Lowball is a type of poker that was once very popular, in which the winner is the player who has collected the weakest “low” combination. This variant of poker is also called 2-7 Triple Draw, because in it, the strongest combination consists of cards from 2 to 7 – 2 3 4 5 7. Another distinctive feature of this game is that there are no community cards in it, each player immediately receives five cards in his hand, but then he can change them, trying to improve combination
The nuances of playing lowball
In order to quickly learn the rules of the game of Lowball, you need to master two simple but very important features of this type of poker:
- Straights and flushes are the weakest hands.
- An ace cannot be the lowest value card.
Also in this game, the strongest combinations for Hold’em or Omaha turn out to be the weakest. For example, a full house or a set are very weak hands. Even the presence of a pair in the hand significantly reduces its strength.
Combinations
Why isn’t 2 3 4 5 6 or A 2 3 4 6 the strongest combination in 2-7 Triple Draw? In the first case, a straight is formed, which in such a form of poker as Lowball is too weak a combination. In the second case, there is an ace, which is the highest card in the Triple Draw, so this combination also has little chance of winning. But the hand 2 3 4 5 7 of different suits is the strongest, because. consists of cards of the minimum value, does not form a straight and does not contain repeated cards.
The combinations in Lowball are compared as follows – the winning hand in which there are no pairs, and the highest card is less in value than the highest card of the opponent. In the case when the highest-ranking cards of both players are equal, the second-ranked cards are compared with each other, then the third, and so on.
What if the players have pairs or other combinations that are strong for classic poker games? In this case, the player with the weaker hand will win.
