Online Poker » Dealers Choice Games » Ace to Five Lowball

Ace to Five Lowball is one of the most popular lowball poker variants played in casinos and at home. Lowball poker was originally created as an interesting variation where players compete to have the worst poker hand possible. The fun challenge of winning with the worst hand eventually spawned many types of lowball poker games including the popular Ace to Five variation.

Ace to Five Rules

Ace to Five Lowball is named after the lowest possible hand that can be achieved: 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. There is no lower ranking hand than an Ace to Five combination, which makes it the most desirable combination to have in order to win the game.

Hand rankings must be carefully considered in Ace to Five Lowball because you will want to have the worst possible combination. All straight and flush combinations are simply not counted. Furthermore, Aces are always used as the lowest valued card and is therefore necessary to create the best Ace to Five hand ranking. A standard Ace to Five Lowball game does use Jokers, which automatically become the lowest card when part of any given hand.

The order of the more common hand rankings such as a four of a kind, three of a kind and a pair are reversed. For example, a pair will always beat a three of a kind in Ace to Five Lowball. Itís important to remember that you want to create a hand with no pairs or high value combinations whenever possible in order to have the best chance of winning.

Ace to Five Lowball Game Play

Ace to Five Lowball uses the small and big blind structure at the start of each game. The player to the left of the dealer is the small blind and the next player assumes the big blind position. Each player is dealt five hole cards and participates in the first betting round by betting, raising, calling or folding.

Each player can draw up to 5 of their hole cards after the first betting round. A second betting round occurs followed by a second draw round. A third betting and draw round occurs before the very last betting round takes place.

Once the remaining players have made their final bets, the showdown takes place where the hands are revealed. The lowest ranking hand always wins the pot. Because Ace to Five Lowball does not use suit rank as a tiebreaker, it is possible to split the pot should there be more than one lowest ranking hand in the showdown.