How To Play Triple Draw
Play Poker » Poker Games » 2-7 Triple Draw Poker
Triple Draw can be played in a couple different variations, but the most common way to play this poker game is known as 2-7 Triple Draw. In 2-7 Triple Draw the goal is to try and have the lowest hand possible, but there are a few restrictions that you need to keep in mind. First off, you can’t have any pairs, flushes or straights in your hand as they actually make your hand worse. The best hand in 2-7 Triple Draw is 2-3-4-5-7, as it doesn’t consist of a flush, straight or pair. It won’t take you long to learn how to play 2-7 Triple Draw, but this poker game does take awhile to master.
You can only use one deck of cards when you play 2-7 Triple Draw even though you’re going to run out of cards. When you run out of cards during one of the draws you simply take all of the cards that have been discarded and reshuffle them so that players can continue drawing cards. The first thing that you need to do is decide whose going to deal the cards for the first hand, as the two players sitting on the left side of the dealer need to post the two blinds. 2-7 Triple Draw is played using limit stakes, which means in a $100/$200 game the small blind would be $100 and the big blind $200.
Everyone in 2-7 Triple Draw is dealt 5 cards to begin the hand. Once the deal is complete players start the 1st round of betting. During this betting session players need to call the blind, raise the blind or fold. You don’t have any other options during this round of betting although in every other betting round players are allowed to check. When the betting is over everyone is allowed to discard cards from their hand. The rest of the hand is played out according to the steps I’ve listed below.
- 2nd round of betting after the 1st discard.
- 2nd discard.
- 3rd round of betting.
- 3rd discard
- 4th round of betting
After the 4th round of betting anyone that is still in the pot needs to flip over his or her hand. The player with the lowest hands win using the rules I listed above. If two players tie with the same hand then both of those players will split the pot, but ties aren’t very common in 2-7 Triple Draw. One thing you need to worry about when playing this game is hitting pairs on the final discard. This can totally ruin your hand since you’re not allowed to have a pair in your hand. Pot control is really important when you’re playing 2-7 Triple Draw as well due to the fact there are so many betting rounds.
The last thing you want to do when you’re playing 2-7 Triple Draw is build up a huge pot and then have to fold because you hit an unlucky pair on the final discard. You’re going to have a bit of a problem bluffing in this poker game just like in all limit games because it’s so cheap to call down. If you’re playing higher limit games this won’t be as much of a problem and you’ll be able to get away with more bluffs.
2-7 Triple Draw is played in quite a number of online poker rooms and casino around the world, as it’s a well-known game amongst poker players. There are a couple other variants of Triple Draw poker including Ace-Five, which is basically the same game minus a couple differences. In Ace-Five Triple Draw the ace can be played as a low card whereas in 2-7 Triple Draw the ace can only be used as a high card. Both games are played using lowball rules and the only other change is that straights and flushes benefit you in Ace-Five whereas they hurt you in 2-7 Triple Draw.
You’ll be able to try out both of these poker games in the big online poker rooms if you’d like. PokerStars offers play money tables as well, which will allow you to practice playing the game a bit before you try it out for real money.