As in Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, you are trying to make a low hand, but in Ace to Five straights and flushes do not count against you and Aces play for low. This means that the best possible hand you can have is A2345 with flushes being irrelevant to the rank of the hand. In Ace to Five, A2345 is called a wheel. A2346 is the next best hand and is called Number 2 or a 6-4. The next best hand is A2356 and so on. 23456 is the worst possible 6-low and the fact that it is a straight does not count against you.
Other than the hand rankings, the game play is identical to deuce to seven.
Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is a 5 card draw low game. Each player is dealt 5 cards and the goal is to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. There are three draws with a round of betting between each, for a total of four betting rounds. After each round of betting players choose cards to discard, anywhere from 0 to 5, and the dealer deals them replacement cards. After the third and final draw there is one last round of betting. A dealer button determines the order of betting and discarding.
In Deuce to Seven Triple Draw players try to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. Aces only play for high and deuces are low. Because you are trying to make the lowest possible hand, straights and flushes count against you. This means that 23456, for example, is a very bad hand. It is not considered a 6-low. It is a straight and is therefore worse than holding AKQJ9.
The best possible hand you can make is 23457 with no flush. This hand is called a wheel. The next best hand is 23467, again with no flush. This hand is often referred to as Number 2. Likewise, 23567 is referred to as Number 3 and so on.
Because Aces play for high 2345A is not a straight. It is the best possible Ace-low you can make-also called the Nut Ace. AKQJ9 is the worst possible unpaired hand you can make, since your goal is to make a low hand. 22345 would be the next best hand after that. The hand rankings are the inverse of the hand rankings in a regular high game.
Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is dealt with a maximum of 6 players. The game uses a dealer button just as in Texas Hold’em. The player directly to the left of the dealer button posts a live small blind and the player two to the left of the dealer button posts a live big blind. Each player is dealt 5 cards and there is a round of betting. The first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind, just as in Texas Hold’em. Each player in turn has the option to call, raise or fold.
After the first round of betting is complete, each player who has not folded has a chance to draw. Players are prompted in order to discard any cards they wish to replace in their hand. The first player to act is always the player closest to the left of the button. Players can discard from zero to 5 cards. If a player chooses to discard zero cards he is opting to stand pat. After a player acts on his hand and decides how many cards to discard the next player is prompted in turn to discard and so on until all remaining players in the pot have acted on the draw.
After each player has decided on their discards, the dealer begins replacing their cards in turn. For example, if the first player discards 3 cards, the second player discards 2 cards, and the third player discards 1 card the dealer would deal the first player 3 cards, then take that player’s discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the next player 2 cards then take that player’s discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the last player 1 card, then take that player’s discards into the muck.
After the draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have an opportunity to draw again. After the second draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have one more opportunity to discard. After this third and final draw, there is one more betting round.
Deuce to Seven uses the same betting structure as texas Hold’em. During the first two round of betting the limit is the small bet. So, if the game was a $10/$20 game during the first two round of betting a player could call or raise in $10 increments. The second two rounds of betting the limit is the big bet. In our example, a player can call or raise in $20 increments.
Crazy Pineapple is played out much the same way as Texas Hold’em, with the distinction that each player initially dealt three cards. Betting goes as normal before the flop and on the flop. However, following the round of betting on the flop, each player discards one of their hole cards starting from the left of the dealer going clockwise. Each player is left with two cards, and the game continues as a Hold’em game would.
In the event of an untimely disconnect before the discard and you have an All-In remaining, the computer will automatically discard your worst card at the time of the flop (not taking into consideration possible drawing hands).
Three card poker starts with the dealer and the player are each dealt three cards. The player is shooting for 2 bets: “Pair Plus”, which is the poker player betting that he/she will have a pair or better, and “Ante”, which is the player competing versus the dealer’s hand.
Players can bet either pair plus or bet the ante, or both if he/she so chooses. After the player has made his wagers, the player and the dealer both take three cards. Let’s say the three card poker player bets on “pair plus”….he is rewarded if his hand contains a pair or better. If the three card poker player bets on the “ante”, he/she can fold if he/she thinks he can’t beat the dealer’s hand, or raise and challenge the poker dealer’s hand. If the three card poker player folds, he loses both the pair plus and the ante bet which ends the game.
Let’s say the three card poker player likes his hand and “raises”….he can now wager more cash equaling the ante bet. The three card poker dealer then flips over his cards to determine who gets the cash. To determine the game’s winner after the player has raised, the dealer’s hand must first “qualify”. In three card poker the dealer’s hand qualifies if the dealer has hi card queen or a pair or better. If for some reason the dealer doesn’t qualify, the player wins even money on his ante bet and ties on the raised bet. If the dealer and the player have the same ranking hand, the higher value wins. An example of this would be a pair of 7’s would beat a pair of 2’s. If the three card poker dealer’s hand is an exact tie of the player’s ante and raise, the bet is called a push and the three card poker player is refunded his loot.
If the three card poker player places an ante bet, raises the bet, and his hand shows as a straight, three of a kind, or straight flush, the player is awarded a bonus for a strong hand. The player can receive this bonus without the dealer having to qualify as well.
As with Hold’em and Omaha, 5 card draw uses what is called a dealer-button to indicate the theoretical dealer of each hand. After each hand is completed, as with standard poker rules, the button moves clockwise to the next active player. This player will be considered “the dealer” for that hand.
The player next to the button / dealer is required to place the small blind. The small blind is equal to half the lower stake. This is a guideline for determining the blinds and not a strict rule.
The player to the left of the small blind is required to post the big blind, equal to the lower stake limit. All the blinds are considered live bets and the players who posted them will have the option of checking, calling, raising or folding when the betting returns to their position.
Each player is initially dealt five cards, and there is a round of betting at the lower limit of the stakes structure. When the betting is complete, each player in turn may discard and draw 0-5 cards. There is then one round of betting at the higher limit, and the hands are shown down.
Since 2006, when the World Series of Poker introduced it into their line-up of events, HORSE has gained popularity in the poker community. HORSE involves playing four variation games – Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo (Eights or better), Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo (Eights or better). The eights or better refers to the low hand in that particular game must consist of an eight or lower to make a low hand.
For detailed instructions on how to play each game, visit the following pages:
The game can be played at any limits (limit, pot-limit or no-limit), but the most popular and most found online is limit.
Limit simply means the game has a fixed limit to the amount players can bet, and a prescribed number of raises. When it is your turn, you may only bet or raise by an amount equal to the minimum for that round. The standard bet in the first two betting rounds of a limit poker game is equal to the game’s lowest limit. The standard bet in the final three rounds of a limit poker game is equal to the game’s highest limit. Usually, there can be no more than one bet and three raises per round of betting. Once the third raise has been reached, betting is said to be ‘capped’.
Normally in HORSE, the game type rotates when the blinds progress, unless stated otherwise. For example, if the blinds are every twenty minutes, the game type changes every twenty minutes.
The game begins with the dealer dealing one card face-up to determine where the dealer button will be. The first player to the left of the dealer button is the small blind and the second player to the left of the dealer button is the big blind. The players post their blinds and the dealer deals, beginning with the small blind.
There are no blinds while playing Razz and Seven Card Stud (both Hi and Hi/Lo). For Razz, all players post an ante (An ante is a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins) and the player with the highest card brings in based on what the blinds are for that level. For Stud, all players post an ante and the player with the lowest card brings in. See links above on how to play each individual game.
One strategy for playing Horse is to take the utmost advantage you can gain from games you are good at, while avoiding taking crippling blows in games you are weaker in. Obviously, the absolute best strategy for HORSE is to be good at all the games. A good player becomes familiar with all games in HORSE. A player cannot master HORSE without knowing all the games involved. This requires a lot of practice and a good amount time, effort, and energy. To be successful at HORSE, players will have to play any and all of these games with a large degree of skill. Players who are weak in any of these games will fall by the side of the road and be quickly overshot by more skilled players.
When first learning HORSE, play low limits or play in a tournament with a small buy-in. Several online poker sites offer HORSE freerolls on a daily bases. If you are weak in any of the games, you can also focus some time learning that game by playing it, reading books, reading articles, or visiting poker forums such as the one here on Holdem Poker Chat for strategy threads.
There are several types of poker games – even one for the worse hand! Yes, there is a game for the lowest hand in poker, and it is called Razz Poker.
Razz is a Seven Card Stud poker game where instead of the highest hand winning, the lowest hand wins the pot. The object of the game is to make the best lowest five-card hand out of the seven cards dealt to you. Unlike split-pot hi/lo games like Omaha and Stud, Razz doesn’t have an “eight or better” component to its play. In an hi/lo eight-or-better game, the winning low hand cannot have a card higher than 8 in it to count as a low hand, but since Razz is a game with only a low hand winning, any hand can win, including hands with low pairs or face cards, but highly unlikely.
There are no blinds while playing Razz. Instead, all players post an ante (an ante is a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins) and the player with the highest card is forced to bring in.
Each player is deal three cards, two face-down and one face-up. The highest face-up card on third street has to make the forced bring in bet. This starts the action and the play continues clockwise. On all subsequent rounds, the lowest hand showing acts first. If there is a tie for low hand showing, the first active player clockwise from the dealer begins in the forced bet. Players acting after a bring-in have the right to call the bring-in as it is, even or they may raise the amount needed to bring the current bet up to the normal minimum, called completing the bet.
The lowest hand wins the pot at showdown. Aces count as low. All flushes and straights are ignored and do not apply to Razz. The best possible hand in Razz is A,2,3,4,5 (also known as a wheel). In order to figure out the best low hand is to start with the top card and work down (An eight low beats a nine low for example). If the top card is the same rank, then you move to the second card. An example would be 8,6,5,4,3 would beat 8,7,5,4,3 (the player with the 8,6 low would beat the 8,7 low) . One player has an eight-six low and the losing player has eight-seven.
Razz requires more skill than luck and takes a good amount of patience. Razz players not only have to understand the odds and probabilities of their own hands, but also have to pay more attention to their opponent’s hands and the cards on the board around the entire table. A player needs to pay attention to what cards have been folded as well as current cards on the table.
As far as starting hands in Razz, it will depend on your experience of the game. As a beginner, a player should not play a hand unless their first three cards are low cards with one being no higher than 8. If a player holds three cards that are three cards to a wheel then the player should raise or re-raise. Before you make a decision on your own starting hand, always look around the board and see what everyone else is showing. This is extremely important to be a successful Razz player.
Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit. Straight Flush:
Straight with all five cards in the same suit.
Four of a Kind:
Four cards of the same number or face value (“quads”). Full House:
Three cards of one number or face value and two cards of another number or face value. If more than one player has a full house, the full house with the highest ranking three of a kind (“trips”) wins. Flush:
Five cards of the same suit. If there is more than one flush, the hand with the highest card(s) wins.
Straight:
Five cards in sequence. Cards can be in any suit. An Ace can be used in the highest straight (10, J, Q, K, A) and the lowest straight (A, 2, 3, 4, 5). Three of a Kind:
Three cards of the same number or face value (“trips”). Two Pair:
If two players have two pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. If they have the same high pair, whoever has the second highest pair wins. If they have the same two pair, whoever has the highest fifth card (“kicker”) wins.
One Pair:
Two cards of the same number or face value. If two players have the same pair, the highest outside card(s) wins. High Card:
7 Card Stud Hi/Lo is played exactly as 7 Card Stud with the exception that the pot is split between the best Hi hand and the best qualifying Low hand, if one exists.
To qualify for Low: It takes a five-card hand with different numerical values from Ace through eight (with the Ace being the lowest) to qualify for the “Low” half of the pot. The best “Low” hand is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 (also known as the “wheel” or “bicycle”). The winning “Low” hand goes to the player with the lowest high card. For example, a player with a 2,4,5,6,7 would have a better “Low” hand than someone with an A,2,4,6,8. If two or more players have the same high card, the player with the second lowest card (or third, fourth, or fifth if necessary) in their hand wins the low side of the pot.
Some things to Remember
1) Straights and Flushes do NOT count against you when qualifying for “Low”. This is not always the case in other poker variants involving the low hand.
2) You are permitted to use different cards in your hand for the “High” side and different cards for the “Low” side or the same cards for both the “High” and “Low” sides. In a split pot, any leftover odd chip goes to the “High” side of the pot.
7 Card Stud is a popular, well-known form of poker. It is played with up to eight players at the table.
A fresh table starts off with all the players posting the “ante” (putting a predetermined amount in the pot before the cards are dealt). This amount is based on the size of the game. While the ante amount is not based on a set rule, the same is decided upon by the prevailing game trends.
In Seven-card stud poker, players receive seven cards, three “down” cards and four “up” cards.
After the antes have been placed each player is dealt three cards (two “down” cards and one “up” card). The “up” card is also known as the “door card” or “Third Street”. The lowest “up” card must initiate the action with a “Bring-In” bet. (If two or more players have the same lowest card, the person who brings it in is determined by suit order progressing from clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades.)
Each player is allowed one bet and three raises in each betting round. To continue to play, players must take an action from what is displayed to them on each “street” or betting round (unless they are all-in).
After the first round of betting another card is dealt face-up to each player that still remains in the pot (those who didn’t fold on “third street”). This is “Fourth Street” (the second round of betting). From “Fourth Street” on, the highest hand showing begins the action by checking or betting. If a pair is showing on “Fourth Street”, players have the option to make a single or double bet. If a player makes a single/double bet, the other players may call, raise the single bet, raise the double bet or fold. In case of a double bet, only an equal amount can be raised (to the extent of the double bet).
Upon completion of the betting on “fourth street”, another card is dealt face-up to those who remain in the pot. This is called “Fifth Street” (the third round of betting – which doubles (the value of each bet is double of what was available in the first two rounds) – and continues at this amount for the remaining betting rounds). The highest hand showing again starts the action by checking or betting.
Upon the completion of betting on “fifth street”, another card is dealt face-up. This is “Sixth Street” (fourth betting round). Following that, the final card is dealt face down. The last card is also known as the “River Card” or “Seventh Street” (final round of betting).
A maximum of four bets, which includes one bet, and three raises are allowed for each betting round per player. To continue to play, players must take an action from what is displayed to them on each “street” or betting round (unless they are all-in). The term cap is used to describe the final raise in a round since betting is then capped and no one can make another raise. Once capped, players will have the option of calling or folding only. Folding can be done at any stage of the game. The action of folding basically shows the player cards being moved to the dealer. The player from then on would not be considered as part of the game. He/she would not have any rights over any pots created on the table.
Poker is typically played “table stakes”, meaning only the chips in play at the beginning of each hand may be used throughout the hand. This means that the player cannot get additional funds from the cashier while he is in the midst of a game. The table stakes rule has an application called the “All-In” rule, which states that a player cannot be forced to forfeit a hand because the player does not have enough chips to call a bet.
A player who does not have enough chips to call a bet is declared All-In. The player is eligible for the portion of the pot to the point of his final wager. All further action involving other players takes place in a “side pot”, which is unavailable to the player who has already gone All-In. When a player goes All-in, the pot currently at the center of the table, which has contributions from him/her as well, is treated as the main pot, over which the All-in player has rights. After the player goes all-in, all the new bets are placed in a side pot, over which only the contributing players have rights. The All-in player does not have any rights over the side pot. The side pot is then given to the next winning combination.
Upon completion of the final round of betting, the best hand wins the pot. (The pot may also be won by someone who bets without being called at any time during the hand.). Your “hand” is determined by using the best five of seven cards. A combination of the following may be used:
· Five cards from the seven dealt to you
· One board (community) card and four of the cards dealt to you.
On the final round of betting, the player who bets first (or checks first if no one else bets) is required to show their cards first at the showdown. If they have the best hand, the remaining players may/may not show their cards as they wish. The aggressors’ hand is only turned over first if he was the last to initiate action on the river.
If two or more hands are the same ranking, the winner is the one having the higher cards. For example, a Flush with an Ace high beats a Flush with a King high. If the poker hands remain tied, then the highest card not being held in common (the kicker) determines the winner.
The suit order of the cards is not taken into account while deciding on the winning cards. Should poker hands be absolutely identical in ranking, the rule of poker pot distribution will be split evenly between the two or more winning players. If there is an odd chip, the winning player to the left of the button/dealer will receive it. This applies to both play money and poker for real money.
Royal Flush:
Straight Flush:
Full House:
Flush:
Three of a Kind:
Two Pair:
High Card: