How to Play Lowball Triple Draw Poker

Lowball Triple Draw is similar to 2-7 Triple Draw Poker. In Lowball Triple Draw the best hand is ace-2-3-4-5. Straights and flushes don't count in this variation at all.

In Lowball Poker you have to change your focus. High hands are worthless! You will discard hands that you would love to have normally.

The three draws are extremely important. Many players don't realize how quickly a hand can be improved. This applies to their own hand but also to their opponents' hands.

In regular poker, the kicker, or next highest card, often wins a hand. In lowball, the next lowest card often wins the hand. So ace-2-3-4-6 is better than ace-2-3-5-6.

Since a five-high hand is the best hand, it is unusual for an eight-high hand to win. Seven-high hands are considered borderline.

• The player to the left of the dealer is the small blind.
  
  
• The next player is the big blind. The big blind is usually twice the small blind.
  
  
• All players are dealt five cards down.
  
  
• Betting begins with the player to the left of the big blind.
  
  
• To stay in the game, all players must at least call the big blind.
  
  
• Raising is allowed even before the first draw. The house may set raising limits.
  
  
• When all players have either called or folded, the remaining players discard as many cards as they want and draw.
  
  
• There is a round of betting after each draw.
  
  
• After the pre-draw round of betting, the player to the left of the dealer begins the betting.
  
  
• The first two rounds of betting are normally played at the lower stakes and the last two rounds at the higher stakes.

• The biggest mistake newer players make in all variations of poker is playing too many hands. Play fewer hands and conserve your bankroll.
  
  
• In this variation aces are low. Keep them. If you have been playing 2-7 Triple Draw you must reorient you thinking.
  
  
• Also, in this variation, straights and flushes don't count. So you don't have to break up a great hand just because it's a straight or flush.
  
  
• It is possible to bluff, but the quickness with which hands can change means that bluffing early is foolish.
  
  
• The blinds will often stay in for at least one draw because they already have money in the pot. This means that it hard to draw conclusions when the blinds stay in before the first draw.
  
  
• As in other variations of poker, position affects your betting strategy. Studying positional betting strategy is always a good idea.
  
  
• Never stay in a game if you have to draw four or five cards on the second draw.

The proliferation of poker variations has made it increasingly difficult to consider oneself a poker expert. Especially in lowball, where one variation penalizes straights and flushes and the other doesn't, you must always be aware which game you're playing.

If you play poker for fun and at affordable stakes, you probably also love the variety of poker games. Lowball Triple Draw Poker is fast growing in popularity, partly because of its dissimilarity with other forms of poker and partly because of the sheer fun of playing it.