A-5 Triple Draw is another draw and lowball poker game, where players discard cards from their hands, replacing them with new cards, and the best low hand wins. The game is similar to 2-7 Triple Draw, except winning hands are ranked differently. If you want to learn how to play poker, then A-5 Triple Draw is a great game to learn draw and lowball strategies. The game was recently made available on Full Tilt Poker and is played as a fixed-limit game.

General A-5 Triple Draw Play
In A-5 Triple Draw, Aces are considered low, and not high. Flushes and straights do not count but pairs do count. Therefore the best hand in A-5 Triple Draw is A-2-3-4-5 (also known as a ‘wheel’). Winning hands are calculated first by the highest card, so 9-7-6-4-3 beats a hand like T-7-6-4-2.

If two hands have high cards of the same value, then the next highest card is used to calculate the winning hand. If those cards are also equal, then the third card is used to work out who has won the pot, and so on, until a winner can be established. At the start of each hand, the two players immediately to the left of the dealer post the small and big blinds, just as they do in other flop games like Texas Holdem poker. Once the blinds have been posted, each player is dealt five cards, starting with the player immediately to the left of the dealer button.

The first round of betting takes place immediately after the cards are dealt, and the action starts with the player on the left of the big blind. He has the option to fold, call the current bet (the big blind) or raise. As in other fixed limit games, the value of a raise in the first two betting rounds, before and after the first draw, is a small bet (the big blind), and in the final two rounds, after the second and third draw, the value of a raise is a big bet (twice the big blind).

Once the first betting round is completed, the first draw takes place. Players select the cards they want to discard and replace these with new cards from the deck. It is also possible to ‘stand pat’ and not draw any cards (although players standing pat obviously demonstrate to other players that they have a strong hand). Once this draw is completed, the second round of betting takes place, and then a second draw. After the third and final draw, and the final betting round, those players left in the hand go to a showdown to establish who has the best low hand and wins the pot.