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Lowball Poker, sometimes referred to as just ‘Low Poker’, refers to a type of poker that rewards poor poker hands. Players playing Lowball Poker strive, not for the highest ranking of poker hand combinations, but the lowest rank.
There are three methods of ranking low poker hands. These are called the ace-to-five low, deuce-to-seven low, and ace-to-six low methods. It is the ace-to-five method which is most commonly plaid in Lowball Poker.
An ace-to-five low is the most popular method for evaluating what counts as a truly low hand in poker, and it is nearly universal in U.S casinos. You will also find this method common in evaluating low hands in amongst high-low split games.
Pairs count against the player in this low hand game. A player who happens to have no pairs in his hand will always defeat a player who has a pair in his hand. A one pair hand beats a two paid hand, and so on. No-pair hands are compared by looking at the highest ranking card in the hand. This is the same as in high poker, except that in high poker the hand with a higher ranking card would be a good thing. In Lowball Poker the higher hand loses. In ace-to-five low straights and flushes are ignored. Aces play as the lowest card. Therefore the best possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A. This hand is called a wheel and explains the name ‘ace-to-five low’.
Deuce-to-seven low is sometimes called Kansas City Lowball. Again, this is the opposite of standard poker in that the highest hand loses. In Deuce-to-seven, pairs and trips are bad. A hand with no pairs defeats a hand with a pair. One pair defeats two pairs and so on. No-pair hands are then compared using the highest ranking card, and the highest hand loses. As aces always count as high and straights and flushes are bad then the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2. The hand 7-6-5-4-3 would lose because it is a straight.
An ace-to-six low is similar to both ace-to-five and deuce-to-seven but is less commonly played in America. However it is much more common in the UK being the traditional way to rank the stud poker game of London-Lowball. Aces are played as the lowest ranking card, but straights and flushes count for high and are therefore bad hands. So the best possible hand in ace-to-six low is 6-4-3-2-A. This is because 5-4-3-2-A would count as a straight and therefore high, so the lowest possible hand must have 6 as the highest ranking card.
