The game has a card-room form, dealt with blinds and a button, and a home-game form, usually dealt with antes and often with "jacks or better" to open. The rules below say which is which where they differ.
60.1 One deck, and usually no more than six or seven players
The game uses one standard 52-card deck. Each player can use up to ten cards over a hand (five dealt, five drawn), so a full table can run the deck out on the draw; 60.12 covers what happens then. For that reason pagat.com puts the usual maximum at six players, and state card-room rules cap their draw tables too: Pennsylvania's five-card draw regulation allows up to eight.
Home games traditionally have every player put in an ante, often the size of the minimum bet, and then betting starts with the player to the dealer's left. Card rooms and online sites deal the game with a button and blinds, the same way as Hold'em (Blinds, antes and bring-ins), and the first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind. Some home games use both. Robert's Rules describes the ante version; Pennsylvania's regulation and the BARGE rulebook describe the blind version.
Starting with the player to the dealer's left (or the button's left), the dealer deals one card at a time, face down, clockwise, until everyone has five. Nothing is dealt face up at any point in the hand. Misdeals follow the general rules in The deal and misdeals; Robert's Rules applies the misdeal rules of Hold'em and other button games to draw.
60.4 Two betting rounds, and the limit doubles after the draw
There is one betting round before the draw and one after it. In fixed-limit play the second round's bet is twice the first: at $2/$4, bets and raises are $2 before the draw and $4 after it. The game can also be played pot-limit or no-limit (Betting structures), where there is no doubling.
(a) In an ante game with an opener, the player who opened the first round acts first after the draw, or the next player still in to the opener's left if the opener has folded. Robert's Rules and pagat.com both say so.
(b) In a blind game, the first player still in to the left of the button acts first after the draw, as in every later round of a button game. Pennsylvania's regulation and Robert's Rules' general button rules say so.
Example: in a $1/$2 blind game the player under the gun opens and the button calls. After the draw, under (b) the player under the gun still acts first, because nobody between the button and that seat is left in the hand.
60.6 One draw, taken in turn from the dealer's left
After the first betting round, each player still in the hand draws once. The draw starts with the first player still in to the left of the button (or dealer) and goes clockwise, one player at a time, ending with the button. Each player throws away the cards they don't want, face down, and is dealt the same number of new cards face down. Wait for your turn before discarding; drawing early gives away information.
(a)Any number, up to all five. Pennsylvania's regulation sets no limit, and the BARGE rulebook allows zero to five.
(b)Up to three, or four if you keep an ace. pagat.com gives three as the standard home-game limit, with some games allowing a four-card draw only when the card kept is an ace, and others allowing four or five freely.
(c)Up to four in a row. Robert's Rules lets you take four cards at once; a player who wants all five gets four now and the fifth after everyone else has drawn. Robert's Rules says this makes cheating harder.
A home game should settle which version it plays before the first hand. With version (b), a player who keeps the ace of clubs may draw four; a player who keeps a king may draw only three.
Keeping all five cards is called standing pat. You say "pat" or rap the table on your turn. Robert's Rules treats a rap in turn as either a check or a pat declaration, depending on the moment, and adds that a player who signaled pat without noticing a raise may still play the hand.
60.9 Say how many cards you want; you may change it only until it matters
You state the number of cards you are drawing. Robert's Rules lets you change that number as long as no card has yet been dealt off the deck to fill your request (the burn card included) and no other player has acted, by betting or by stating their own draw, on the number you gave.
Example: you say "two," then before the dealer touches the deck say "no, one." That is allowed. If the next player has already said "pat" after hearing your "two," it is too late.
60.10 Anyone still in may ask how many cards you drew
Until there has been a bet or check after the draw, a player still in the hand may ask any opponent how many cards they took, and both the opponent and the dealer must answer truthfully. Once the betting after the draw has begun, Robert's Rules says the player no longer has to answer and the dealer may not.
The draw goes in order (60.6), and the dealer serves each player before the next. A player who announces a draw out of turn has not yet received cards, so under Robert's Rules the number can still be changed until cards are dealt for it or someone acts on it (60.9). Players skipped by an out-of-turn draw keep their turn. Beyond that, no published draw rulebook sets a penalty; general rules on acting out of turn are in Betting action.
If the stub (the undealt cards) is too small for a player's draw, the dealer deals what's left, then shuffles the discards into a new stub and finishes the draw from it. Sources differ on which discards go in:
(a) pagat.com shuffles the discards of the players who have already drawn.
(b) Pennsylvania's regulation leaves out the cards of any player who hasn't yet asked for new cards.
(c) New Jersey's triple-draw regulation leaves out the drawing player's own discards, so nobody can be dealt back a card they just threw away.
Example, seven players: 35 cards are dealt and 17 remain. Say no card is burned and the first five players draw three each, leaving two. The sixth player asks for three: they get the last two, and the dealer shuffles the earlier players' discards for the third. Under (c) the sixth player's own three discards are not in that shuffle.
60.13 Your five cards after the draw are your hand
There are no shared cards. The five cards you hold after the draw are your whole hand, ranked by the standard high ranking in Hand rankings: the best hand is a royal flush, and the ace plays high or low in a straight.
If more than one player is left after the second betting round, the last player to bet or raise in that round shows first. If everyone checked, pagat.com has the opener show first; in blind games the first player to the button's left does. The general showdown rules, including the right to muck a losing hand, are Showdown.
A playing hand is exactly five cards. Before any action, a player other than the button who is short a card is a misdeal under Robert's Rules; once action has started, the short player draws enough on the draw to make five. The button may be given a missing fifth card even after action. After the draw, a hand of more or fewer than five cards is fouled (dead) and can't win.
The most common home variant. Before anyone has bet, you may open only with a pair of jacks or better; once someone has opened, anyone may call or raise with anything. If nobody opens, the cards are thrown in, the deal passes and (in an ante game) everyone antes again. If the opener wins, they must show enough cards to prove the opening hand, even if everyone folded; an opener who can't prove it has a dead hand. An opener who throws away part of the opening hand to draw at something else ("splitting openers") must say so, and those cards are kept aside to be shown later.
Example: 10-10-A-K-Q can't open; 5-5-3-3-6 can, because two pair beats a pair of jacks.
(a)The joker. Card-room draw high was traditionally dealt with a 53-card deck including a joker (the bug), which counts only as an ace or to complete a straight or flush. Robert's Rules and BARGE describe it; Robert's Rules makes four aces and the joker the best hand.
(b)Jacks back. If nobody opens with jacks or better, the same hands are played as ace-to-five lowball (A-5 Triple Draw) instead of being thrown in.
(c)Pot-limit and no-limit. Usually fixed-limit, but BARGE notes big-bet versions, and the WSOP's Dealer's Choice list includes no-limit 5-card draw.