Draw Poker Variations: Four Before
Four Before is another variation of the draw poker style of play, most notably the “shotgun” variation. However, the flexibility of the game’s style can be applied to any draw poker variation (either standard or lowball). Games such as Four Before are well designed for anywhere between two and eight players.
On the initial dealing, a limit of four cards is dealt to each player face down and one at a time, starting by dealing the first cards to the player immediately to the dealer’s left. Once the dealer has finished dealing all of the cards to everyone, the players can then look at their cards (Just make sure not to reveal any telltale signs as to whether you have a good hand or not.).
This will signify the start of betting / discarding – now here’s the twist: At this stage, all players will draw one more card than they discard, giving each player 5 cards. Once all player hands are built, the final betting round will take place, leading into the inevitable showdown between the remaining players.
In this type of draw poker game, it is considered impossible to be given a “pat” hand by the dealer. This means that it is impossible to be dealt a straight or a flush hand completed before the draw. Since one more card is drawn than is discarded to complete a five card hand, this means at least one card must be discarded. This can make for interesting gameplay variations, especially if one has been dealt a good hand to start with.
Again, as mentioned above, this type of game can be adapted to standard five card draw poker hand values, or to lowball games as well. For the standard hand values, it can be very interesting to see what one does with a suited 2,3,4,5 starting hand (the player must discard one - ouch!) Of course, the same can happen in lowball (having to breakup a great low hand, only to be dealt back a pair of kings!), but it makes for a more interesting situation when the higher values are used.
Regardless of whether high or low values are used, Four Before makes for one of the more interesting (and exciting) draw poker games available in the casino.
