Jacks and Back Poker
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Jacks & Back poker is similar to five card draw poker although there are some noticeable differences. This isn’t the type of poker game that you can play in online poker rooms because hardly anyone plays the game. It’s a great game, but one of the more difficult poker games to learn since there are a couple different variations of the game. We’re going to do our best to explain all of the rules to you so that you can play Jacks & Back poker with your friends next time you play cards.
You don’t need to worry about posting any blinds while playing Jacks & Back poker, but players are required to post an ante at the beginning of every hand. Jacks & Back is also played using limit stakes, so make sure you set the limits accordingly based on everyone’s bankroll. After all of the antes have been posted the dealer can deal out five cards to everyone at the table face down.
Everyone at the table needs to look at their hand at this point and see if they have jacks or better in their hand. If one player at the table has jacks or better they can open the 1st round of betting. If nobody on the table has jacks or better then the game switches to lowball, which simply means the lowest hand now wins rather then the highest hand. If someone does open up the hand because they have jacks or better everyone on the table needs to decide whether to call, raise or fold.
After the betting round is over, the players left in the hand are allowed to draw cards from the deck and discard the cards they don’t want. Everyone completes a final round of betting and then the hands are flipped over to see who has the highest poker hand using the regular poker hand rankings chart. The hand is played out the same way as above when the game switches to lowball and the only difference is that you now need the lowest possible hand. If you’ve never played lowball poker it’s important to note that pairs will hurt your hand and you should always fold pairs if the game is lowball.
As you can see Jacks & Back is very similar to five card draw other then the fact that the game can switch to lowball if nobody can open the 1st round of betting. Having multiple variations of poker in the game isn’t commonly found and it’s a nice change from the basic poker games that we play all the time. There are several different variations of the rules for Jacks & Back poker online so if you’ve read different rules they may also be correct.
The strategy is very simple when playing Jacks & Back poker and it doesn’t take long to become good at the game. When you play this poker game you should always open with jacks or better when possible. Most of your opponents will fold instantly because they don’t have jacks or better and don’t want to risk it although you may have a few people chasing draws initially. You should continue betting strong after the draw and make it look like you have a big hand. One problem with bluffing in Jacks & Back is the fact that it’s played using limit stakes. This means players can often get value calling you down to the showdown with marginal hands, so it’s important to play medium stakes if possible.
If the games switches to lowball it becomes a bit more difficult since you don’t know what anyone has. You know that nobody has jacks or better, but that doesn’t help you out once the game switches to lowball. If you don’t have at least 3 out of 5 cards below 6-7 I’d probably just fold your hand. The best lowball hand out there is A-2-3-4-5, so keep this in mind when playing the lowball variation. Jacks & Back can be played with your friends and the odds time it can be found in casinos, but the chances of finding it played in a casino are extremely slim.
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