2-7 Single Draw Poker is a draw poker variant, also known as 2-7 (Deuce to Seven) Single Draw Lowball or Kansas City Lowball. It reverses the usual idea of a good hand: here the lowest hand takes the pot rather than the highest.
That flush you'd normally want framed above the fireplace? In this game it counts against you.
Like Hold'em and Omaha, the game uses blinds and a button, and it is sometimes played with antes as well. The "Single" in the name refers to the draw: each player gets one opportunity to discard and replace cards, or to keep the five they already hold.
Bets, Payouts & Rules
Hand rankings in 2-7 work differently from other low games, so it is worth reading them before joining a table.
- Straights and flushes count against your low hand.
- Aces are always high in this format.
- Pairs, trips, straights and flushes are all treated as high hands and do not qualify as low.
- The best possible hand is 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 of mixed suits: low, ace-free, no straight and no flush.
When neither hand contains a pair, the highest ranking card decides the outcome, and the player holding that card loses. So 9-6-5-3-2 beats 10-9-6-3-2, and J-9-7-3-2 beats A-9-7-3-2.
Order of play
- Five cards are dealt face down to each player.
- Betting round one begins with the player to the left of the big blind, with the option to call, raise or fold.
- Discard/Draw begins with the player to the left of the button.
- Betting round two begins with the player to the left of the button, with the option to bet, check where no bet has been made, or fold.
- Showdown, if more than one player remains.
Blinds are forced bets: the player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind and the next player along posts the big blind. Some games add an ante posted by each player alongside the blinds.
Showdown and split pots
The best five-card 2-7 hand wins the pot, and a fresh hand is then ready to deal. If two or more hands are identical in value, the pot is split equally between them. Suits carry no rank for the purposes of awarding a pot.
Features & Bonus Rounds
The Draw
After the first betting round, players still in the hand may look to improve it by discarding cards and receiving replacements. You select the cards you want to release and confirm the discard, and all five may go if you choose.
Stand Pat
If you are happy with the five cards already in front of you, you can Stand Pat and draw nothing at all: the card-table equivalent of folding your arms and saying absolutely nothing.
Reshuffling the Deck
Draw games can occasionally call for more cards than remain in the deck. When that happens, the cards are reshuffled and play continues with the new deck.
Reading the hand rankings
The main source of confusion in Lowball is habit. Hands that look powerful elsewhere, such as pairs, trips and neat runs of cards, are high hands here and do not qualify as low. Getting familiar with that reversal is the biggest difference between 2-7 and the games most players meet first.
Taste & Feel
This is poker with the furniture rearranged. Five cards, one draw, two betting rounds and a showdown, with the lowest qualifying hand at the table taking the pot.
The rhythm is unhurried and the decisions are few, which makes the reversal at the heart of the game easy enough to follow once the first hand is behind you.
If the format appeals, the wider draw family sits nearby: Triple Draw 2-7 Lowball, Five Card Draw and Badugi all share the same discard-and-replace structure, and offer a different pace from Texas Hold'em.