It fell out of favor because people dont eliminate all the cards below 7s and it feels so boring to just keep on getting 1 pair and get busted flush and straight draws. Rarely you get a good two pair , flush, or straight but when you do nobody has anything when you do so you get no value so the game is pretty pointless for now.

With so few cards in the deck, and no community cards in the game, the game takes very little skill or math knowledge, so many people would consider it to be very luck-based. For those players who believe 'reading' an opponent is a large part of the game, then this would indeed be the purest form of poker because it is all about diagnosing your opponent as strong or weak based on some sort of physical tell and then playing accordingly. It won't ever become popular again because people wouldn't be willing to gamble purely based on their ability to read people (unless they're psychologists or something).

I have played 5 Draw online several times and I see it as tough to play as holdem. You can bluff, slow play, you can make a player think you have 2 pair when you have trips by just drawing 1 card. For me it takes just as much skill to play 5 draw as any other poker game.

I have to agree that 5 card takes as much skill and intuitiveness as any other style of poker. I mean the games played back then were pretty intense. I think there is a huge amount of bluffing like OLDCHIPP states.

Yeah, there can be a HUGE amount of bluffing since you aren't actually showing any of your cards, so you could literally represent any hand...

I was never too good at 5 card draw

Some people play omaha some play razz in lue of holdem but i actually play 5 card draw with jokers as my alternative to holdem

Thirty years ago we played Jacks or better to open and trips or better to win,,, use to get some really big pots with antes and opening bets,,,, Ya'll take care

I think no limint holdem became popular because it was a game that everyone could play without a whole lof of knowledge. I guess most thought it was an easier game to learn. Boy what a surprise those players must have had.

Luv to play 5 card, play it on merge whenever I can find a table with players on it, also like razz and A-5 lowball, these games however are not amoung the favorite of poker players to play. I beleive a lil' more thought process is required to play them than just playing no limit holdem. If you find yourself on merge and would like to play sometime, I'm useually in on of those three games...

It was nice playing a little 5 card with you and arwen the other day i hope we can do it again some time