If an opponent has a made hand that will beat the player's draw, then the player is drawing dead even if they make their desired hand, they will lose. A made starting hand with no help can lose to an inferior starting hand with a favorable draw.
In contrast, a made hand already has value and does not necessarily need to draw to win. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to a flush. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For the variant of poker, see draw poker.Ī poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable.
This article is about poker terminology relating to drawing cards or drawing hands.
