Basic Draw Poker – Lesson #3: Draw lowball
Draw lowball or simply lowball is more popular than the standard draw poker. The difference between the two games is that in lowball the winner is the player with the lowest combination. In lowball aces play low. Two aces is the lowest pair. In most games straights and flushes are not considered combinations, and the lowest combination of cards is A, 2, 3, 4, 5 regardless of suit. If you consider straight a combination, the lowest combination is A, 2, 3, 4, 6.
Basic Draw Poker – Lesson #2: Jacks to open
Jacks to open is a variant of draw poker where the game can be open (the betting) only by a player who has a pair of jacks or higher combination. If nobody opens the game, all the ante bets stay on the table and players add to it their new ante bets (re-ante), cards are shuffled and dealt again. If any of the players has a pair of jacks or better, he opens the game and the game goes on following the usual rules.
Note: anyone who opens the game must prove later that he had a pair of jacks or higher combination. In order to do that, when the game is finished, the player shows his cards to other players and to the dealer. If the player who opens the betting wants to break his pair (for example, if he has J, J, 10, 9, 8 and he wants to replace one of the Jacks), he has to put the discarded cards in the middle of the table next to the pot and inform the dealer that these cards are not to be moved to the muck. Doing so, the player shows his initial combination to his opponents, so such a breaking is usually not done. If a player accidentally has opened the game, not having the desired combination, noticing his mistake, he should say about it and then the player to his left is to act (if he has the required combination) and the game continues. In this case, all players (except the mistaken one) are returned all their bets. If no one of the players opened the game, the pot (all ante bets and the bets of the player who made the mistake) stays for the next game.
Basic Draw Poker – Lesson #1: Five card draw poker
This is the first of a series of articles about Draw Poker. We hope you enjoy the reading and find all this info helpful to put your game in shape 😉
The game is known also as California or Californian Poker. Before the beginning of the game and before the cards are dealt, all players place their ante bets i.e. they put the chips in front of them. The dealer, making sure that all bets are correct, moves them to the center of the table. This order of placing the bets (through the dealer) should be observed in the course of the game. All bets placed in the center of the table are called pot. All the players try to win the pot. After placing the ante, the dealer deals each player five cards face down. Thus, each player sees only his /her own cards and has no idea what cards other players hold.
Then the first betting round begins. The player who’s been dealt the cards first should act first.
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