Where to Find Online Draw

Draw poker has not yet died, although it did seem to be in intensive care for a while. You'll have a hard time finding draw poker in public cardrooms in the United States and Canada. You will find the game in a very few casinos in Australia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, South Africa, Romania, Germany, Russia, Spain, and Ireland. But if you want to play anywhere, anytime, you can go online.



Many players have written to me, saying they have read my columns about online draw and now they want to know where to play. You can find draw online at five distinct sites. I say "distinct" because while at least 36 poker rooms offer draw, many of them are skins of the five main groups.



(A skin is one member of an online casino group, each member of which is closely aligned with the others, all using the same software and, in the case of poker rooms, having members from different skins competing with each other. Skins are effectively different views into the main casino.)



These groups and their skins offer draw poker:



I'm referring here to high draw poker with one draw. Sadly, lowball, which used to be offered at PlanetPoker, can no longer be found. I'm sad because those were the livest games I have ever seen anywhere, much liver than any I ever saw in a public cardroom. Neither am I talking about triple-draw, which is lowball with three draws.



The games at each group have a different flavor. Most have play-money games, and I recommend starting out in the play money on each site until you get used to the betting and drawing. Watch out in particular about the drawing, because it's different on one site. At four of the sites, when it comes time to draw, you click the cards you want to discard. At one, you click the cards you want to keep. You can usually tell the difference, because, for example, at any of the Boss Media rooms, when you click on a card, it slides upward slightly. At ParadisePoker, when you click on a card, it slides upward and has two faint pink vertical stripes from corner to corner, in the shape of a large X. At PlanetPoker, however, you click the cards you want to hold. When you click on a card, it slides down and a highlighted H appears in the lower left of the card. Be careful! If you have avatars enabled, you can see that H, but if your player representation is a disc (the alternative to avatars), the H may be hidden by your disc. But you can still tell, because the cards you mean to keep are lower than the discards. You just have to remember to click on those you want to keep.

ParadisePoker
ParadisePoker has only limit games. All games are fivehanded, with two blinds. The small blind is half the big blind, except in the $3-$6 game, where it is $1, and the $5-$10 game, where it is $2.



The games are of mixed texture. Often, the $1-$2 games are extremely live. Sometimes you can find very good $2-$4, $3-$6, and even $5-$10 games. The bigger they get, the more likely they are to be filled only with tough, experienced players. Many of those players are also quite aggressive, so be prepared for a wild ride. Even the $1-$2 games can be filled with very tight grinders who don't give anything away. But there are usually enough games that you can find a good one. The lobby listings show the average pot size and percent participation. Look for the highest numbers in both columns for the best games. Game speed generally ranges from 90 to more than 125 hands per hour.



PokerNetwork
PokerNetwork, whose main cardroom is PokerRoom, has both limit and pot-limit games. All games are fivehanded, with two blinds. The small blind is exactly half the big blind. The pot-limit games have two equal-sized blinds. This requires a somewhat different strategy from the usual format of a small blind being half the size of the big blind. There are no play-money draw-poker tables and the smallest limit is $1-$2, so you probably should make sure you know how to play a good game before jumping in here.



The players are generally weak-tight, particularly in the pot-limit games. You can take player notes and assign symbols to players that can be seen in the lobby. An indication of whether you have notes on a player is also visible in the lobby. This is a nice feature, in that you don't have to actually open a table window to find an instant assessment of or know whether you have taken notes on any given player. Game speed ranges anywhere from 80 hands per hour to as high as 180. The lobby listings also show the average pot size and percent participation. Look for the highest numbers in both categories for the best games.



InternationalPokerNetwork

InternationalPokerNetwork has both limit and pot-limit games. All games are fivehanded, with two blinds. The small blind is half the big blind (12 in the 25-50 games). You can use and play in four different currencies: U.S. dollars (USD), euros (EUR), British pounds (GBP), and Turkish liras (TRY). No matter what currency you deposit, you can play in any of the games. When you buy into a game, the application also informs you of the value of your buy-in in your currency. For example, if you deposit U.S. dollars on the site and buy into a £2-£4 British pound game for £100, the dialog informs you that the equivalent is $178.



Most of the players are based elsewhere than in the United States, usually Europe and the Middle East. For this reason, there tends to be more games from European midmorning times to maybe 2 a.m. their time. Games usually run the whole weekend. This site generally has the largest number of games at all limits.



Overall, the games are very good. Generally, the smaller the games, the liver, although even the bigger games are often quite live. As everywhere, however, the bigger they get, the more likely they are to contain at least some tough, experienced players. Many of those players are also quite aggressive, so be prepared for a wild ride. Even the $1-$2 games can be filled with very tight grinders who don't give anything away. But there are usually enough games that you can find a good one. The lobby listings show the average pot size and percent participation. Look for the highest numbers in both columns for the best games. Game speed generally ranges from 30 to 150 hands per hour, with most games falling in a narrower 60-95 region.



24hPOKER
24hPOKER is a Scandinavian site, and most of the players are Europeans, particularly Scandinavians. All games are pot-limit. Generally, you don't find games at all limits. The smallest games are a particularly good place to get your feet wet playing pot-limit.



The games are often very aggressive. The players in general are trickier than on any other site. Many love to slow-play and trap, even in the smallest games. This does not mean the games are not good, but expect greater variance than elsewhere. In the largest games, the players are very aggressive, so be prepared for big swings. The lobby listings show the average pot size and percent participation. Look for the highest numbers in both categories for the best games.



PlanetPoker

PlanetPoker once had all the draw action, but now it is a distant last in the numbers competition. It has both limit and pot-limit games. All games are eighthanded, with two blinds. The small blind is half the big blind (10¢ in the 25¢-50¢ games). The smallest pot-limit game, 1¢-2¢, is probably the best place to learn pot-limit. Unfortunately, you won't find the game going very often. In fact, you rarely find any draw action at all. When you do, it is usually only at the smallest limits.



There is no lobby indication of hands per hour, average pot size, or percent participation, and you cannot make player notes.

Michael Wiesenberg's The Ultimate Casino Guide, published by Sourcebooks, is available at fine bookstores and at Amazon.com and other online book purveyors. E-mail: [email protected].