Once you are familiar with the basics of 2-7 triple draw lowball (TDL), you will almost certainly fall into one of two extremes, both of which have their faults and are exploitable.  Many new TDL players tend to always try and make the nuts, or as close to the nuts as they can get.  I will call these players "weak tight" though that description is taken from a limit hold'em mentality and loosely applied here.  On the other end of the spectrum, we have the type of player who tries to get pat as fast as possible and hope his opponent doesn't draw out.  This player is "loose passive" though again the description doesn't entirely do him justice.

  A "weak tight" TDL player will often start out running well and frequently making great hands when learning the game.  Then, when he cools off and runs more normally, he will think he is unlucky, and will think his opponents who frequently show down tens and jacks and scoop pot after pot are terrible players who don't understand the game.  Unless he plays in extremely loose games, this type of player will not win, and even worse, he won't understand why he doesn't win!

  If you suspect your opponent is of the weak tight variety, the simple adjustment you need to make is to snow (the proper TDL term for standing pat with an awful hand, hoping to bluff your opponent out of the pot) more frequently, and be more inclined to draw less cards at the expense of drawing more rough (to weaker hands than normal).  Here is an example hand I might play against a weak tight opponent:

  I open raise on the button with 249KK and the BB defends.  He draws two and I toss my kings and draw two as well.  Notice a few things right off the bat:  I have an extremely marginal stealing hand, and against solid blinds it might be better to just fold it pre-draw and wait for a better hand, but I believe I can play the hand profitably against a weak tight big blind.  Also, if I decide to steal with this hand and the BB is someone I respect or even a total LAG, I would toss the 9 as well and draw three cards, even if he drew two, hoping my position will overcome my starting hand deficiency.

  Now I catch an Ace and an 8, for 249A8.  He checks, I bet my "improved" hand and he calls.  Now he will usually draw two again, which I already expect because he simply checked and called my bet, a sign he did not improve.  Also, remember that because he is a weak tight player, he will frequently fail to improve because he defines an improvement to his hand quite stringently and might consider catching a 9T "two bricks".

  Assuming he does draw two again, I will toss my Ace and draw one.  Perhaps now I catch a ten or a jack and make J9842, a weak hand to be sure!  But also realize this is a situation where I might play a caught pair the same way, turning my hand into a snow for the final two betting rounds and one drawing round.  My opponent will check and call again if he is not pat (and sometimes when he is, allowing me to change plans and toss however many cards I think I need to to have a crack at the pot!)  Now he draws one on the final draw and I stand pat with my marginal pat hand that is a favorite over his draw.  He bricks and checks to me, I check behind and take down the pot, or he catches a great card and bets and I fold, or he catches an ok card that beats me and checks and I check behind and lose.  Notice in all these cases I have complete control over the size of the pot, but he will be punished those times I did have a truly strong hand and raise his bet, or value bet him in this situation.  Also recall what I said about turning my hand into a snow in this situation - had I done that, I will now simply bluff bet on the end and expect him to fold his missed draw every time after checking to me, and when he does call I expect to see a solid hand that he was too weak tight to value bet.

  When you have similar hands like this one occur over and over, you will win way more than your fair share of pots, and your weak tight opponent will think you are a lucky fish, when in reality he will never beat you over the long-term with his current strategy.  In a live game, he will show you the strong draw he missed with on the end (maybe 2357x) and bitterly complain about his bad luck, and you will agree that he is quite unlucky as you stack the chips.

  Now let's talk about the "loose passive" opponent who plays like I did in the above hand, but does it all the time without regard for his opponents' tendencies.  This type of opponent is somewhat more difficult to beat than the weak tight one, because you will be forced to showdown the best hand to beat him and sometimes you can't seem to make one no matter what you do.  That said, over the long-term you will make plenty of decent hands that are much better than the average hand the loose passive player is taking to showdown, and as long as you remember to adjust your value bets and raises to weaker hands, you will milk him dry.  The adjustment you need to make to beat the loose passive player is to value bet and raise a wider range of hands than normal.

  The loose passive player got that way by running well when learning the game, but trying a strategy of getting pat hands quickly and having them hold up, and it worked!  More often than normal, his opponents bricked off and he won with some truly weak hands, and realized that he doesn't need a great hand to win, just better than his opponent.  Once he cools off and runs more normally, his opponents will come from behind and outdraw him quite frequently, and the loose passive player will think he is quite unlucky to be repeatedly outdrawn by his "nut-peddling" opponents.  Here is a hand I might play against a loose passive opponent:

  He raises in early position and I re-raise on the button with 234KK, he calls and draws one and I toss my kings and draw two.  Notice already that he cannot have a premium hand because he would cap it before the draw - there is no value in deception here since I will immediately see he only needs one card so if he had a great starting hand he would surely cap it.  He will, however, lead into me after the draw regardless of what he catches since he is a card ahead.  An opponent who draws one and then fails to lead into my two-draw here is even worse than a standard loose passive one and will quickly go broke.

  I catch something like QQ, total bricks, and he leads into me and I peel.  He stands pat right away and I draw two again.  This time I catch J6 and again call his bet since I have improved.  Notice that with this particular catch against some opponents I might raise and hope they break, but the loose passive player will never release his pat hand, so I can only play to extract maximum value from him.  Therefore the correct play is to toss my jack and draw at my 2346.

  On the final draw I make a 7 or an 8 and raise his bet, or a 9 or T and call his bet, expecting to frequently win against a rough hand that he decided to bet on the end (perhaps feeling glad when his opponent folds and he doesn't even have to show down his hand) and bet all of them for value when he checks to me (the Ten-low is close and probably opponent-specific).  And sure, I often miss on the end and he wins the pot, but when I do hit, as long as I remember to extract the maximum from him, I will do better than my fair share and he will pay me off over and over all the while complaining about the chaser who ran his made hand down again.

  One final thought on both of the types of TDL fish I have mentioned in this article:  given two students, one of each type, I would much prefer to have the loose passive one and expect to turn him into a solid player much faster than the weak tight one.  That's because the loose passive player has realized one important concept from TDL - your hand only needs to be better than your opponent's, it doesn't have to be the nuts.  The loose passive player just overuses this concept and doesn't adjust his strategy for his opponents.  Luckily for us, the weak tight player is the more prevalent of the two (especially in B&M!).

© 12/2006 by Chris "DeathDonkey" Vitch