2-7 Triple Draw is a draw variant of poker and uses a lowball hand ranking system. In
draw variants, players 🫰 may discard cards from their hand and replace them with cards
from the deck.
The draw typically occurs before each betting 🫰 round and occurs three
times in 2-7 Triple Draw hence the name “Triple Draw”.
The easiest way of describing a
lowball 🫰 format is with the phrase “worst hand wins”. This situation is not always the
case since there are different ways 🫰 of measuring lowball hands.
The lowball hand
rankings used in Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo are not the same as those 🫰 used in 2-7
Triple Draw.
Let’s look at the full breakdown.
Table of Contents
The Basics: 2-7 Triple
Draw Hand Values
In some sense, 🫰 2-7 hand rankings are the easiest to learn because they
are the complete opposite to Hold’em.
The worst hand in Hold’em 🫰 is 2,3,4,5,7,but it
makes the nuts in 2-7 Triple Draw.
2-7 Hand Rankings Quick Breakdown:
- Worst hand (in
Hold’em) wins.
- Straights 🫰 and flushes count against our hand.
- Aces are always
high!
A,2,3,4,6 is also not a great hand because the Ace must 🫰 always be treated as
high. 2,3,4,5,7 hence beats A,2,3,4,6.This is where the variant gets its name, Deuce to
Seven. 2,3,4,5,6 🫰 would be a six-high straight and, hence, not a good hand from a 2-7
Triple Draw perspective (complete garbage in 🫰 fact). Straights and flushes count against
our hand. However, A,2,3,4,6 is not complete garbage since it still beats any hand 🫰 with
a pair or higher (worse).
The Basics: How to Make Hands in 2-7 Triple Draw
Making hands
in 2-7 Triple Draw 🫰 is more straight forward than in most other poker variants.
Players
always have precisely five cards in their hand at any 🫰 given moment. We do not need to
worry about combining hole cards with community cards like we do in games 🫰 such as Omaha
and Hold’em.
Our hand is always the exact five cards we have in front of
us.
Blinds
Before any cards 🫰 are dealt, the blinds must be posted. The small blind and
big blind are posted by the player directly to 🫰 the left of the button, and the player
two to the left of the button respectively.
2-7 Triple Draw is identical 🫰 to Hold’em and
Omaha in this respect.
Pre-draw
We no longer use terms such as “preflop” and “flop”
when discussing draw games. 🫰 The word “flop” implies community cards and draw variants
don’t typically make use of any community cards.
There are four betting 🫰 rounds in2-7
Triple Draw we use the terms “pre-draw” and “post-draw” to help us distinguish between
them. (Post-draw being any 🫰 betting round occurring after the initial draw.)
Each player
is dealt 5 cards face down. The pre-draw betting round starts with 🫰 the player to the
left of the big blind and proceeds in a clockwise direction.
The Draw
Once all the
pre-draw betting 🫰 is complete, players now decide which of their cards they would like
to discard.
Players can discard any number of their 🫰 hole cards, including all five. If
players wish to keep their current selection of five cards, they have the option 🫰 to
“standpat” which means to draw nothing.
Starting with the small blind and proceeding in
a clockwise direction, players announce how 🫰 many cards they are discarding and draw the
equivalent number of cards from the deck.
If (in the rare occurrence that) 🫰 the deck
runs out of cards, the discard pile can be reshuffled and treated as a fresh deck.
Post
Draw
There are 🫰 now three additional betting rounds, two of which are followed by an
opportunity to draw.
The third of these three post-draw 🫰 betting rounds will be followed
immediately by Showdown. Confused?
Don’t worry, here is a quick map of the entire
structure -
Posting 🫰 of blinds
The Deal
Pre-draw betting round
Draw 1
First post-draw
betting round.
Draw 2
Second post-draw betting round.
Draw 3
Final betting
round
Showdown
In a manner identical to 🫰 Omaha and Hold’em, post-draw betting rounds
start with the player in the small blind (or whoever is remaining immediately left 🫰 of
the button). The pre-draw round starts with under-the-gun (with big-blind acting
last).
The betting rounds in 2-7 Triple Draw follow 🫰 an identical structure to other
Triple Draw formats such as Badugi.
The Showdown Once the post-draw betting action is
over, players 🫰 reach Showdown. Players reveal the strength of their five-card hand and
the pot is awarded to the strongest (lowest in 🫰 this context) hand.
2-7 Triple Draw
Betting Actions
The betting options are identical in the majority of poker
formats.
Here is a quick 🫰 recap of the legal options -
BETTING OPTION USAGE Check Action
passes to our left without us making a wager. Can 🫰 only be used if there is no existing
bet in the current betting round. Bet We make the first wager 🫰 in the current betting
round. Other players must at least match our betor be forced to fold. Fold There is 🫰 an
existing wager in the current betting round, and we decide not to match it. Folding
means to give up 🫰 and forfeit all right to win the pot. Call There is an existing wager
in the current betting round. To 🫰 “call” means to match that bet exactly and continue
with the hand. Raise There is an existing wager in the 🫰 current betting round, and we
decide to increase the size of that wager. The original better must at least match 🫰 the
size of our raise or be forced to fold. Re-raise A player has already raised on the
current street, 🫰 and we elect to raise again. Any raises after the initial raise are
described as “re-raises”.
Additional Considerations
It’s essential to keep 🫰 in mind that
drawing additional cards carries the possibility of making our hand significantly
worse. A decent low hand could 🫰 end up picking up a pair or being turned into a
straight/flush.
Although drawing may still make our hand worse in 🫰 a variant such as 2-7
Triple Draw, it will usually only make the hand slightly worse (i.e. discarding a
kicker 🫰 and drawing an inferior one).
Drawing can sometimes entirely destroy our hand in
2-7 Triple Draw. If there is already a 🫰 decent chance that we are head (usually based on
the number of cards our opponent is drawing), it may not 🫰 be correct to draw to a better
low and risk damaging our hand.
On the other hand, if our made low 🫰 is unlikely to be
good (based on our opponents’ actions), we can “break” our hand and redraw for
something better.
2-7 🫰 Triple Draw is primarily played with a fixed limit betting
structure. The allowable bets on each street are identical to 🫰 fixed limit Hold’em. Both
games have four betting around and allow plays to double the size of their bet on 🫰 the
last two betting rounds.
However, in recent times, no limit 2-7 Triple Draw has become
popular among higher stakes players 🫰 online.
Read here our story about 2-7 triple draw.
