Ace-to-Five Lowball♠

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Set up a teaching table

Use 52 cards for 2–5 players. Each player antes 1; there are no blinds. Bets and raises are 1 before the draw and 2 afterwards, with one opening bet and at most three raises per round. Require a starting reserve of at least 13 for each new deal: the ante plus maximum betting contributions of 4 and 8. This avoids all-ins and side pots.

Deal five cards face down to each player, singly and clockwise from the dealer’s left. Move the dealer position clockwise after every completed deal. The particular limits and player cap are chosen for this teaching version.

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Reading the lowest hand

Aces rank below deuces. Straights and flushes have no effect: A–2–3–4–5 is the best hand even when all five cards share a suit. Any five different ranks beat any paired hand. Compare the highest cards first, then the second highest and so on; the lower card at the first difference wins.

If duplicates are unavoidable, the category order from best to worst is one pair, two pair, trips, full house, quads. Within a category prefer the lower main group, then lower kickers compared from highest down. Compare the higher pair first in two-pair hands and the triplet first in full houses. Paired aces beat paired deuces.

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Bet, draw once, bet again

The player to the dealer’s left starts the first round. With no outstanding bet, check or bet. Facing a bet, call, raise or fold the whole hand. Check-raising is allowed here, and an all-check round proceeds to the draw: these are explicit table conventions.

Starting to the dealer’s left, active players discard zero to five cards and receive that many replacements face down. Discard before receiving replacements; you cannot retrieve a discarded card. Keeping all five cards is standing pat. With five players even a complete five-card replacement for everyone uses only 50 cards, so this no-burn teaching version cannot exhaust the pack.

The player who opened the first round starts the second; if that player folded, action begins with the next active player clockwise. If everyone originally checked, start with the first active player left of the dealer. There is no second draw.

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Showdown and chip results

A betting round closes when all remaining players have answered the final raise, or everyone checks. If everyone except one player folds, that player receives the pot immediately. Otherwise expose hands after the final round: the lowest five-card hand wins the entire pot. There is no high half and no qualifying ceiling.

Equal hands split the pot; suits have no priority. Give an indivisible chip to the first tied winner clockwise after the dealer. To record a player’s result, subtract their ante and bets from their award. Combinations earn no separate points.

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Worked hand comparisons

Lena receives 8♣ 4♥ 3♠ 2♦ A♣. She discards 8♣ and draws 5♥, finishing with 5–4–3–2–A. Mike shows 6♠ 5♦ 3♣ 2♥ A♦. Both hands are unpaired, but Lena’s five is lower than Mike’s six, so Lena takes the pot. Suits do not alter the result.

Now compare 8–6–4–2–A with 8–5–4–3–2. The eights tie; the second hand wins at the next comparison because five is lower than six. Holding an ace does not compensate for a higher second card. Reading the ranks from the top down prevents that common mistake.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

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Context and alternative formats

The California name reflects a regional lowball tradition. The consulted rules do not establish a single inventor or an invention date. Ace-to-five ranking also appears in Razz and the low side of several split-pot games; sharing a ranking does not make them the same dealing game.

A traditional optional joker fills the lowest missing rank: 9–6–3–A–joker becomes 9–6–3–2–A. The separate sevens rule restricts what a player can win after checking a seven-low or better following the draw; it is switched off here. Blinds, a prohibition on check-raising and additional draws are further conventions to agree before play.

Common questions