Played with 5 hole cards, 2-7 No Limit Single Draw is, as the name indicates, a draw game with a total of 1 draw. 2-7 No Limit Single Draw (aka Deuce to Seven or Kansas City Lowball) is a poker game where the worst hand wins. If you always draw bad cards, this is the game for you. Poker Dice Rules In this simple little dice game, your goal is to roll the best possible poker hand. To play, you'll need five regular 6-sided dice, although having special Poker Dice certainly adds to the fun. All-in Poker Rules: Rule #1 – Table Stakes – The table stakes rule says that a player can't be forced to wager more than he has brought to the table. In the past, it may have been possible for richer players to bully poorer players by betting amounts so large that no-one would be able to call, even if they wanted to. INTRODUCTION TO DRAW POKER. Draw Poker or Five Card Draw is one of the simplest and oldest forms of poker. It was the best-known form of poker until Texas Hold'Em was popularized. Examine the poker hand rankings and basic poker rules for an introduction to poker, the following rules assume a certain level of familiarity with poker.
2-7 (Deuce to Seven) Single Draw is a form of draw poker, sometimes referred to as ‘Kansas City Lowball'. Lowball games reward the best low hand, making it the opposite of games likes Hold'em and Stud, in which the highest hand wins. Like board games Hold'em and Omaha, the game is played with blinds and a button, and is also sometimes played with antes. In Single Draw, each player has the opportunity to discard and draw cards once, though you may ‘stand pat' (not discard any cards) on the draw.
How to Play 2-7 Single Draw
First, it's important to understand that the hand rankings are different in 2-7 than in other low games. In 2-7, straights and flushes count against your low hand, and aces are always high. So the best possible hand is: 7, 5, 4, 3, 2. The following 2-7 hands (not a complete list) are ranked from least powerful (#1, which will rarely win the pot) to most powerful (#16, the nuts):
- J, 7, 4, 3, 2 (all the same suit - a flush)
- 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 (a straight)
- 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 (a lower straight)
- 5, 5, 5, 6, 3
- 2, 2, 7, 6, 5
- A, 9, 6, 4, 2
- A, 8, 7, 4, 2
- A, 5, 4, 3, 2 (not a straight - ace-high)
- K, J, 8, 7, 4
- T, 7, 5, 4, 3
- T, 6, 5, 4, 3
- T, 6, 5, 4, 2
- 9, 7, 6, 4, 3
- 8, 6, 4, 3, 2
- 7, 6, 4, 3, 2
- 7, 5, 4, 3, 2
Blinds
Draw games are played using forced bets known as ‘blinds', with the player sitting to the left of the dealer button posting a small blind, and the player to their left posting the big blind. The small blind is usually equal to half the size of the big blind. Lowball is also sometimes played with an ‘ante', which is a small forced bet posted by each player in addition to the blinds.
The Deal
Each player is dealt five cards face down. There is then a round of betting, where you have the option to either call, raise, or fold. Players still left in the hand after the first round of betting now have the opportunity to draw. This means you can try and improve your hand by discarding some of the cards, and being dealt new ones to replace them. Click the cards you want to discard, and then hit the ‘Discard' button. You can discard all five cards if you wish. If you feel that you already have a strong hand, you can opt to ‘Stand Pat'. This means that you are choosing not to discard any of your cards. When the draw is complete, another round of betting ensues, with players having the option to bet or fold (if a bet has been made before the action is on them). If no bets are made, players also have the option to check. If more than one player is still left in the hand at this point, a showdown takes place, with the player holding the best hand taking the pot.
So the sequence of action is:
- Five cards dealt to each player
- Betting round #1, beginning with player to left of big blind
- Discard/Draw, beginning with the player to the left of the button
- Betting round #2, beginning with the player to the left of button
- Showdown (if necessary)
In draw games, it is possible for more cards to be needed than are remaining in the deck. In this case, the cards are reshuffled, and play continues using the new deck. For more information on reshuffling in draw games, please see Reshuffling the Deck.
Showdown - Determining the Winner
The player with the best five-card 2-7 hand wins the pot. After the pot is awarded to the best hand, a new game of 2-7 Single Draw is ready to be played.
If two or more hands have the same value, the pot is equally split among them. There is no rank of suit for the purposes of awarding the pot. Please remember, this is different from other forms of low or high/low poker, where an ace can be played either high or low. In 2-7, an ace is always the highest card.
Basic Strategy
In Lowball, most hands that are usually strong in games like Hold'em are weak. Pairs, trips (three of a kind), straights and flushes are always considered to be high hands, and so do not qualify in Lowball. If a hand has no pair, the player with the highest ranking card loses. For instance, if one player has 9-6-5-2-3, this hand beats 10-9-6-2-3. In 2-7 games, aces are always high, and are therefore not good. This means that a player holding J-9-7-3-2 beats an opponent with A-9-7-3-2. The best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of different suits. This is because the hand is low, has no ace and is not a straight or a flush. It's for this reason that the game is called 2-7 Lowball.
Learn How to Play 2-7 Single Draw for Free
If you are unfamiliar with 2-7 Single Draw poker, we recommend you try the game out first to get a feel for how it's played. You are always welcome to play on free poker tables at PokerStars, and sharpen your skills before playing real money poker.
Finally, if you like to play other draw variants, we recommend you check out Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball, Five Card Draw, or Badugi, all of which are very popular poker games as well. These games are a nice change of pace from the amazingly popular Texas Hold'em game, and they are also available in our poker tournaments selection.
As well as 2-7 Single Draw, we also offer many other poker variants. See our Poker Games page to learn more.
If you have any questions about 2-7 Single Draw games at PokerStars, please email Support.
Find out how the different hands compare in Texas Hold'em, Omaha and other games.
The poker dictionary is your reference for poker jargon and the language of poker.
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For those unfamiliar with poker rules and the game of Poker, along with others who might want a refresher, this is the most basic of basic poker. The various games are based on this.
Poker is a game of five card hands dealt from a 52 card deck of standard playing cards. All poker hands consist of exactly five cards. Most games, like seven card stud for example, give the players more than five cards to select from, but the final winning result goes to the one with the best five card poker hand. In the popular stud poker games, the players are all dealt one card at a time or in small groups and they bet money each time they get more cards. They bet that they will end up with the best hand. The players that don't want to bet on their hands any longer can 'fold' their hands, get out of the contest and forfeit all the bets they have made to that point. At the end, the player with the best poker hand wins all the bets. In draw poker the players bet, then replace the cards they don't like with new ones from the dealer and then bet again.
The best hand is determined by the Poker Hand Ranking chart below.
Mobile Users - I've created a special chart in universal .pdf format for easy viewing on narrow screens. The original large chart is also available for downloading, viewing or printing.
Mobile - hand-rankings-mobile.pdf
Tablet / Desktop - hand-rankings.pdf
Rules for the More Popular Poker Games
Basic Poker Resources
- Poker Terms - Before sitting down at a poker table, new players should check out my glossary and get familiar with some of the poker lingo.
Can you name thesePoker Legends?
In 1978, Doyle Brunson, two time winner of the 'World Championship of Poker' at Binions Horseshoe in Las Vegas, published probably the best ever written book on casino level poker games. This 600 page, 3 lb. volume is more like an encyclopedia reference than a typical poker book. The work is packed with sound professional advice with volumes of stats for advanced players and was strangely named 'How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker'. Casino rama shows january 2020 calendar. In reprint, it is now named 'Super System'.
For this classic, Brunson enlisted the services of some of the best professional poker players in the world, all champions in their own right, to collaborate the authoring of the game sections of their particular specialties. The cartoon of this world class poker game is shown on the books inside front cover. Here are the players and their game contributions.
2-7 Single Draw Poker Rules
Basic Poker Resources
- Poker Terms - Before sitting down at a poker table, new players should check out my glossary and get familiar with some of the poker lingo.
Can you name thesePoker Legends?
In 1978, Doyle Brunson, two time winner of the 'World Championship of Poker' at Binions Horseshoe in Las Vegas, published probably the best ever written book on casino level poker games. This 600 page, 3 lb. volume is more like an encyclopedia reference than a typical poker book. The work is packed with sound professional advice with volumes of stats for advanced players and was strangely named 'How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker'. Casino rama shows january 2020 calendar. In reprint, it is now named 'Super System'.
For this classic, Brunson enlisted the services of some of the best professional poker players in the world, all champions in their own right, to collaborate the authoring of the game sections of their particular specialties. The cartoon of this world class poker game is shown on the books inside front cover. Here are the players and their game contributions.
2-7 Single Draw Poker Rules
What Is 2-7 Single Draw Poker Rules
1. DOYLE BRUNSON - No Limit Hold'em 2. MIKE CARO - Draw Poker 3. JOEY HAWTHORN - Five and Seven Card Lowball 4. DAVID SKLANSKY - Seven Card Stud, High-Low Split 5. CHIP REESE - Seven Card Stud 6. BOBBY BALDWIN - Limit Hold'em
