Poker
Lowball Poker Games
Draw poker is sometimes played as “lowball”, which is a game where the players are competing to get the worst possible poker hand. In lowball, straights and flushes don’t count. Lowball has variations too, like Deuce to Seven, where aces are considered high cards, and flushes and straights do count against you. (So 75432 is the best hand, hence the name Deuce to Seven.) Another variation is triple draw, which has 3 drawing rounds instead of just one.
Stud Poker Games
Stud poker is not a community card game like Omaha or Texas holdem. Each player makes up his hand from the cards he’s dealt. Unlike Texas holdem and Omaha poker, stud poker has many distinct variations. It’s usually played as 7 card stud or 5 card stud, and it can be played high only, high low, or low only.
Stud poker is mostly played in home games (often with lots of variant rules), although some versions of stud poker are still played in casino cardrooms. Stud poker is not a popular variant in casinos in the USA though.
Stud poker is most often played high low. In that case it’s called Stud 8, Stud 8 or better, Stud High Low or Hi Lo, or just 8 or better.
Omaha poker Hi/Low
Omaha Hi/Low follows the same rules as regular Omaha poker, but there is an additional way to win a share of the pot.
The Hi winner is the player with the best poker hand, as in Omaha High Only. But in addition to a Hi winner, there can be a Low winner. The Low hand is a hand with 5 different cards below a 9. You must use two pocket cards and three community cards to make a low hand.
For example, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 of any suit would be a Low hand. The lowest Low hand is the Low winner. In case of a Low winner, the pot is split 50/50 between the Low and High winner. In case of multiple Low hands, the Low winner is determined by comparing the highest of the low cards, then the second highest, etc. If the two or more Low hands are equal, the Low pot is split between them.
Because there must be at least three different low cards (under 9) on the board at the end to enable a qualifying low hand there may not be a Low winner every hand. Also, a player may use different pocket cards for Hi and for Low, from the four cards dealt to him along with any three community cards, where again different cards may be used for the high hand to the low hand.
In Hi Low Omaha the lowest possible hand is 5,4,3,2,A of any suits (flushes and straights do not count against you for the low hand). Ace counts as high and low and therefore the same ace can be used to make a high hand and a low hand.
The Ranking of Poker Hands
The ranking of poker hands based on probability starting from the highest are as follows.
There are 2,598,960 possible combinations of cards in a poker hand you can be dealt. In brackets below next to the ranking of hands, are 1st the number of possible hands of that rank in 2,598,960 possible combinations, and 2nd your chances of getting one in percentage probability:
- Five of a Kind (with a Wild card or Joker)
- Royal Flush (4 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.000154%)
- Straight Flush (36 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.00139%)
- Four of a Kind (624 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.0240%)
- Full House (3744 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.144%)
- Flush (5108 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.197%)
- Straight (10,200 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.392%)
- Three of a Kind (54912 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 2.11%)
- Two Pair (123,552 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 4.75%)
- Pair (1,098,240 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 42.26%)
- High Card (1,302,540 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 50.12%)