California Lowball
Forced Money
The game is played with a button and blinds.
Dealing Procedure
Each player is dealt five cards face down, followed by a round of betting at the small bet limit.
Each player in turn discards zero to five cards from their hand. Once all of the discards have been announced, the dealer will deal each player an appropriate number of replacement cards.
This is followed by a round of betting at the big bet limit. This is followed by a showdown.
California Lowball is usually played with a joker/bug. The joker is used as the lowest non-pairing card.
Evaluating the Showdown
The best five-card California lowball hand wins the pot. See the Appendix on Lowball Scales for more details.
NOTE: California Lowball is most commonly played as a limit game, with the Sevens Rule (see Appendix B) in effect and with no check-and-raise allowed. It is also sometimes played as a no-limit game, with no Sevens Rule and with check-and-raise allowed.
Notes
The no-limit format was featured in a bounty tournament at BARGE 2021.