Fundamentals Of Limit Deuce to Seven Dramaha

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For the past few months we have been discussing the exciting game of Dramaha, which is a split-pot game where the holder of the best Five Card Draw High hand splits with the best Omaha High holding. Deuce to Seven (2-7) Dramaha is another variant where instead the best 2-7 low splits with the best Omaha High holding.

The structure is the same as High Dramaha. Everyone is dealt five cards followed by an initial round of betting. The flop is then dealt, along with another round of betting. After the flop betting round all players have one single opportunity to draw as many cards as they wish in an attempt to improve both their Draw and Omaha hands. The turn and river are dealt with a round of betting after each and at showdown the best Draw holding (in this case the best 2-7 low) splits with the best Omaha High hand.

Opinions vary amongst mixed-game players concerning which version of Dramaha is the better variant, but the majority seems to prefer the 2-7 version. Personally, I enjoy them both, however, I do feel 2-7 is a somewhat awkward game in the sense that the best Omaha cards are high while the best 2-7 hands require low cards. This leads to an imbalance in the game where premium Omaha High hands are essentially worthless. Still it is a very fun game with its own nuances and plenty of opportunity for skilled players to extract money from weaker ones.

The Golden Rule In 2-7 Dramaha

For those of you who have read my articles on High Dramaha, you already know that adhering to the Golden Rule is critical to your success. This Golden Rule is the simple recognition that the strength of your Draw hand is vastly more important than the potential of your Omaha holding.

The rule certainly applies as premium Omaha High hands such as A A K K Q and A K Q J 9 are not good hands in 2-7 Dramaha. The latter hand could possibly be played as a steal from the button against super tight blinds, but you would never consider entering the pot from an earlier position. Perhaps if a player raised from under-the-gun and got four callers, we could consider defending the big blind with A A K K Q. But the point is that outside of rare exceptions, the overwhelming majority of hands that we should play are geared solely towards building what we hope will be the best 2-7 low. Along the way, we hope to back into something in Omaha.

In 2-7 Dramaha, we must almost exclusively play low oriented hands, and most of our opponents will be employing the same strategy. When our opponents are making less fundamental errors, our skill edge will be lower. However, this is not to say that our opponents won’t be making errors, they’ll just be of a different variety. For example, if they are habitually entering the pot with two-card low draws, your edge will be quite high.

The Cost Of Running Into A Better Draw Hand

When compared with High Dramaha, hand values run much closer in the 2-7 variant. For example, in the High game suppose you make a loose open from UTG with jacks and get isolated by a player holding aces. The player holding aces has around 77 percent equity on the Draw side and approximately 62 percent in Omaha for an overall equity close to 70 percent. As you can see, the cost of running into a better hand is quite high, and with each player left to act having approximately a 17 percent chance to have jacks beat, we will frequently end up in a bad situation.

Now let’s suppose that we make a somewhat comparable loose open with a one-card draw to 10 9 8 5 from first position in 2-7 and get reraised by the possible low draw in the game, 2 3 4 7. In this particular matchup the 7-4-3-2 is around a 61 percent favorite to win the low. However, on the Omaha side the 10-9-8-5 holding is around a 63 percent favorite due to being double suited along with having higher cards that also offer straight potential. Thus, in this particular matchup, the 10-9-8-5 is actually a slight 51 percent favorite in totality over the premium 2-7 draw.

A low draw is only in terrible shape when it runs into a pat where the draw is locked out of the 2-7 side. And as we will examine next issue, each player only has a 4.7 percent probability of waking up with a ten or better pat low.

We will get into suggested opening ranges later in the series and will recommend mucking this rough ten draw from first position due to the combination of probabilities of running into a pat hand or the pot going off multi-way against several better draws. However, many of your opponents will probably open this hand and they will not be punished as often as they would when they make similar loose opens in High Dramaha.

In High Dramaha it’s quite commonplace for one player to hold a 60-80 percent equity advantage against an inferior holding. However, in the 2-7 version of the game, this occurs much less often. The only situation when one player can hold a very large equity advantage over another is the situation previously described when one player is locked out of the 2-7 half, but that situation does not happen that often, especially when entering the pot with a draw to a nine or better.

In a battle of one card draws, the best 2-7 draw can have around 60 percent equity on the low side, however, the player holding higher cards is typically a favorite in Omaha.

The holder of the best 2-7 draw has a playing advantage particularly when he makes a good low and is freerolling for a fold or also making the best Omaha hand. But it is an undeniable fact that hand values run much closer in 2-7 Dramaha.

There are several consequences of this. The first is that skill edges against your opponents will be lower when compared with the high game and your variance will be slightly higher.

The second is that when compared to High Dramaha, we have the ability to play more hands profitably from all positions in the 2-7 version and do not fear entering the pot against another player even if we feel there’s a very good chance they have a better low draw.

In the previous articles on High Dramaha we defined the “Gap” as the difference in hand strength from what you would have opened had the pot been folded to you versus what you are playing against in the face of a raise. Most games have a theoretical gap yet due to the nature of different games some have a smaller one than others.

High Dramaha has a large theoretical gap as you will more frequently be up against a holding that has you in bad shape. In contrast 2-7 Dramaha has a much smaller gap due to hand values running much closer and the probability of your holding being in terrible shape being much lower. This is an incredibly important distinction, and one that we will further explore later in the series.

Next issue we will continue to build the foundation for 2-7 Dramaha by examining the frequency with which we are dealt various low hands and how they fare against each other. ♠

Kevin Haney is a former actuary of MetLife but left the corporate job to focus on his passions for poker and fitness. He is co-owner of Elite Fitness Club in Oceanport, NJ and is a certified personal trainer. With regards to poker he got his start way back in 2003 and particularly enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. His new mixed-games website Counting Outs is a great starting resource for a plethora of games ranging from the traditional to the exotic. He can be reached at [email protected].