Friday, April 1, 2011

2-7 lowball advice

Quick what is the worst hand in poker?  In other words what five card hand cannot beat any hand?  I am always surprised at how many players don't know and/or can't even think, given time, of the correct answer.  The answer is the nuts in 2-7 lowball which is 2-3-4-5-7.  Remember playing high-low with your dads old buddies?  They played A-2-3-4-6 as the nut low and we had to declare which direction we were going in by taking two coins or chips under the table, putting one, two or none in your palm then coming up simultaneously and all opening clenched fists to see which direction every one was intending?  Ah, the good old days.  This really added a tough dimension to high-low decisions.  We also played you had to declare your hand!   None of this pussy-ass 'cards-talk' bullshit.  And now A-2-3-4-5 is the nut low in every casino high-low game except 2-7 lowball.  Another great dimension to 2-7 is that straights and flushes count against you.   Also remember that aces are high only!   So here's my advice.  Only play single draw.  Avoid triple draw where luck is more of a factor.  Don't play anything but a monster hand in early position.  If you are in the cut-off seat and are dealt a playable hand, raise, to try and drive out the button because then you are the button by default and  position is uber-critical in this poker discipline.  THE ONLY TIME YOU SHOULD RAISE PRE-DRAW IS WITH A PAT HAND OR A HAND YOU PLAN TO REPRESENT AS PAT!!!  Raising and then drawing is just plain old dumb in this game.

No comments:

Post a Comment