Qualifying and Evaluating Low Hands at Poker

Unlike games played for low only, which allow any hand to be considered a low hand, high-low split games require that a low hand consist of five unpaired cards where every card is an Eight or lower. Thus 8432A qualifies as a low hand, but 9432A does not. You also need to know that low hands are counted from the highest card down, not from the lowest card up. For example, if one poker player has 86543 and another player has 8732A, the player with the Six as the second highest card beats the player with the Seven as the second highest card.

Note: You can play low-only games online if you like. Razz is seven-card Stud played for low, and triple-draw Lowball is five-card Draw played for low. There are two variations of Lowball: A-5 Lowball (also called California Lowball) and 2-7 (Deuce to Seven or Kansas City Lowball). In California Lowball, straights and flushes don’t count against you and the Ace is considered a low card, so the best hand is A2345. In 2-7 Lowball, the Ace is considered a high card and straights and flushes count against you, so the best hand is 23457 of mixed suits. These games aren’t that popular, and neither of us has played them, so we won’t cover them in this site.

To practice creating the lowest possible hand, consider the following seven-card Stud hands to determine if a low is possible, and, if so, what the best low hand is that you can make.