7/27 or Seven Twenty Seven Poker

7/27 (seven twenty-seven) is one of my personal favourites among all dealer’s choice poker games and more so because there is a ton of action and your able to keep your opponents guessing. This game is played with a maximum of 10 players and no wild cards. Since 7/27 is a counting game, each card dealt to a player has a value. The object of 7/27 is to reach either 7 or 27 by accepting or turning down cards. This game is a split game, meaning one or more players will be playing for high (27) while one or more players will be playing for the low pot (7). Before we run down the rules of the game we will start with the cards and the value of each card.

7/27 Card Values

• All face cards including tens have a total worth of half a point.
• An A can be used for either 1 point or 11 and is determined by the player receiving the card.
• All other cards are worth face value, e.g. a 5 of clubs is worth 5 points and a 9 of spades is worth 9 points.

How to Play 7/27

To begin playing, each player will receive one card face up and one card down. Players can look at their down card but will not disclose to the table what it is. Once the dealer has completed dealing all of the players their cards a round of betting will commence. Players can either check or bet.

After the betting round has come to a stop, the dealer will begin asking each player in turn if they would like another card. If the player accepts, their card will be dealt face-up for the rest of the table to see.

Passing Cards

The player does have the choice to pass on a card, and will be given a total of three passes. Once they have used each pass their hand is frozen and they will no longer be able to accept anymore cards. After the dealer has made his way around the table and each player has had a turn to accept or pass on their card a betting round will take place.

This process will continue until each player’s hand is no longer able to accept cards. Once all hands are locked players will reveal their down card and the winners will be declared. The dealer will then chop the pot and award half the pot to the player with the lowest hand and half the pot to the player with the hand closest to 27. If you’re playing regular 7/27 and one player has 26.5 while another player has 27.5 the player closest to 27 without going over will be the winner.

Other variations of this game include a no bluffing version whereby if a player goes over 7 they must play for high and if they go over 27 their hand is declared dead and they can no longer win the pot.

How to Win Both High and Low in 7/27

If a player is lucky enough to have A-A-5, that player will win both pots uncontested whether or not another player has high or low. The reason for this is because it is very difficult to receive 7/27 naturally, and like most games in dealer’s choice, the natural hands always win and beat out the others on the table.

7/27 Strategy

Obviously this is a counting game which means your best strategy is to continuously watch the cards on the table, make note of what your opponents have and the number of cards remaining in the deck.