Poker: Highs and lows

HIGH-LOW is a favourite form of poker, because it encourages everyone to get involved. There are two chances to win: if you haven't got high cards, you can usually find an excuse to play low - or in the happiest case go for both. The best form of high-low is when the low hand has to make an 8-low or better to qualify. This stops players raising like mad on starting hands like A-2-3, because they can still go wrong. If no one makes a low, the high hand wins the whole pot. In some games the wheel A-2-3-4-5 works, in some the best low is A-2-3-4-6 off-suit. I prefer the latter, because it puts less of a premium on low straights, but the choice is a matter of taste.

Here is a clever play from a recent hand of seven card stud high-low. The man leading the betting showed an ace, with a 2-5 in the hole, a perfect starting hand. Naturally he came out betting, but couldn't catch the elusive two low cards he needed to make a low hand, catching a 9, a king, then a jack, and finally an irrelevant 7 in the hole. Result: no high, no low.

(2-5-7)

Clubs. A, Spades. 9, Diamonds. K, Hearts. J

He faced one opponent who had hung on gamely, showing an open pair of 9s. The other player knows only one thing for sure: that the man who made all the betting cannot possibly have a low hand, because he has three high cards showing. So when the aggressor continued to bet out, it follows he can only be going for high - declaration at the end was by 'cards speak'. The second player had failed to improve two middling pairs: seeing that his open pair had not deterred the better, he has to put him on at least two higher pairs, probably aces up. He folded.

In 'cards speak' the hands are shown down at the end, to decide the winning high and low. Two other ways of declaring at high-low are simultaneous declaration with coins in the hand (1 for low, 2 for high and 3 for both ways) or consecutive verbal declaration. The usual rule is that a player who goes high-low has to win, or at least tie, both sides of the pot to collect: if he is beaten on one side, he loses the lot. In consecutive declaration, calls go round the table from the final better, who has to declare first. This method can be quite subtle: if only two players are left in, a weak hand can manoeuvre to declare second, in order to call the opposite way and get out of trouble.