pot, charge them to bluff-catch. - **You drew 1, villain stood pat**: villain represents a made straight/flush. Fold to any bet unless you hit a flush/straight. - **You drew 3, villain drew 3**: roughly symmetric ranges. Compare hands and bet thin value with two pair+. - **You drew 0 (representing a made hand) but you bluffed**: only bet if your busted draw still has SHOWDOWN VALUE. A busted flush draw with an ace can sometimes still call light bets. ### 5. Pot-Limit vs No-Limit betting 5-Card Draw can be played as Limit, Pot-Limit, or No-Limit. Our engine runs it as NO-LIMIT (the recommended modern home-game variant). Implications: - Bet sizing carries more information than in limit. - All-in shoves are legal. Use them on monsters. - Pot-control with a strong-but-not-monster hand (e.g. two pair) is valuable — bet small to disguise; check-call to keep villain's bluffs in their range. ## Procedure ### Predraw 1. Score your 5 cards by tier (table above). 2. **MONSTER**: raise pot from any position. Don't slow-play — pots without a community board don't grow by themselves; you need to build the pot now. 3. **STRONG (trips)**: raise from late position; call from early to set-mine. 4. **PLAYABLE (two pair)**: call any reasonable predraw bet. 5. **MARGINAL (high pair)**: call from late position; fold from early position to a raise. 6. **TRASH**: fold from any position unless you're getting 5:1 or better odds in late position. ### Draw Discard plan by predraw hand: | Predraw hand | Discard | Rationale | |---|---|---| | Straight flush | 0 | Pat. Crushed everyone. | | Four of a kind | 1 (the kicker) | Slight chance the kicker improves; reveals nothing. | | Full house | 0 | Pat. | | Flush | 0 | Pat. | | Straight | 0 | Pat. | | Three of a kind | 2 | Draw to boat/quads. ~12% improvement. | | Two pair | 1 (the kicker) | Draw to full house. ~8% improvement. | | One high pair (JJ+) | 3 (keep the pair) | Standard 1-pair draw. | | One low pair | 3 (keep the pair) | Marginal — fold predraw unless free. | | Four-card flush | 1 | ~19% to complete the flush. | | Four-card open-ended straight | 1 | ~17% to complete. | | Ace-high (no pair, no draw) | 4 (keep the ace) | Last-resort hand. | **Stand pat as a bluff** sparingly. Drawing 0 with a busted hand tells everyone you have a monster — they'll fold light hands. Effective only when (a) you have at least a high pair as fallback showdown value, and (b) you're heads-up vs an opponent who'll lay down a marginal hand. ### Postdraw 1. Recompute your hand strength after the draw. 2. Read villain's draw signal (above). 3. Bet sizing: - **MONSTER**: pot bet. Make them pay. - **STRONG (trips+)**: pot bet for value if you suspect villain has a payable hand; smaller bet if you're worried about getting only worse calls. - **TWO PAIR**: small bet (50% pot) for thin value. Check-call vs aggressive villains. - **ONE PAIR**: check OR small bet only vs villains who drew 3 and likely missed. Fold to a bet from a pat / 1-card villain. - **HIGH CARD**: check-fold. Bluffing is only worthwhile vs villains who folded to your predraw aggression — you have to have set up the bluff with prior action. ## Rules & Constraints - **Discard indices are 0-based.** The engine expects `discardIndices: number[]` with values in `[0, 4]`. If you intend to discard the first and third cards, emit `[0, 2]`. - **Empty array = stand pat.** No replacement; you keep all 5. - **No more than 5 indices.** The home-game rule allows drawing all 5 cards. Anything more is invalid. - **Each index must be unique.** Duplicates are rejected by the engine. ## Pitfalls - **Drawing too many cards from a strong starting hand.** If you have two pair, drawing 3 is wrong — you destroy your made hand for a 5% chance at trips. - **Standing pat with garbage.** It's a bluff that announces a monster. Only works against thinking opponents who'll fold to representation. A station calls; a pat-bluff loses to a pat-call. - **Forgetting villain's draw count.** Postdraw decisions hinge on what villain drew. If you don't remember, you're flying blind. - **Treating a 4-card flush draw like a made hand.** It hits ~19% of the time. You'll be drawing dead 81% — don't overcommit pre. ## Verification Before every action, ask: 1. What's my hand strength NOW (post-draw if postdraw, current shape if predraw)? 2. How many cards did villain draw? What does that tell me? 3. What's the legal action surface (`canDiscard.maxIndices` on the draw street, `canBet`/`canRaise` on betting streets)? 4. Is my emitted action within the legal bounds? If you're guessing, fold or check. 5-Card Draw rewards discipline.