Although the vast majority of my poker volume and success has been in the game of No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, I am asked most frequently about the game of NL 2-7 Single Draw. Players are intrigued by this rare but pure poker variant, and I wanted to shed some light on the game. What are the rules? Where can you play? What are the best strategies? Let’s get into the beautiful game of NL Deuce. 

The Rules for the No Limit 2-7 Draw

In No-Limit 2-7 single draw, or Deuce for short, each player is dealt five cards, and the objective is to make the lowest possible hand. Straights and flushes count against you, and aces are always high, so the best hand is 7-5-4-3-2 with no flush. The game begins with a round of betting, followed by a single draw where each player may discard any number of cards and receive replacements, or “stand pat” by drawing none. After the draw, there is one final betting round, and then players show down their hands. Because it’s a no-limit format, players can wager any amount of their chips at any time during the betting rounds. The lowest hand at showdown wins the pot. Simple enough, right?

The beauty and nuance of Deuce comes from the lack of shared information in the game. In the vast majority of poker variants, there is some sort of community information, whether that be a board (flop, turn, and river) in Hold ‘Em and Omaha poker variants, or upcards in Stud Games. In Deuce, the only information available to your opponents about the strength of your hand is the information you choose to give them in the form of your discard and your betting. And with the game being played in a No Limit format where players can wager all of their chips at any time, this really opens the door for creativity. 

A Rarely Spread Poker Variant

While certainly one of the most fun and exciting variants to play, Deuce is surprisingly hard to find spread in casinos. It can be found in high-stakes cash games occasionally, usually in a rotation of other draw games and often played with a cap. That is, players can only wager a certain number of big blinds (usually 30-50) in a given hand. This takes a lot of the ingenuity out of the game in my eyes, and brings more math into the game than intended. I was lucky enough to find a straight uncapped Deuce cash game in LA and later Las Vegas as a young poker player. 

Deuce is found in tournament format at a few series throughout the year. Typically in series with mixed game festivals like the recent Borgata Fall Poker Open, you can find a standalone Deuce event. The largest Deuce tournament of the year is always at the World Series of Poker and always brings out the biggest stars in poker. I’ve always enjoyed getting to battle against old-time poker legends like Doyle Brunson and Billy Baxter in the $10,000 Deuce Event. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to finish 2nd, 3rd, and 3rd in the Championship event, although the win has eluded me thus far.

Deuce Game Strategy

While the basic strategy of the game is very simple — draw to the worst hand — the execution is much more complicated. In Deuce, players often have a good idea of where they stand after the drawing round, but it can still be a guessing game of whether an opponent is bluffing or not.  Because there is only one draw in the game, players are going to end up with pairs in their hand after drawing a significant percentage of the time. Therefore, players often use a polar betting strategy where they bet post-draw with their made draws and paired draws. Anything in between usually ends up in a basket of hands that wants to check and possibly bluff-catch. 

Similar to No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, position is very important in Deuce as well. The player in position gets to react and adapt to the discard of the out-of-position player. Deuce players are often fond of two-way hands, or convertibles, for this reason. For example with a hand like J8542 in position, a player can stand pat if his opponent is drawing, or discard one and draw to an 8 if his opponent is pat. These situations come up quite frequently and the advantage is always in favor of the player in position.

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