Qualification and Evaluation of Low Hands
What is the Correct Low Hand?
There are certain games such as triple-draw Lowball and Razz that are played only for low hand. But in the case of High-Low split games, there are few rules which must be understood before playing. To begin with, a proper low hand must consists of five cards which are unpaired and each card must be an Eight or even lower. For instance, 8542A qualifies for high-low split games while 9743A does not qualify due to the presence of 9.
Another fact to be considered is that the low hands will be counted from highest card down, unlike the usual lowest card up. To be clear, if there are two players having 86432 and 8742A respectively, the one with 6 as second highest card will win over the player with 7 as second highest card. Thus it is essential to know the ways of evaluating low hands.
Few Examples of High-Low Split Games
In case of Q♦ A♣ 7♥ 5♦ K♠ 6♣ 2♣, the lowest possible hand is 7♥ 6♣ 5♦ 2♣ A♣ while low hand is not possible if there are no five cards lesser than an eight, for instance, K♠ 9♥ 8♠ Q♦ 4♦ 3♦ A♠. Similarly, you can try forming the lowest possible hand with the cards you play with.