Lowball Poker Terms and Definitions

This glossary covers terms relevant to lowball poker, and does not rehash other terminology poker players already know such as check, bet, fold, raise, draw, all-in etc. We’ll break down the lowball terms by game type first. New terms can be a pain when you have new poker games to learn so hopefully the list below will help you out.

Razz Poker Terms

Ante: A small amount of money which seeds the pot. In Razz each player is required to post an ante before the hand starts.

Baby: a low card.

Board Lock: Board lock is the state where, based on the upcards of an opponent, a player’s hand can not be beaten. For example, in Razz if an opponents board reads 6-7-8-T the best possible hand that opponent can make is a seven-six low. If someone has already made better than a 7-6 low, they’re considered to have board lock over that opponent.

Brick: A card which fails to improve a player’s hand.

Bring-In: A forced bet that starts the action. In Razz, the bring-in is made by the player with the highest up card.

Draw Lowball Terms

Rough: A hand which is in trouble if someone has the same low. For example, a 9-8-7-4-3 is considered a rough-nine, as it would be in trouble against most other nine low hands.

Smooth: This relates to how good a players hand is. For example, in 2-7 Draw, the hand 9-5-4-3-2 is called a smooth nine, where 9-8-6-5-3 would be called a rough nine.

Snow: To stand pat without a made hand, which is used as a form of a bluff. A player standing pat is considered “snowing” or attempting “a snow”.

Stand Pat: This is the action of taking no cards during a Draw Poker game.

Badugi: This is a version of Triple Draw Lowball using four cards. The goal of Badugi is to make a lowball hand with each card coming from a different suit. When a player accomplishes this goal, the hand is called a badugi.

General Lowball Terms

Ace to Five (A-5): A method of ranking hands, used mostly in Razz, but in some draw poker games, where A-2-3-4-5 is the best possible hand. In Ace to Five, straights and flushes do not count against a player’s hand.

Ace to Six (A-6): A rarely played lowball game where A-2-3-4-6 is the best hand. In this game, Ace is low and straights and flushes count against a hand.

Deuce to Seven (2-7): A method of ranking hands common to Draw Lowball games. In this game, Ace is always high, and hands are penalized for straights and flushes. In Deuce to Seven Lowball, the best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7.

Lowball: A poker game where at showdown the lowest hand is awarded the pot.

Rainbow: A hand or flop in which all cards are a different suit.

Poker Datamining: A term used to describe the process of obtain hand histories from poker sites whilst not sat at the table. More info here – poker datamining

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