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How did draw poker change the game from straight poker?

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Five playing cards showing a flush in clubs: king, ten, eight, seven, and five of clubs. — poker A poker hand containing five cards of the same suit but not in sequence is called a flush.

Draw poker fundamentally changed the game from straight poker by introducing an opportunity to improve one's hand after the initial deal.

In straight poker, players bet on their original five cards and proceed directly to a showdown. In contrast, draw poker introduces a "draw" phase: after an initial round of betting, active players may discard one or more of their original cards and receive replacements from the remaining deck. This addition creates a second betting interval following the draw, which occurs before the final showdown.12

Because of this extra round of action, draw poker often features different betting structures; for instance, in fixed-limit games, the betting limit is typically doubled after the draw compared to the limit before it. By allowing players to exchange cards, draw poker adds a layer of strategic decision-making that was absent in the more static format of straight poker.31