Lowball Deuce to Seven Rules

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Lowball is draw poker, except that the lowest hand wins the pot.

Low Hands A low hand must meet certain requirements to win.

A ‘good’ lowball hand is essentially a bad regular poker hand. The best hand is [7-5-4-3-2] of mixed suits (if the cards are the same suit, you would have a flush, which would be a great poker hand but a terrible lowball hand).

Aces are only ‘high’, so [5-4-3-2-A] is not a straight.

The Deal The player to the dealer’s left and the player to their left post a small blind and a big blind respectively. Then, each player is dealt five face-down cards.

A betting round begins, starting with the player to the left of the big blind. Note that later in the hand, players have a chance to exchange some of their cards to improve their hand, so this round of betting is usually based on a hand’s potential.

The Draw Players who remain in the hand after the betting now have a chance to improve their hand by discarding and replacing some or all of their cards. This is called ‘the draw’.

Players again bet, this time starting with the player to the dealer’s left. Players are now betting with their final hand.

The Showdown Players reveal their hands. The player with the best (i.e. lowest) hand wins the pot.

Variations

The game can be played with an ante instead of, or along with, blinds. Bets can follow a small bet/big bet structure where bets after the draw are higher (usually double) than bets before the draw.

No-limit and Pot-limit – Lowball can be played at no-limit and pot-limit levels.