Draw poker is a very different game than traditional stud or hold ‘em games. Unlike being stuck with the cards that you are given, you have the option of trading away the cards that you do not want to use for completely random new cards. This is where the true challenge of draw poker arises: how do you determine what the correct trade off is? If you are exchanging three of the five cards with the hopes of hitting a three of a kind, how do you know whether or not playing the hand to its conclusion is in your best interest?
Suppose you are dealt two aces, a 9, a 7, and a 3, all different suits. The situation s pretty clear cut for you, you should exchange the three random cards with the hopes that you will be dealt one or more aces. To see what the correct play for you should be, you need to do some math. You know the location of 5 of the 52 cards in the deck, this means that there are 47 cards you do not know—two of these will improve your hand. Since you will be dealt 3 new cards, you have a 2/47 + 2/46 + 2/45 chance of hitting your hand. This equates to a roughly 13 percent chance of you getting a third ace. Getting some good poker software reviews may help your game a bit as well.
Simple pot odds say that if you are contributing less than 13 percent of the pot, it is correct to play this hand if you have a good suspicion that three aces will win the hand and with only two aces you will lose. The good thing is that often in five card draw a pair of aces will be enough to win, but with this knowledge, you can succeed in more difficult scenarios.