Play Lowball Poker - Revealing A Comprehensive Guide ....

Lowball Poker is a version of poker games where instead of the highest hand winning, you need to draw and play the lowest hand possible. As in the more well known poker variants, there are many different versions of lowball poker including Razz, Badugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw and Omaha Hi Lo. Out of these, Razz is easily the most popular. Razz uses what's known as Ace to Five hand rankings ( you can read more on this just below) and can be played at Full Tilt and Pokerstars.

Lowball Poker Rules

Lowball poker rules dictate that the best hand at showdown is always the lowest possible hand as opposed to the highest hand which is used in most forms of poker. There are four main hand ranking system used when playing lowball poker; ace to five, ace to six, deuce to seven and deuce to six. This article will take a look at all the lowball poker rules which decide which hand wins at showdown in the various lowball poker games.

Ace To Five Hand Rankings

The ace to five hand rankings system states that the best possible hand a player can make is A-2-3-4-5, known as the Wheel. When using this system straights and flushes don't count against your hand at all. Aces are low cards only. The most popular form of poker which uses the ace to five lowball hand rankings system is Razz poker. Razz is a seven card poker game played exactly the same as 7 card stud but using the ace to five lowball hand rankings and not the more common high hand rankings.

Deuce to Seven Hand Rankings

Deuce to seven Triple Draw and deuce to seven Single Draw are the two most popular forms of lowball poker to use the 2-7 hand rankings system. Triple Draw is usually spread as a limit or pot limit game whilst 2-7 Single Draw is usually played in the no limit format. This hand ranking system states that the best possible hand a player can make when at the table is 2-3-4-5-7. Straights and flushes count against you as high hands when using the 2-7 lowball poker rankings and aces are always considered to be high cards. NL 2-7 rules are the same as Triple Draw rules apart from the fact that when playing Triple Draw there are three draws and when playing Single Draw there is only a single drawing round.

Ace to Six Hand Rankings

Ace to six is pretty much the same as ace to five accept straights and flushes do count against your hand. Like ace to five when playing poker variations which use the ace to six hand rankings aces are always considered low cards only. This makes the best possible holding A-2-3-4-6.

Deuce to Six Hand Rankings

The best possible hand ranking when playing with the deuce to six lowball rankings is 2-3-4-5-6. When playing this system straight and flushes don't count against you but aces are always considered to be high cards not low. Currently there are no deuce to six poker games available to online players.