Single Draw Lowball and “Lowball” are the same game. The “single draw” part is there just to distinguish it from “Triple Draw Lowball,” which is a much different game.

Lowball comes in two varieties: Ace through Five (or “California Lowball”) and Deuce through Seven (or “Kansas City Lowball”). When nothing is explicit, assume that it’s the Deuce through Seven variety.

Single Draw Lowball is played just like five card draw, except that the lowest hand wins, not the highest one. Hands are evaluated just as in five card draw, so that straights and flushes are high hands. The ace is always high. That is why deuce through seven (with a gap for the 6 to spoil the straight and at least two suits represented) is the nut hand. If two players have hands with seven high and no straight or flush, the second highest card will break the tie. That is why a gap at six makes the hand invincible. It beats a seven-high where the gap is elsewhere, since the second highest card would be a six.

Single Draw Lowball is played in casinos with blinds, like other forms of draw poker. And like other forms of draw poker, there are no face-up cards. The only information at the table about the opponents’ hands comes from betting behavior and the number of cards drawn. Most accomplished draw poker players find the lowball version more challenging than the high version. They recommend that you play very tight at first, waiting for good cards and drawing only one or two cards for playable hands. This is because the other players may be inexperienced and thus play so many hands wrong that eventually a conservative player will outlast them all.