Rules of Poker · Chapter 41 · 2026 edition
Dramaha is five-card Omaha with a draw. Each player gets five cards, there is a betting round before the flop and one on the flop, then everyone may draw, then the turn and river. The pot is split between the best Omaha hand (two cards from your hand, three from the board) and the best five-card draw hand, made from the five cards in your hand alone. The name is "draw" plus "Omaha"; BARGE's rulebook also gives the spelling "Drawmaha". Versions differ in how the draw hand is ranked: high, deuce-to-seven low, ace-to-five low, Badugi, or by adding up points.
Shared rules follow Omaha (Omaha) and the draw games (5-Card Draw to Badugi). General betting, forced bets, dealing, showdown, and pots are in Betting action to Pots.
Dramaha uses one 52-card deck, five hole cards per player and one five-card board. Five cards each for seven players and a board use 40 cards, which leaves twelve for the draw; at a fuller table the draw is more likely to need the discards reshuffled (The deal and misdeals). BARGE's rules set no player limit.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Dealing Procedure; common practice, from the card count.
Dramaha uses a button and blinds. Each player gets five cards face down and the first betting round follows. Then the flop (three board cards) and a second betting round; then the draw; then the turn and a betting round, and the river and a last betting round before the showdown. That is four betting rounds and one draw.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Forced Money and Dealing Procedure; Kevin Haney, "Limit Dramaha: An Introduction," Card Player, June 27, 2019.
When the flop betting is over, each player still in the hand, in turn from the left of the button, discards the cards they don't want, or none, and the dealer replaces them. The draw happens once, and it comes after the flop betting, not before it; BARGE points out that Triple Draw Dramaha (41.18) does it the other way round.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Dealing Procedure and Notes.
The draw limit is where Dramaha's sources disagree most.
Example: a player in 2-7 Dramaha holding A-K-K-Q-J wants to throw all five. Under the Asian Poker Tour's rule they may; under a three-card limit they must keep two. The host should announce the limit with the game.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Dealing Procedure; BARGE Rulebook, "Dramadugi"; BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha Zero"; BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha 49"; Asian Poker Tour, Poker Handbook, "Drawmaha 2-7".
In fixed-limit Dramaha the small bet is used before the flop and on the flop and the big bet on the turn and river, as in limit Omaha. Pot-limit is common too: BARGE notes that Dramadugi was dealt pot-limit at BARGE in 2024. Who acts first is as in Omaha: the player left of the big blind before the flop, the first player left of the button on every later round.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Dealing Procedure; BARGE Rulebook, "Dramadugi".
The board half goes to the best Omaha high hand, made from exactly two of your five cards (after the draw) and exactly three of the five board cards, as in Omaha (Omaha). In every version of Dramaha the board half is played for high.
The draw half goes to the best hand made from the five cards in your hand after the draw, with no board cards. The same five cards make both your draw hand and, with the board, your Omaha hand.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Evaluating the Showdown; Asian Poker Tour, Poker Handbook, "Drawmaha 2-7".
In plain Dramaha, also called Dramaha High, the draw half goes to the best high poker hand among the players' five cards, ranked as in 5-Card Draw (5-Card Draw).
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Evaluating the Showdown; Kevin Haney, "Limit Dramaha: An Introduction," Card Player, June 27, 2019.
In 2-7 Dramaha the draw half goes to the best deuce-to-seven low (Hand rankings, 2-7 Single and Triple Draw): the ace counts high, straights and flushes count against you, and the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 in at least two suits.
Source: Asian Poker Tour, Poker Handbook, "Drawmaha 2-7"; Kevin Haney, "Limit Dramaha: An Introduction," Card Player, June 27, 2019.
In A-5 Dramaha the draw half goes to the best ace-to-five low (Hand rankings, A-5 Triple Draw): the ace counts low, straights and flushes don't count, and the best hand is 5-4-3-2-A. There is no qualifier. We found no published rulebook chapter for this version; it is dealt as the other Dramaha games are, with only the ranking of the draw hand changed.
Source: common mixed-game practice; the game's structure follows BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha", and the ranking is pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Ace to Five".
In Dramadugi the draw half goes to the best four-card Badugi (Badugi) you can make from your five hole cards: you choose the best four and ignore the fifth.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramadugi".
In Dramaha 49 the draw half goes to the highest point total of your five hole cards. Aces count 1, twos through tens their face value, and jacks, queens and kings 0. The best possible hand is 10-10-10-10-9, for 49 points. Pairs, straights and flushes mean nothing here; only the total counts.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha 49".
Dramaha Zero counts points the same way (aces 1, twos through tens face value, jacks, queens and kings 0), but the lowest total wins the draw half. Five face cards make 0, the best hand and the game's name; 10-10-10-10-9 is the worst.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha Zero".
At showdown the pot is split in two: half to the best Omaha hand, half to the best draw hand. One player may win both and scoop. Players tied within a half share that half, and each side pot is split the same way among its eligible players (Pots). There is no qualifier for either half, so both halves are always paid at a showdown.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Evaluating the Showdown; Kevin Haney, "Limit Dramaha: An Introduction," Card Player, June 27, 2019.
When the pot doesn't divide evenly, BARGE treats the five-card draw hand as the "high" half and gives it the odd chip, in every Dramaha game; its example is Dramaha 49, where the odd chip goes to the best point total. The Asian Poker Tour's handbook does the same for 2-7 Dramaha. Example: a $45 pot pays $23 to the best draw hand and $22 to the best Omaha hand.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Ties & Odd Chips," Dramaha games; Asian Poker Tour, Poker Handbook, "Drawmaha 2-7".
Players new to Dramaha sometimes read a draw hand with board cards in it, or an Omaha hand with three or four of their own cards. The draw hand is your five cards alone (41.7); the Omaha hand is exactly two of yours and three from the board (41.6). Example: you hold 7-7-4-4-K and the board has a 7. Your draw hand is two pair, sevens and fours; the board's 7 doesn't make it a full house.
As in every draw game, a hand with more or fewer than five cards after the draw is fouled. Robert's Rules states this for draw high; in Dramaha it matters twice, because a fouled hand can win neither half.
Source: Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 12, "Draw High," rule 5; draw-game practice applied to Dramaha.
The BARGE rulebook has several more versions. Triple Draw Dramaha has three draws, one after each new set of board cards and before that round's betting, with up to five cards each time. Dramaha 21 scores the draw hand on points, capped at 21. Sviten Special is Dramaha with an option to take a one-card draw face up. Other draw-hand rankings are possible too; any of these is a house rule to announce with the game.
Source: BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha," Notes; BARGE Rulebook, "Dramaha 21"; BARGE Rulebook, "Triple Draw Dramaha"; Kevin Haney, "Limit Dramaha: An Introduction," Card Player, June 27, 2019 (the draw hand can be ranked in many ways).
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