Workbench · 8 November 2026

Lowball in five minutes

In Low Seven the smallest hand is the best one. If you have played other card games, a few habits need turning upside down. Here is everything you need for a first hand.

The ranking, upside down

A hand is named by its highest card. A hand with nine as its top card is a nine-low; with seven on top, a seven-low. The lower the top card, the better. When two hands share a top card, the next card down decides, and so on. Aces are always high in this version, which makes an ace the worst card you can hold.

What spoils a hand

Three things make a hand unclean and worth nothing: any pair, five cards in a row (a straight, such as 8-7-6-5-4) and five cards of one suit (a flush). That is why 7-5-4-3-2 is the perfect hand. It is the lowest set of five different cards that is neither a straight nor, in mixed suits, a flush. 6-5-4-3-2 would be lower, but it is a straight.

A simple plan for the two draws

• On the first draw, keep one card of each rank from two to seven. Throw away pairs, eights and anything higher.
• On the second draw, an eight is fine to keep. A clean nine-low is worth standing on.
• If you already hold a clean eight-low or better, keep all five.
• If you are unsure, press Suggest. It follows exactly this plan.

What to expect

Even with sensible draws, more than a third of hands end with a pair, a straight or a flush, and most of the rest finish ten-low or worse. A clean nine-low or better comes up about one hand in four. With the suggested play, the long-run return is a little under the stake; careless draws return noticeably less. No plan turns the game in your favour.

Low Seven has no clock. Take the time you need over each decision, and stop between hands if a session has gone on longer than you meant it to.

Facets have no cash value. Playing or success in these games does not imply future success at real-money gambling. More guides