2-7 Single Draw

It’s 2-7 triple draw, except you get one draw and can lose your whole stack

Same hand rankings as 2-7 triple draw: five cards, lowest hand wins, aces are high, straights and flushes count against you. The difference is how often you get to fix your hand. Triple draw gives you three draws and a bunch of small limit bets. Single draw gives you exactly one draw, and it’s played no-limit.

That changes the whole feel. You bet, you draw, you bet once more, and that’s the hand. There’s no “I’ll fix it next round”. Your final bet might be your whole stack.

30-second cheat sheet

• Five cards each, face down. Button, small blind, big blind. WSOP tournaments add an ante.
• Pre-draw betting round. Then one draw (0 to 5 cards, 0 is called standing pat). Then one final betting round, then showdown.
• No-limit is the standard form. Pot-limit and limit versions exist.
• Lowest five-card hand wins the whole pot. Aces are high. Straights, flushes and pairs are bad.
• Best hand: 7-5-4-3-2, not all one suit.
• After the draw you can check any hand. The limit-lowball “sevens rule” doesn’t apply here. Check-raise is allowed.
• WSOP tournaments allow up to seven players. The WSOP live-action rules cap deuce-to-seven lowball at six.

Full rules

The deal and first betting round

Everyone gets five cards face down. There’s a button, a small blind and a big blind. WSOP tournaments also use an ante. In cash games it’s blinds, sometimes with an ante, and some structures require the opener to come in for at least twice the big blind.

The first betting round starts to the left of the big blind. Players open by betting or raising, or fold.

The draw

Starting with the first active player to the left of the button, each player discards anywhere from zero to five cards face down and gets that many replacements. Keeping all five is called standing pat. After the draw, any card that gets exposed is replaced.

The second betting round and showdown

The post-draw round starts with the first active player to the left of the button. After the draw, you can check any hand with no penalty. A few old limit lowball games make you bet a good hand, the “sevens rule”, but that rule isn’t used in no-limit or pot-limit. Check-raise is allowed.

At showdown, the lowest five-card hand wins everything. You must use all five cards. Rankings are the same as 2-7 triple draw:

• Aces are high. A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight. It’s an ace-high hand that loses to any king-high hand.
• Straights and flushes count and are bad. 7-6-5-4-3 loses to K-Q-J-9-8.
• Pairs are bad. The best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 not all one suit, then 7-6-4-3-2, 7-6-5-3-2, 7-6-5-4-2, 8-5-4-3-2.
• Compare from the highest card down. Identical hands split.

Cards speak, but if you miscall your hand and cause an opponent to muck, your hand can be dead.

Rooms disagree

Robert’s Rules of Poker and the WSOP don’t agree on everything. This page follows the WSOP (tournament rules and live-action rules) with Robert’s flagged where it differs:

• Exposed cards on the deal: the WSOP replaces every exposed card. Robert’s says you must keep an exposed 2, 3, 4, 5 or 7 and only replace anything else, including a 6. The logic is that you aren’t entitled to learn that an opponent doesn’t have the nuts. After the draw, Robert’s replaces any exposed card.
• Ante: WSOP tournaments use blinds plus an ante. Robert’s says lowball is normally blinds, with an ante sometimes added.
• Structure: WSOP and PokerNews treat it as a no-limit game. Robert’s and Wikipedia mention limit forms, and in limit lowball the bet usually doubles after the draw.
• Player cap: seven in WSOP tournaments, six in WSOP live-action rules.

Worked examples

The pat seven

A pat seven-low beats a one-card draw that got there

Kim

• 7-6-4-3-2 low✓ wins

Louthrew

• 9-8-5-4-2 low

Kim scoops the whole pot.

Kim stood pat with 7-6-4-3-2 and bet. Lou drew one card, ended up with nine-high (9-8-5-4-2, no pair, no straight) and still lost. Seven-high beats nine-high.

The draw that went too well

The one-card draw that wrecked itself

Natethrew

• Seven-high straight (bad for 2-7)

Olga

• K-Q-J-9-8 low✓ wins

Olga scoops the whole pot.

Nate had 7-6-5-4 and drew to the three, the perfect card, and made 7-6-5-4-3. That’s a straight, a very bad hand. Olga’s K-Q-J-9-8 has no pair, no straight and no flush, so it wins. A one-card draw that misses is usually a bluff-or-fold spot, and one that hits sometimes turns into this.

Any pair-free hand beats a pair

Any hand without a pair beats a pair, even an ace-high one

Quinn

• Pair of Deuces (bad for 2-7)

Ria

• A-K-Q-J-9 low✓ wins

Ria scoops the whole pot.

Quinn has a pair of deuces with a nice-looking 3-4-5 kicker. Ria has ace-high garbage and wins anyway, because “no pair” beats “pair”, and even an ace-high hand has no pair.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Thinking A-2-3-4-5 is the nuts. That’s ace-to-five. In 2-7 it’s ace-high.
• Drawing two or more cards as a habit. PokerNews strategy advice is not to play two-card draws in no-limit single draw.
• Treating a one-card draw like it has three more chances. There’s one draw. If you miss, that’s it.
• Breaking a nice pat hand. PokerNews warns against breaking hands like 10-9-8-7-2 to try to improve slightly.
• Expecting the “seven or better must bet” rule from limit California lowball. It’s not used here.
• Not knowing exposed-card rules. If the dealer flashes your card, ask which rulebook this room uses before you decide what you’re allowed to keep.

Lore and reputation

2-7 lowball debuted at the 1973 WSOP, and the first champion was Aubrey Day (WSOP.com). PokerNews says there has been at least one event at every WSOP since 1973 except the 1999 one, which wasn’t held. The championship has been $10,000 since 2009, with a $1,500 event since 2010.

It’s called Billy Baxter Lowball in some places because Billy Baxter won the deuce-to-seven draw title in 1975, 1978, 1982, 1987 and 1993 (per PokerNews’ winners table). WSOP.com says all seven of his bracelets came in lowball forms. Other champions from the same table include Doyle Brunson (1976), Stu Ungar (1981), Erik Seidel (1998, 2007), Jason Mercier (2016) and Brian Rast (2018).

The game is named Kansas City lowball by Wikipedia and Robert’s, but neither source documents where that name came from. WSOP.com says it was added to the WSOP because high-stakes cash players liked it. It’s rarely spread in public card rooms and lives mainly in high-stakes games and the WSOP.