Lowball – The Poker game
The Lowball is also a form of the poker game which is sometimes called as “low poker”. In traditional sense, the low poker rewards the poor poker hands. Four common variations are possible in this low poker which depends on the following conditions:
• Whether the flushes and straights are used or not.
• And, whether the aces are treated as low cards or high cards.
The four familiar variations of low poker
1. Deuce-to –six low This variation is mostly unused and the possibility would be six-five low. Aces are used as high cards. Flushes and straights are ignored.
2. Deuce-to-seven low Here the lowest possible hand would be 7-5-4-3-2; so this deuce-to-seven is also called as seven-five low. This is the direct inverse of the traditional high hand poker. Aces are high; flushes and straights are also counted as high hands.
3. Ace-to-five low The most common method in the low poker is the ace-to-five low. The lowest hand which is possible in the game is 5-4-3-2-A. This is called as a “wheel”. Aces are treated as low cards and the flushes and straights are ignored.
4. Ace-to-six-low Here 6-4-3-2-A is the lowest possible hand. This could also be referred as six-to-four low. The aces are low and the straights and the flushes would be treated as high hands.
Some of the Lowball (poker) game examples
• The London Lowball – it is a seven card stud with pot-limit betting and A-6 ranking.
• Razz – the game is played with A-5 ranking and is a seven-card stud.
• Triple Draw – This game is a draw game played with three drawing rounds. It could be played with either 2-7 or A-5 ranking.