Triple
Draw Lowball
Triple Draw lowball is a very unique game. It
is a lowball game, which means the lowest hand wins. It
is played like draw poker, but instead of one draw there
are three draws. There is no high hand winner in
Triple Draw. The
low hands are ranked using the Deuce-to-Seven, or Ace-to-Five
rules, as explained
in the low hand section. We
will cover the following topics on this page.
 What
is a Low Hand?
Basic
Game Play
Running
Out of Cards
Betting
Structures
All-In
Situations
Dealer
Rotation and Position
Blinds
WHAT IS A LOW
HAND?
Rather than take up a lot of page space here, we created
a separate page to help you learn exactly what a low hand
is, how to calculate what you have, and some variations
of low hands. CLICK HERE to
learn the details of low hands.
Triple Draw is most commonly played by the Deuce-to-Seven
low hand rules, but can also be played using Ace-to-Five
rules. Make sure you know which rules to follow when
joining a game!
BASIC GAME PLAY
This will tell you the very basics of game
play. Following these basics, we will briefly discuss
some other elementary topics of value.
Triple Draw is played with 2 to 6 people
at a table, and with a standard deck of cards (no Joker
and no Wild cards unless playing a variation of the game).
 Play
begins by "posting blinds". Blinds are
forced bets made by the first two players to the dealers
left. The first player puts out the SMALL blind,
and the second player puts out the BIG blind. We
will discuss blinds further in the following sections,
including amounts, rotation, and how they are determined.
Cards
are dealt in order, starting with the first person to the
left of the big blind. Each player receives 5 cards,
face down, followed by the first betting
round.
Each
player then chooses to discard from 0 to 5 of their cards.
The dealer takes the first players discards, and
replaces them with the same amount of new cards. This
is the first draw, and is followed by the second betting
round.
Each
player then chooses to discard from 0 to 5 of their cards. The
dealer takes the first players discards, and replaces them
with the same amount of new cards. This is the second
draw, and is followed by the third betting
round.
Each
player then chooses to discard from 0 to 5 of their cards. The
dealer takes the first players discards, and replaces them
with the same amount of new cards. This is the third
and final draw, and is followed by the fourth betting
round.
After
the fourth betting round is complete, all remaining players
show their cards, starting with the person who bet last,
and a winner is declared.
We have now covered the basic construct of
the game! When playing Triple Draw Lowball, you will
most always use this basic structure. We will now
dig in to some other elementary topics necessary to fully
understand
the game.
RUNNING OUT OF CARDS
The most common question in Triple Draw is, what happens
when you run out of cards?
When this happens, the discards are reshuffled and
the draw is completed after the reshuffle. The cards that
are
included in the reshuffle are the mucked cards from all
previous rounds and the discarded cards of any
player who has gotten all of their replacement
cards on the current
drawing round.
A player who has received only a portion of their replacement
cards, does not contribute their cards to the reshuffle.
this ensures that a player may not get one of their own
discards during a single round.
BETTING STRUCTURES
There are three basic "ways" you
can play Triple Draw, which really only refer to
the betting structures. The three types of games
you will find are:
 Limit
No
Limit
Pot
Limit
LIMIT
Limit Triple Draw is the most common in general
table games. In this structure, you join a game with set
betting increments.
Limit games are shown typically as two amounts,
one low and one high. For example you may see 1$/2$,
5$/10$, and so forth. The reason for the two different
amounts is simple.
The smaller of the
two amounts represents the betting increment that a bet
or raise must be during the first and second betting rounds.
The larger of the
two amounts represents the betting increment that a bet
or raise must be during the third and fourth betting rounds.
By increment, what is meant that IF you choose
to bet or raise, it must be done in that amount. If
no bet has been made yet, you are certainly free not to
bet at all (this is called "checking"). There
are generally a maximum of three raises permitted in each
betting round.
For example, take a typical 1$/2$ home game. In
the first and second betting rounds, betting must be done
in 1$ increments. In the third and fourth betting
rounds, betting must be done in 2$ increments.
NO LIMIT
No Limit Triple Draw is common in tournament
play, but is also found in regular "money" games.
When joining a No Limit game, or playing
a round of a tournament, you will only need to know the
amount of the blinds. The big blind represents the
minimum betting increment in all rounds.
At any time in any betting round, a player
may bet any additional amount, up to all the money they
have in front of them.
A note on raises in No Limit. When a player
makes a raise greater than the amount of the blinds, that
raise amount becomes theminimum betting increment for that
round, unless someone makes an even greater raise in later
play. This is often misunderstood, so here is a quick
example.
In a No Limit game with 50 cent and 1$ blinds,
a player raises 3$, for a total bet of 4$ (1$ minimum +
3$ raise). the new betting increment is now 3$. this
means that I cannot make an additional raise of any amount
less than 3$ for the remainder of the round.
POT LIMIT
Pot Limit is very similar to No Limit, with
one fundamental difference. Instead of being able
to wager any amount, players are limited to the amount
that is currently in the pot. For example, if there
is 5$ in the pot, the maximum a player may bet is 5$.
ALL-IN SITUATIONS
It is important to describe what happens
when a player does not have enough money to cover a bet
that has been made.
First of all, a player is not obligated to
fold because they do not have sufficient funds. If
a bet has been made, and the player wishes to remain in
the hand, they simply put what they have into the pot.
What happens next is a division of the pot,
based on the amounts that have been bet. The pot
is divided into a main pot and a "side" pot.
The "main" amount includes the
amount of money already in the pot, the amount of money
that the "all-in" player has bet, and an equal
amount of money from all remaining players. Any money
that is left over is the "side" pot. Consider
this example.
In a No Limit game, player A and B each have
100$ in front of them. Player C only has 20$. During
a hand, all three have wagered 4$ so far, giving a pot
of 12$. Player A then bets 50$. Player B calls the
bet, and player C wants to remain in so he puts in his
last 16$. The main pot would be the original 12$, and 16$
from all players, for a total of 60$. This is what
player C is eligible to win if he/she wins the pot. The
remaining 35$ from player A and B go into the side pot. Player
C has no stake in the side pot, only A and B are eligible. Any
additional money wagered by players A and B will go directly
to the side pot.
The same principle applies in limit games.
DEALER ROTATION AND POSITION
The dealers position is important in Triple Draw, as it
determines who gets cards first, who posts the blinds,
and the betting
sequence. In order to be fair, the dealer position
needs to rotate around the table, making everyone responsible
for the same "blind" money, and giving equal
opportunity to have favorable table positions.
In home games, the deck of cards generally gets passed
around to each player in turn. This makes it easy
to determine who the dealer is, and provides an easy way
to keep things equitable.
In casinos and cardrooms, the dealer is a fixed non-player
for the duration of the game. The rotation happens
via the use of a "button" (usually a small plastic
chip). Each hand, the button advances to the next
player. The position of the button indicates where
the dealer "is", and thus play progresses from
that point.
BLINDS
As mentioned in the basics, two blind bets are made by
the first two people to the dealers left, before cards
are dealt. It is sometimes difficult to explain blinds,
but by reading the above sections on dealer rotation and
betting structures, you should have no problem at all understanding
it.
The amount of the blinds are determined by the stakes
being played.
The BIG blind is usually equal to the 1st round betting
increment. The SMALL blind is usually one-half of
the big blind.
For example, use our earlier 1$/2$ home game. Since
we know that the 1st round betting increment is 1$, we
can deduce that the BIG blind will be 1$, and the small
blind should be 50 cents. It's that simple!
Having read this section, you will be well armed to go
play some Triple Draw 2-7 or A-5 Lowball! though
we did not discuss strategy, these basics will enable you
to feel
comfortable
with the basic game play.
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