If you’re planning to test your luck at online poker tables under the California sun, do make sure you’re aware of the different rules of locally favored poker variants.

California Lowball Poker
California lowball poker used to be the most popular variant of the game in California. It reached its peak in the 1970’s but gradually lessened as community card poker and stud poker rose to fame. Nevertheless, you’ll still see numerous game rooms in California still offering this particular poker variant.

How to Play California Lowball Poker
This game is also known simply as low or lowball poker. In contrast with most poker variants, lowball poker actually count players with traditionally poor or low hands as winners.

California lowball poker subscribes to the ace-to-five low rule. Cards with values A, 2, 3, 4, and 5 make up a wheel and it’s the lowest possible hand to have in the game. Flushes are disregarded while aces are counted low. 7 card stud, and triple draw occasionally, subscribe to this rule.

Other lowball poker variants use a different counting system. With an ace-to-six low rule, for instance, a wheel will be made up of cards A, 2, 3, 4, and 6. Flushes and straights are considered high hands while aces are still counted low. This rule is also known as 6-4 low. London lowball is arguably the most popular poker variant subscribing to this rule.

For a 7-5 low rule, cards, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 make up the lowest possible wheel. Aces here, however, are considered high while flushes and straights are still counted as high hands. If you get a wheel consisting of cards 2, 3, 4, 5, and A, what you’d have is just an ace high without any pairs. This rule is also known as deuce-to-seven low. Kansas City lowball poker subscribes to this rule and is often played no-limit.

Finally, with a 6-5 low or deuce-to-six low, flushes and straights are once again disregarded and aces count as high.

High-Low Splits in Lowball Poker
When splitting the pot is permissible, every game has two possible winners: one would hold the lowest possible hand while the other would hold the highest possible hand. In most cases, games played high-low split often subscribe to the ace-five low rule. There is almost always a qualifier. It is a condition to determine which hands can be considered as low or not. Almost all games use 8 as a qualifying digit: hands with 8 and below are considered low while anything higher than 8 are considered high hands.

Ties occur more often with low hands than high hands. If three players have the same low hand value while another player has a high hand, half of the pot will go to the player with the hand while the other half will be equally divided between the three players.

On the other hand, an ace-to-five high-low split also increases your chances of getting a scoop or winning both hands. You can do this if you get a low straight or flush since it can be counted as both a low and high hand.

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