Triple draw lowball

[Ghazban]

Does anybody play this? UB spreads it in varying limit forms (no pot- or no-limit) and I just started playing it. Its probably just beginner's luck, but I've been winning at it, too. Just wondered if anyone here plays it or has anything interesting to say about it strategy-wise.

[Beavis68]

I played a little, but I am not good at lowball games. I have watched the pro's play at 80/160 before.

This is one of those games where people who no what they are doing have a BIG edge - I have no clue as to what I am doing though.

[Ghazban]

Part of what I'm uncertain about is when to bet/raise and when to just call or check. As its a drawing game, you can easily have a great hand turn into absolute junk (like in an A-5 game where my A2344 starting hand paired on each redraw). At the $1-$2 level where I've played, its been pretty passive and just playing tight has resulted in me being ahead (granted, this is only after about 2-3 hours of play).

[dogsballs]

I've played a bunch of TD 2-7 since UB spread it but am no big expert. I do know tho, that I do better when I:

- play tight, and esp tight wrt position (posn is huge). Tight'll get you the money at low limits.
- only play good two card draws, usually...err, heh.. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img], well, ive strayed often enough from that.
- draw down early - go for the wheel - eg Q732A; throw the Q7. (unless perhaps HU w posn and you see your opp drawing 3, for eg).
- Never slowplay good hands, unless you're CR'ing.

Betting/raising: Bet if you draw one good card which will put you ahead of your opp unless he also drew at least one good one. Eg; you both draw 2; bet if you're first and catch one good one. Call if he's first and bets into you when you draw one good (he's prob caught at least one good). Bet if he checks and you caught a good one. Basically, when both players draw equal no of cards, I assume a bet = a one card improvement, unless the player was already ahead. You have to aggressively raise some of the aggressive players who may be betting at you with weak hands, even if you're worried about being beat already.

In last posn, you can raise w a mediocre pat hand, then see if your opp breaks his hand. That's a standard & often overused play, so you might get raised back by someone who then stays pat w their mediocre hand...so play that by ear and your opps tendencies.

someone better than me may chime in, but those are the guidelines I use. Wish more people would play the 2-7 TD; its a great game.

[Ghazban]

Thanks for the reply; I've honestly been doing almost all those things already-- I guess my instincts so far have been pretty good. I do better at the 2-7 than the A-5 for some reason (though I don't have enough data just yet to draw any real conclusions). I suspect its due in part to the fact that drawing to the same relative low is actually better in 2-7 as there are fewer hands out there (that is, a smooth 9 in 2-7 is better than a smooth 8 in A-5). Since there are so few players there, I generally just play whichever one has a game going at 2-4 max down to .25-.50 min.

[Iceman]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the reply; I've honestly been doing almost all those things already-- I guess my instincts so far have been pretty good. I do better at the 2-7 than the A-5 for some reason (though I don't have enough data just yet to draw any real conclusions). I suspect its due in part to the fact that drawing to the same relative low is actually better in 2-7 as there are fewer hands out there (that is, a smooth 9 in 2-7 is better than a smooth 8 in A-5). Since there are so few players there, I generally just play whichever one has a game going at 2-4 max down to .25-.50 min.

[/ QUOTE ]

The difference between 2-7 and A-5 in single draw mostly comes from the use of the joker in A-5. The straights and flushes rule makes very little difference.

In triple draw, there's a large difference between the games, since draws are considerably weaker in 2-7. In A-5, disregarding suits there are fifteen different four-card draws to a six. In 2-7, there are only six different four-card draws to a seven that aren't either a straight draw or a gutshot straight draw - 7432, 7532, 7542, 7632, 7642, and 7652.

[Al Mirpuri]

Ghazban,

Go To google and type in "Triple Draw Lowball", one of the first entries will be by Russ Georgiev who is a very controversial character. However, his essay on TDL is the best out there. You will read it and see what I mean. Good Luck.

[Epix]

or you should try to read these articles by Michael Wiesenberg on cardplayer.com

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_maga...php?a_id=14109

and

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_maga...php?a_id=14072

regards

Epix A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

p.s On cardplayer he have wrote like 25 articels about lowball

[Ghazban]

Thanks a lot for the references Al Mirpuri and Epix! I'll definitely check those out. I doubt the game will ever be big enough online to be my main interest but it plays very differently from Holdem and Omaha without requiring the kind of memory skills 7-stud does. All in all, its an enjoyable change of pace.