Doing Well At 2-7 Triple Draw
Unlike Texas Holdem, Omaha or Stud, deuce to seven triple draw is a face-down poker game where you need to make the worst possible poker hand to win! Each player is dealt 5 cards unseen by opponents and have three opportunities to swap any number of cards before showing down their hand. 2-7 Triple draw can be played with fixed limit, pot limit or no-limit betting structures.
Before each hand a big blind and small blind are posted in the same way as Holdem. The player to the left of the big blind then starts the betting by calling, raising or folding. Once the betting is complete each player still in the hand swaps their desired number of cards before the next betting round starts. This happens a total of 3 times, after the 3rd draw there is a final betting round before the hands are shown down.
In 2-7 Triple Draw Poker the best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 with more than one suit. There are two important factors to consider. Firstly Aces are counted as high cards. Secondly straights and flushes are also considered high hands, if your low is all of one suit then this hand will lose! Beware also of pairs, any combination of different unpaired cards will beat a pair in this game so ideally you are looking for unsuited, unpaired cards that are not connected to make a straight.
Picking the correct starting hands will allow you to go a long way in deuce to seven triple draw. Starting hands should usually contain at least 3 low cards, either to a seven or maximum 8. Hands which contain a 2 or 3 along with a total of 3 or more cards under 8 are particularly desirable.
If you make a good low hand after the first or second draw then you can 'Stand-Pat', this means you do not draw any new cards on the next round. Standing pat tells your opponents that you have made a low hand and should be followed by bets on each round that they continue to draw. When an opponent stands pat you can still continue to draw cards but make sure that you are only drawing for one card to be hitting close to the nuts.
After three draws, you should be betting if you do not need to drawing more than one card ahead of your opponents when your hands are shown down. It now comes to your reading skills to see whether your hand will win the pot or not. Calling the last bet depends on the size of the pot and your estimate of your opponent’s hands. Think about their previous showdowns and what types of hands they are capable of carrying to the end.
Deuce to seven triple draw is a different type of game but is lots of fun and worth exploring to increase your poker playing portfolio.
