How To Play Lowball Poker

Any game which uses exclusively low hand rankings is considered a lowball poker game so learning how to play lowball poker isn’t as simple as it might first sound. There are a number of different variations of lowball poker with the most popular being; Razz, Badugi, 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw. Badugi is possibly the hardest lowball game to learn but the other are pretty easy once you have learned the hand rankings they use.

You can see an article about all the different lowball poker hand rankings here: Lowball hand rankings

Before you learn how to play lowball poker you need to decide which of the lowball poker games you want to learn. Below is a brief description of each game and a link to another article on our site which will explain how to play that specific variation of lowball poker and its rules.

Razz Poker: Razz is the most popular lowball poker game by a good distance and is essentially just 7 Card Stud but using lowball hand rankings. Players are dealt 7 cards in total and the best (lowest) 5 card hand in the winner. Straights and flushes don’t count when playing Razz, which uses the ace to five hand rankings system making A-2-3-4-5 the absolute nuts.

For more information about Razz poker rules and how to play Razz poker check out this link: How to play Razz poker

Badugi: Badugi is one of the newest forms of lowball poker and was only recently, in 2008, added to the selection of games available to players at Pokerstars. Badugi is a four card, triple draw game which uses a very unique hand ranking system. It’s the hardest lowball poker game to learn but the standard of play in the online Badugi games is so poor that even a little experience and strategy advice will give you a big edge over most players.

If you fancy learning how to play Badugi then check out this link: How to play Badugi

2-7 Single Draw: 2-7 single draw is usually played in a no limit format. Players are dealt five cards face down and have the chance to draw once to improve their hand. The game uses the deuce to seven hand rankings system which is easy enough to learn, straights and flushes count against you and aces are always considered to be high cards. You can play 2-7 online and it is quite popular among both cash game and tournament players.

For more info check out this link: How to play 2-7 Single Draw

2-7 Triple Draw: 2-7 Triple Draw is pretty much the same as 2-7 Single Draw but players have the chance to draw at their hand three times in order to improve. Triple Draw is slightly less popular than single draw and is usually played in the limit format. The online games have decent traffic at the bigger sites and the general standard of play is pretty poor. If you can add Single Draw or Triple Draw to your arsenal then you’ll always be able to find fish when your regular games are bad.

Check out this link to find out about how to play 2-7 Triple Draw: How to play 2-7 Triple Draw