2-7 Triple Draw Starting Hands

Starting hands in 2-7 triple draw depend as much on the tendencies of your opponents and your position at the table as the actual strength of your holding. This article looks at starting hands in 2-7 triple draw going from premium holdings through to marginal hands.

Your objective of making the worst possible hand with no straights or flushes means that ‘suitedness’ and connectivity of cards is an important factor. Players new to the game should also note that aces are counted only as high cards in 2-7 triple draw.

Premium Hands

Premium holdings include hands which do not require you to draw any cards at all. These are made low hands with a 7 or 8 as the highest card. The very best hand (known as ‘number 1’) in 2-7 triple draw is 2-3-4-5-7, the next 2-3-4-6-7 is known as ‘number 2’ and so on.

While 8 low hands are desirable, standing pat with these holdings leave you somewhat vulnerable to an opponent drawing to a good 7-low, with 3 draws there is a good chance of them making their hand – so ensure that you charge them a high price for the chance to draw.

Hands which contain 4 low cards – particularly to a 7 and including a valuable 2 – are also strong and should be played positively before the draw. Be careful of hands which leave you drawing to a straight, for example 4-5-6-7 is not as good as it looks, you are drawing only to a 2 with this holding (a 3 or 8 make a ‘high’ straight). 2-3-6-7 on the other hand is very strong, any 4 or 5 giving you a monster hand.

Hands with 3 low cards are playable and can be raised when nobody has entered the pot. The key cards when playing a 3 card low are the 2 and the 7. A hand containing both of these has a better chance of drawing to a monster than something like 5-6-8-X-X.

2 card lows are not generally playable, but with the right opponents these can sometimes be used from the button position to steal the blinds.

Suited Cards

While making a flush will invalidate your low hand at showdown, suited small cards are certainly playable before the first draw. 4 suited cards to a low mean that you are reducing your chances of drawing a strong hand by around 20% on each draw (assuming 9 left of your suit in the 47 unseen cards).

Just 1 card of a different suit and you are in no danger of a flush at all. With 3 suited low cards your chances of catching a low without a flush are further improved.

Finally, the tendencies of your opponents and position affect your starting hand requirements in 2-7 triple draw. The button position means that you get to act last on all 3 draws, enabling you to represent a stronger hand should circumstances warrant this.

Tight opponents mean that your ability to steal pots on later streets increases and may decrease the value of hands that you raise with before the draw at the same time as increasing your requirements for calling raises from opponents.

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