Handout 03 · Limit

Ace-to-five triple draw

Triple draw with the friendlier low: aces are low, and straights and flushes do not exist. The best hand is the wheel, 5-4-3-2-A.

Cards: Five, all face down
Draws: Three
Betting: Fixed limit, four rounds
Players: Up to six ^W
Best hand: 5-4-3-2-A, any suits
Also known as: California lowball ranking, "A-5"

1How it is dealt and bet

Exactly like deuce-to-seven triple draw: button and blinds, five cards each, a round at the small bet, a draw, a round at the small bet, a draw, a round at the big bet, a third draw, a last round at the big bet, showdown. ^{B W} Only the ranking of the hands is different.

Sources differ: rules inherited from single-draw lowball

Ace-to-five began as a one-draw limit game with two house rules of its own. Robert's Rules of Poker still lists both for that game: no check-raise unless the players are told otherwise, and the "sevens rule", under which a player who checks a seven or better after the draw cannot win any further bets. ^R The WSOP's rules say check-raise is permitted in ace-to-five and do not carry a sevens rule; ^W the BARGE rulebook's triple-draw version has neither restriction. ^B Modern triple draw is played without them, but an older room may surprise you.

A joker was traditional in California lowball. The WSOP's rules say jokers are not used unless posted, and BARGE's triple-draw version is played without one. ^{W B} Everything on this page assumes a 52-card deck.

2Hand ranking

Five unpaired cards, read from the top card down, lowest wins. Aces are low. Straights and flushes are ignored, so they neither help nor hurt. ^{W R}

5♥4♥3♥2♥A♥ ties 5♠4♦3♣2♠A♦Both are the wheel, the best hand. The first is a straight flush at hold'em; here that means nothing.
6♥4♦3♣2♠A♦ beats 6♠5♦3♥2♣A♦Both are sixes. The second card decides: 4 is lower than 5.
7♥6♦5♣4♠3♥ beats 8♥4♦3♣2♠A♦7-6-5-4-3 is simply a seven low, and any seven beats any eight. In deuce-to-seven the same cards would be a losing straight.
K♥Q♦J♣10♠9♥ beats A♥A♦2♣3♠4♥Any hand without a pair beats any hand with one.
A♥A♦K♣Q♠J♥ beats 2♥2♦3♣4♠5♥Among pairs, the lower pair wins, and aces are the lowest pair.

Computed

You are dealt a pat wheel 0.04% of the time, a pat seven or better 0.83%, and a pat eight or better 2.21%. Compare deuce-to-seven, where a pat eight or better arrives 0.71% of the time: with no straights or flushes to spoil them, low hands are about three times as common here.

3The draws, step by step

You are dealt A♠2♥3♦4♣K♠ and throw the king away. Because straights do not count, every unpaired low card helps.

Computed

A-2-3-4, drawing one (47 unseen, discard counted)
You finish with	Cards that hit	1 draw left	2 left	3 left
The wheel	4 of 47	8.5%	16.5%	23.9%
A six or better	8 of 47	17.0%	31.5%	43.6%
A seven or better	12 of 47	25.5%	45.0%	59.6%
An eight or better	16 of 47	34.0%	57.0%	72.3%

The same four-rank arithmetic applies to any four unpaired cards of six or lower when the target is a seven or an eight: 2-3-4-5, A-2-5-6 and 3-4-5-6 all have 12 cards for a seven or better and 16 for an eight or better. What differs is how good the seven or eight is when it arrives.

4Starting hands

Published

One author's opening guidelines for a six-handed game, which he describes as educated guesses and not exact solutions. ^C6 Each seat also plays everything listed for the seats before it.

Seat	Roughly the weakest three-card hands opened
Under the gun	3-4-5 and A-4-6, sometimes only with a helpful extra card
Hijack	adds 2-3-6 and A-5-6
Cutoff	3-5-6, A-4-7 or better
Button	4-5-6, A-5-7 and 3-5-7 near the bottom, plus draws to two cards such as A-2, A-3, 2-3, A-4

A seven low here is roughly as strong as a pat eight in deuce-to-seven, so sevens deserve respect; keep the seven before the first draw, especially heads-up. ^C6
You can open slightly more hands per seat than in deuce-to-seven, but rough hands like 2-5-6 and 3-4-6 cost you out of position and in multi-way pots. Tighten when the pot has already been raised. ^C6
Any one-card draw you play should be re-raised, so that calling does not announce what you hold. ^C6

Solver baseline · simplified game

Share of hands raised when everyone before you has folded, six-handed, from heads-up proxy solves of a simplified game (hand classes, no card removal). How to read these numbers.

Seat	UTG	HJ	CO	BTN	SB
A-5 triple draw	19%	25%	33%	50%	58%
2-7 triple draw, for comparison	21%	22%	30%	43%	70%

From the hijack to the button the baseline opens more often than in deuce-to-seven, in line with the published view above; under the gun and in the small blind it opens less often. We have no heads-up detail for this game beyond these shares.

5The key decision on each draw

Computed

How often a pat hand is still best at the showdown against one opponent drawing one card to A-2-3-4. A raw chance of holding up, not a rule: it ignores the betting.

Your pat hand	His outs	1 draw left	2 left	3 left
7-6-5-3-2	9 of 43	79.1%	62.1%	48.5%
8-6-5-3-2	13 of 43	69.8%	48.2%	32.9%
9-6-5-3-2	17 of 43	60.5%	36.0%	21.1%
10-6-5-3-2	21 of 43	51.2%	25.6%	12.5%

Set this beside the deuce-to-seven table: for these example hands, each one here tracks the hand one rank higher there. The pat 8-6 in this table holds up exactly as often as the pat 9-8 does in that one. That is the arithmetic under the published remark that a seven here is worth about what an eight is there.

Published

Drawing fewer cards than your opponent lowers the share of the pot he can expect and raises yours. ^C6
After you improve to a made rough seven, an opponent will often give up on the next round unless he holds a one-card draw to an eight or better. ^C6

6Common mistakes

Importing deuce-to-seven values. Computed An eight is a strong hand there and a middling one here: against a single one-card draw with two draws to come it is already an underdog (48.2%).
Undervaluing the ace. It is the lowest card, not the highest. A-2-3-4-5 is the nuts, and a pair of aces is the best pair.
Fearing straights and flushes. They are not hands in this game. 2-3-4-5-6 of spades is a plain six low.
Opening rough hands up front. Published Hands like 2-5-6 and 3-4-6 lose money out of position and multi-way. ^C6

A-5 triple draw: cheat sheet

Seminar 27 · Handout 03 · limit, five cards, three draws

The order of play

Deal 5 → bet (small) → draw → bet (small) → draw → bet (big) → draw → bet (big) → showdown.

Ranking in one breath

Lowest five unpaired cards win. Best: 5-4-3-2-A.
Ace is always low. Straights and flushes are ignored.
No pair beats any pair. Lower pair beats higher pair. Suits never break ties.

Odds to carry

A-2-3-4, draw one, to	Hits/47	1 left	2 left	3 left
The wheel	4	8.5%	16.5%	23.9%
A six or better	8	17.0%	31.5%	43.6%
A seven or better	12	25.5%	45.0%	59.6%
An eight or better	16	34.0%	57.0%	72.3%

Pat hand vs one A-2-3-4 draw	1 left	2 left	3 left
7-6 holds up	79.1%	62.1%	48.5%
8-6 holds up	69.8%	48.2%	32.9%
9-6 holds up	60.5%	36.0%	21.1%

Published rules of thumb

A seven here is worth about an eight in 2-7. Re-raise the one-card draws you play.
Rough three-card hands (2-5-6, 3-4-6) are for late position only.

Solver baseline (simplified heads-up game, not a full solution)

First-in raise share six-handed: UTG 19 · HJ 25 · CO 33 · BTN 50 · SB 58 (%).

seminar27.com · Odds computed by the site's own script. Rules: WSOP live-action rules and the BARGE rulebook. For education.