2-7 Triple Draw

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and hand ranking
3. Betting in short
4. Setup
5. A deal, step by step
6. All-in and side pots
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

2-7 Triple Draw is a draw poker game played for low: the lowest hand wins the pot. Everyone gets five secret cards, and over the course of a deal you may swap cards three times to improve your hand, with a betting round before the first swap and after each one – four in total. Players put chips into a shared pot – or give up. In the deuce-to-seven ranking, Aces are always high and straights and flushes count against you, so the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 of mixed suits.

• Players: 2–6, each for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips (or counters, matches, buttons) – the same amount for everyone at the start, e.g. 200 each. You play for chips, not money.

Card order and hand ranking

Cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 – the Ace is always high, never low, so A-5-4-3-2 is not a straight but simply an Ace-high hand.

Hands are the normal poker hands, but the ranking is turned upside down: the weaker the hand in ordinary poker, the better it is here. From best to worst:

How to compare: any hand of a better kind beats any hand of a worse kind – so any hand with no pair (and no straight or flush) beats any pair. Between two hands without a pair, look at the highest card first: the lower one wins. If those are equal, compare the next-highest card, and so on. So 8-5-4-3-2 beats 8-6-4-3-2 (5 is lower than 6), 7-6-5-4-2 beats 8-5-4-3-2 (7 is lower than 8), and A-5-4-3-2 loses to any King-high hand, because the Ace counts high. Between two pairs, the lower pair wins. If all five cards are equal in rank, the hands tie and share the pot – suits never break ties.

Betting in short

All chips bet go into the pot in the middle. When it is your turn in a betting round, you can:

• Check – bet nothing, if nobody has bet yet in this round.
• Bet – put in chips.
• Call – put in just enough to match the highest bet so far.
• Raise – match the highest bet and add more.
• Fold – give up: put your cards away face down. You lose what you have already put in and take no further part in this deal.

A betting round ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount (or is all-in) and has had a chance to act.

2-7 Triple Draw is played with fixed limits: every bet and raise is exactly a small bet in the first two betting rounds and a big bet (double) in the last two. Usually at most one bet and three raises are allowed per round. Instead of antes, two forced bets start the pot: the small blind and the big blind (as big as the small bet). A good start: small blind 1, big blind 2, small bet 2, big bet 4.

Setup

1. Everyone gets the same number of chips. Pick a first dealer (e.g. highest card cut). The dealer's position is marked with a button (any small object); it moves one place to the left after each deal.
2. The player to the dealer's left puts in the small blind, the next player to the left the big blind. With only two players, the dealer puts in the small blind and the other player the big blind.
3. The dealer shuffles and deals five cards face down to each player, one at a time clockwise, starting on the left. Look at your cards, but show them to no one. The rest of the deck stays face down as the draw pile.

A deal, step by step

1. First betting round: the player left of the big blind starts; play goes clockwise. The blinds count as bets, so to stay in you must at least call the big blind. The big blind acts last and may still raise. Small bets.

2. First draw: starting with the first player still in to the dealer's left, each player says how many cards they want to swap – 0 to 5 – lays them aside face down, and the dealer deals the same number of new cards from the draw pile. Keeping all five is called standing pat.

3. Second betting round: from now on, the first player still in to the dealer's left starts, and players may check. Small bets.

4. Second draw, then the third betting round – now with big bets.

5. Third draw, then the fourth and last betting round, with big bets.

6. Showdown: if two or more players are still in, they turn their cards face up – the player who made the last bet or raise shows first; if everyone checked, the first player still in to the dealer's left shows first. The lowest hand wins the pot; equal hands share it.

If at any time all but one player fold, the remaining player wins the pot at once without showing any cards.

If the draw pile runs out, the dealer shuffles the cards discarded so far into a new draw pile and carries on.

Example: Anna is dealt K♣ 8♥ 7♦ 3♠ 2♣, Ben 9♠ 6♦ 6♣ 4♥ 2♦. Anna throws away the K and draws one card, the 5♦: 8-7-5-3-2. Ben throws away one 6 and gets the J♠, then swaps the J on the second draw and gets the 7♠: 9-7-6-4-2. On the third draw Anna stands pat, Ben swaps the 9 and gets the 5♣: 7-6-5-4-2. At the showdown Ben's 7 is lower than Anna's 8 – Ben wins. Had Ben drawn a 3 instead, he would have 7-6-4-3-2, still better than Anna's; had he drawn an 8, he would have 8-7-6-4-2 – equal 8 and 7, then Anna's 5 beats his 6.

All-in and side pots

If you want to call but don't have enough chips, you go all-in: you put in all your remaining chips and stay in until the showdown without betting further. You can only win as much from each opponent as you put in yourself. Whatever the others bet beyond your amount goes into a separate side pot, which only they can win. Anyone who has no chips left is out of the game.

Winning the game

Play until only one player has chips left, or stop at an agreed time – then the player with the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• The magic card is the 7. Start with three or more different cards of 7 or lower – especially the 2, which is in every good hand.
• Watch out for straights: 6-5-4-3-2 and 7-6-5-4-3 look great but are straights and lose to almost everything. The same goes for five cards of one suit.
• Aces are high: an Ace is the worst card of all, even worse than a King.
• Watch how many cards the others draw. Someone who stands pat early probably has a good hand already; someone still drawing two on the last draw rarely does.
• Don't call just because you have already put chips in. Chips in the pot are no longer yours.

Variants

All optional – agree beforehand.

• 2-7 Single Draw (Kansas City Lowball): only one draw and two betting rounds, usually played no-limit (you may bet all your chips at any time).
• A-5 Triple Draw: played the same way with the ace-to-five ranking: Aces are low, straights and flushes don't count, and the best hand is 5-4-3-2-A.
• Antes: in home games, everyone may put a small ante into the pot in addition to the blinds.