Kansas City (lowball), here I come

I don't know how long PokerStars has offered it, but I started playing 2-7 Triple Draw earlier this week (which the cool geezers call Kansas City lowball). It's a nice change, similar to Razz, and there's an amazing lack of strategy written on how to play it.

Two months ago, PokerNews wrote a decent article on the strategy. Michael Weisenberg also wrote a pretty good article for Card Player last year. But the undisputed bible of the game is Daniel Negreanu's chapter in Super/System 2.

I played the game with play money for a while, learning the rules as I went (five card draw, three drawing rounds, worst poker hand wins, straights and flushes count against you, so the best hand is 75432). I liked it, so I searched and found the two online articles I mentioned above. I played it some more and started stomping the play money tables.

I'm too much of a cheapass to actually go buy a poker book (the only ones I own are copies of magazines I bought at the airport), so I went to Barnes & Noble, sat down with Super/System 2, and made notes in my Blackberry. As my contribution to the body of knowledge online, here's my notes:

If you don't have a 2 in your hand, fold, unless you're defending the big blind or stealing from the button. Even then, you're probably not playing too wrong to fold it.

With these starting hands, do the following:

234	Raise or Reraise
235	Raise or Reraise
236	Playable, fold if lots of action
237	Raise or Reraise
238	Fold in early pos, raise in late
23xxx	Only to steal
245	Raise or Reraise
246	Playable, fold if lots of action
247	Raise or Reraise
248	Fold in early pos, raise in late
24xxx	Only to steal
256	Playable, fold if lots of action
257	Raise or Reraise
258	Fold in early pos, raise in late
25xxx	Only to steal
267	Playable, fold if lots of action
26xxx	Fold - the straight possibilities will kill you
27xxx	Only to steal
347	Only to steal or def. blinds
348	Only to steal or def. blinds
357	Only to steal or def. blinds
358	Only to steal or def. blinds
367	Only to steal or def. blinds
457	Only to steal or def. blinds

If you find yourself thinking "This 9-high hand is probably good," it probably isn't.

If you are holding onto an 8 and betting to draw two cards, fold instead.

If you are holding onto an 8, betting to draw one card, and are afraid you'll hit a straight, fold instead.

That's abuot it. Using this strategy at three (non simultaneous) 50¢/$1 tables this morning, I ended up +$9.10, -$20.00, and +$9.35. The -$20 was me playing too many eights and nines. A bit more practice, and I'm gonna do well at this game.