Lowball: Traditional poker game at Oaks Card Club in Emeryville

San Francisco -- In the old days, before poker on television became as popular as reruns of "Seinfeld," Bay Area poker players gathered in their favorite local cardrooms and played an engaging and fast-paced game called lowball.

The game, a variation of five-card draw, was dealt by players themselves (no professional dealers), who paid the cardroom a flat rate every 30 minutes for use of the table. The object of the game: to have the lowest five cards in the deck.

Thanks to the rise of Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha and seven-card stud poker, the days of lowball are long gone in most Bay Area cardrooms. One, however - the old-school Oaks Card Club in Emeryville - still hosts a regular game on weekday evenings and Saturday mornings, and players come from across the region.

The Oaks' lowball game is played in $20 or $120 betting increments. In both games, players receive five cards. They bet. They discard unwanted cards and receive others from the dealer. They bet again. At this point in the contest, players show their hands. The lowest hand (which, because there are no straights, is ace, 2, 3, 4 and 5) wins.

The $20 game, generally at a regular poker table on many weekday evenings, usually pits six or eight players against one another at one table in the cardroom. The $120 game, which starts at about 11 a.m. on Saturdays, draws a slightly larger crowd and sometimes requires two tables.

Tournament director Allan Wasserman says most of the cardroom's regular lowball players have played for years.

"They started out playing in smaller-limit games and eventually started playing for higher stakes," Wasserman says. He adds that "if a cardroom was licensed for 40 tables, 30 of the tables would have lowball games, with a few panguine games and draw poker games occupying the remaining tables."

Today, because players are dealing to themselves, it's natural that the Oaks takes a cut of the action for use of its table. According to Wasserman, the cardroom accomplishes this by collecting $5 from each lowball player every 30 minutes. This fee, called a collection, is a standard rake for the duration of the game.

Wasserman says the Oaks doesn't exactly make money off its lowball players, and notes that the games aren't played unless enough people show up. He says the Oaks continues the game as a service to a group of customers who have remained loyal over the years.

"The only benefit in keeping the game is to satisfy the customers who come in and still want to play," he says.

News Added: 20 December, 2007

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