Deuce to 7 Triple Draw Rules

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is a 5 card draw low game. Each player is dealt 5 cards and the goal is to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. There are four rounds of betting and three draws in this game. After each round of betting players choose cards to discard, anywhere from 0 to 5, and the dealer deals them replacement cards. After the third and final draw there is one last round of betting. A dealer button determines the order of betting and discarding.

Hand rankings

In Deuce to Seven Triple Draw players try to make the lowest possible 5 card hand. Aces play for high only and deuces play for low. Because you are trying to make the lowest possible hand, straights and flushes count against you. This means that 23456, for example, is a very bad hand. It is not considered a 6-low. It is a straight and is therefore worse than holding AKQJ9.

The best possible hand you can make is 23457 with no flush. This hand is called a wheel. The next best hand is 23467, again with no flush. This hand is often referred to as Number 2. Likewise, 23567 is referred to as Number 3 and so on.

Because Aces play for high 2345A is not a straight. It is the best possible Ace-low you can make-also called the Nut Ace. 23458 is the Nut 8. 23459 is the Nut 9 and so on. AKQJ9 is the worst possible unpaired hand you can make, since your goal is to make a low hand. 22345 would be the next best hand after that. Trips are worse than pairs. Straights are worse than pairs and trips. Flushes are worse than straights. And full houses are worse than flushes. The worst hand you can hold in this game is a Royal Flush. So, the hand rankings are the inverse of the hand rankings in a regular high game.

How Deuce to Seven triple Draw is dealt

Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is dealt as a 6 player maximum game. The game uses a dealer button just as in hold'em. The player directly to the left of the dealer button posts a live small blind and the player two to the left of the dealer button posts a live big blind. Each player is dealt 5 cards and there is a round of betting. The first betting round starts with the player to the left of the big blind, just as in hold'em. Each player in turn has the option to call, raise or fold.

After the first round of betting is complete, each player who has not folded has a chance to draw. Players are prompted in order to discard any cards they wish to replace in their hand. The first player to act is always the player closest to the left of the button. Players can discard from zero to 5 cards. If a player chooses to discard zero cards he is opting to stand pat. After a player acts on his hand and decides how many cards to discard the next player is prompted in turn to discard and so on until all remaining players in the pot have acted on the draw.

After each player has decided on their discards, the dealer begins replacing their cards in turn. For example, if the first player discards 3 cards, the second player discards 2 cards, and the third player discards 1 card the dealer would deal the first player 3 cards, then take that player's discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the next player 2 cards then take that player's discards into the muck. The dealer would then deal the last player 1 card, then take that player's discards into the muck.

After the draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have an opportunity to draw again. After the second draw is complete, there is another round of betting. The players then have one more opportunity to discard. After this third and final draw, there is one more betting round.

What happens when there are not enough cards to complete the draw?

Sometimes, there are not enough cards to complete a drawing round. When this happens, the muck has to be reshuffled and the draw is completed after the reshuffle. The cards that are included in the reshuffle are the mucked cards from all previous drawing rounds and the mucked cards of any player who has gotten all of his replacement cards on the current drawing round.

Going back to our previous example, let's say that Player 1 discards 3 cards, Player 2 discards 2 cards and Player 3 discards 1 card. The dealer then deals Player 1 three cards and Player 2 one card. At this point there are no more cards left in the deck. The mucked cards from any previous betting rounds are now shuffled with the discards from Player 1 only. Player 2's discards are not included in the reshuffle since all of his discards were not replaced. This means that it is impossible for a player to ever get his own discards back on a given round of betting.

Betting Structure

Deuce to Seven uses the same betting structure as hold'em. During the first two round of betting the limit is the small bet. So, if the game was a $10/$20 game during the first two round of betting a player could call or raise in $10 increments. The second two rounds of betting the limit is the big bet. In our example, a player can call or raise in $20 increments.