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Andrew Howes
Barton 332 - Writing for the Professions
05/05/2020

Cover Letter
1018 Jameson St.
Saint Paul, MN 55103
March 28, 2020

David Sklansky
Two Plus Two Publishing
123 Tortuga Ave.
Las Vegas, NV 88901

Dear Mr. Sklansky:

I am writing to propose a book for Two Plus Two Publishing. The book would
focus on triple-draw lowball and would be a strategy guide for beginners and
intermediate players.

As you may know, there are no books dedicated to triple-draw lowball poker. The
best option currently for potential players is Daniel Negreanu's chapter in Doyle
Brunson's Super System II from 2005. This is a valuable resource but it is only 34
pages long and is now fifteen years old. I believe that there is a significant market
for this book. I also believe that a dedicated volume like this could invigorate
triple-draw table games and tournaments in Las Vegas and beyond.

I am an enthusiastic amateur and have spent hundreds of hours on the felt and a
similar amount of time contemplating the game's nuances, calculating odds, and
debating with other players on the Two Plus Two forums and the
Rec.Games.Poker newsgroup. *

For almost twenty years now I have a been a Two Plus Two reader and I would be
very excited to work with you.

You can reach me by phone at (320) 309-8893 or by email at

a.howes1983@gmail.com. Thank you for your consideration.
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Sincerely,

Andy Howes

*Although I like this game, in reality, I am not qualified to write this book.

Background Info

Triple-draw is a variant of poker in which the player with the lowest-ranking poker
hand wins. There are two common versions of the game: Ace-to-Five, in which
straights and flushes are of no significance, and Deuce-to-Seven, in which straights
and flushes count against the player. There are no strategy books dedicated to
triple-draw, so I intend to write one.

Themes
This book will be a traditional strategy guide in the manner of Sklansky's Hold'em
Poker for Advanced Players. The book would seek to prepare studious readers to
succeed at triple-draw table games and tournaments at all levels. Readers should
also get a sense of why the game is fun and why it is different from other poker
games.

Planned Content and Style

This will be a strategy guide and should be roughly in line with Two Plus Two's
other publications. The prose doesn't need to be formal, but it should be reasonably
straightforward. Anecdotes and jokes where the mood strikes.

Ideally, math will be used to support and legitimize the book’s proposed strategies.
Though math is very important in poker, it should not need to be central (at least
explicitly) in the explanation or understanding of these strategies.

Readers should be able to calculate pot odds and know their chance of catching
winning cards in a hand. They should get a basic sense of the importance of game
theory in poker, but they don’t need to understand it as a mathematician would.

Estimated Length
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Triple-draw and other games of lowball poker are fundamentally simpler than
traditional poker games. The range of relevant hands is limited mostly to unpaired
hands, which constitutes slightly more than 50% of all possible 5-card poker
hands. There are no community cards and no cards are exposed during play. For
these reasons, I don't feel that a book on this game would need to be nearly as long
as Mr. Sklansky's Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, for example. I would
estimate around 125 pages should be reasonable.

Figures
Naturally, this sort of book will call for some poker hand diagrams and charts. This
can be expressed with text alone if desired, but proper card images might make the
book more lively. Color is probably unnecessary, though red hearts and diamonds
would add color.1

Layouts
Sidebars could be included focusing on interesting hands from World Series of
Poker tournaments or other examples of high-level poker play.

Organization
The book will be broken into chapters which will focus on particular aspects of
play. Starting hands, betting position, and post-flop play are a few examples of
potential chapter titles. In addition, as triple-draw is played in two variant forms
(Deuce-to-Seven and Ace-to-Five), further separation can be drawn with that in
mind.

I think it would also be fun to include a chapter on Badugi (a four-card game

which also includes three rounds of drawing) and a chapter on 17-card Chinese
poker. I would estimate around 10 chapters, in all.

Market Overview
The primary audience for this book are people who are interested in playing triple-
draw poker, either online or in person, and would like to do so successfully.
Secondary audience potential is limited for this book, but there may be some

1 Literally!
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appeal for persons who are interested in game theory mathematics. Also, some
strategic nuances may appeal more generally to those who are interested in
creating their own games, poker or otherwise.

Triple-Draw is spread at several online card clubs, most notably PokerStars. It is

also played all around the world in brick-and-mortar card clubs and casinos,
though mostly as part of mixed games. Generally, the highest-stakes cash games
are mixed, so understanding Triple-Draw is essential for top-tier cash-game
players.2

Searching Google for “Triple-Draw” gives about 140,000 results, as compared to

532,000 for “Seven Card Stud” and 18.6 million for “Hold’em”. Triple-Draw
appears to be the most popular game being discussed in Two Plus Two forum’s
“Draw and Other Poker” section.

Competition
The most significant competitor for this book is Doyle Brunson’s Super System II.
This was originally published in 2005 and includes a 34 page section by poker
great Daniel Negreanu on Triple-Draw. Though short, the chapter offers a
competent and fairly comprehensive strategy for successful Triple-Draw play.

The Amazon Best Sellers Rank for Brunson’s book is #164,102. It is also ranked
#95 in their Poker (Books) category. There are 226 customer reviews for the book,
with an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. The paperback is $28.99 and a Kindle
edition is available for $9.99.

The site Goodreads has 884 ratings for the book and 26 reviews, with an average
rating of 3.79 out of 5. The book is nearly 700 pages long (with some dross) and is
printed in black-and-white with occasional illustrations.

Two Plus Two co-founder Mason Malmuth’s review3 finds the book to be poorly
written and edited and mostly underwhelming. He references Negreanu’s section
as “the only write up (as of this moment) of triple draw lowball”, but does not
otherwise comment.

2 As opposed to tournament players, who can get by specializing in Hold’em if they like.
3 https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=28499281&postcount=7
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A more recent entry is Ken Lo’s A Poker Player’s Guide to Mixed Games. Ken is a
contributor to pokernews.com. A search of thehendonmob.com4 does not show a
Ken Lo, which indicates that, at least in tournaments, he is not a prominent player
and certainly does not match Mr. Negreanu’s bona fides. According to the table of
contents, Ken devotes 54 out of 696 (!) pages to Triple-Draw.

Amazon ranks the book as the 288th most popular poker book on its site. There are
15 reviews on the site, all of which are either 4 or 5 stars. It costs $39.95.
Goodreads shows 5 ratings with an average of 4.6 out of 5.

There is one other book on the topic, Lowball Poker by Franco Sozzi, but it is
written in Italian and has not been translated to English. One 4-star review on
libreriauniversitaria.it (run through Google Translate) tells us very little about the
book. Even in Italy, it does not appear to be a significant work, and can probably
be safely disregarded.

Beyond books, there are a few resources online worth mentioning. Firstly, Two
Plus Two’s own “Draw and Other Poker” forum section sees discourse on the
game with some regularity, and it is often very good. One might also piece
together a reasonable education by digging through the archives of Card Player
magazine at cardplayer.com. Otherwise, a Google search for “Triple-Draw
Strategy” offers a plethora of articles from a similar number of small poker
websites.

About the Author

Without question, I am unqualified to write this book. I have played Triple-Draw
live once, at a $100 mixed-game tournament at Canterbury Park casino. I have
played significantly more online but with only middling success.

Besides Triple-Draw, I have played quite a lot of poker for a lapsed amateur,
mostly in my early twenties. My peak achievement came in 2007-2008, when I
won a trip to Australia to play in the Aussie Millions $10,000 main event. I did not
place in the tournament, but I did happen to win $11,000 in an online tournament
while I was there.

Chapter Summaries

4 A major database for poker tournament results.

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Introduction: A foreword, perhaps, from a famous poker player. Introductory

pleasantries. An explanation of the games origins and its significance in the poker
world. The rules of the game, hand rankings, etc. Eight to eighteen pages.

Starting Hands: The hands that one can successfully play without losing money.
Pat hands,5 1-card draws, 2-card draws, and 3-card draws. The importance of the
deuce (in deuce-to-seven). The importance of paired low cards. Hands you can
play in or out of position.6 Hands you can play against tight players, loose players,
passive players, and aggressive players. Eighteen pages.

The Flop: The second round of betting, which comes after the first draw. When to
bet or to check, when to call or to fold, and when to raise. How to act when you’re
a card or more behind and when you’re a card or more ahead.7 Hand examples to
demonstrate important concepts and common tricky spots one can run into. The
dynamics of multi-way pots as opposed to heads-up pots. Fifteen to twenty-five
pages.

The Turn: Third round of betting, following the second draw. Betting stakes
double, so this often an inflection point. Hence the name, “the turn.”

Again, we look at when to bet, to fold, to call, etc. When to give up on a draw.
When you’re doomed. How to decide whether to keep a mediocre made hand or to
continue drawing. How to interpret a surprise raise or check-raise. Fifteen to
twenty-five pages.

The River: Last round of betting. No more draws. Whether to bet when you had a
made hand against a drawing player. Whether to call a bet with a mediocre made
hand against a player who had been drawing to beat you. When to value bet. How
to play if you’ve missed your draw, or if you’ve hit it. Ten to twenty pages.

Snowing, bluffing, and other trickery: What is snowing and when to do it. When to
bluff and against whom? When to check-raise and when to be direct. Is it even a
good idea to bluff in this game? When or whether to semi-bluff. When to put
pressure on a pat hand, hoping to get them to break and go for another draw. Ten to
fifteen pages.

5 Made hands that can win at showdown. As opposed to draws, which are not yet complete.
6 The player who acts later in a hand has a major advantage in all forms of poker. This informs the
number of hands they should play.
7 This game has no exposed cards, so the information one has to work with comes from their betting
patterns, their behavior and demeanor, and the number of cards they choose to draw.
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Game theory: Balancing your play. Managing your image and reacting to other
players’ expectations. Exploiting the imperfect play of others. Avoiding being
exploited. The Shania8 and the importance of viewing poker as a sequence of hands
rather than one hand at a time. Paying attention to other players and reacting
accordingly.

Odds: Likelihood of making one’s hand. Counting outs and possible outs.
Calculating pot odds. When it’s worth to keep drawing and when to give up. Odds
for common situations — behind a card against another player, drawing against a
pat hand, etc. The concept of equity. Odds of a good draw against a mediocre or
bad made hand. Twenty pages.

Badugi: The rules of the game. How this like Triple-Draw and how it is very
different. Is this even poker? Why a draw is also a made hand in Badugi. Why a
high Badugi is not so great. Five to fifteen pages.

Chinese Poker: What is this game and why is it fun? Again, is this really poker?
The rules of the game. Counting points. Bonuses and tie-breakers. Variations of the
game. How to build your hands. Five to ten pages.

Glossary: Important general poker terms and terms specific to this game or other
lowball games. Nicknames for hands, cards, etc. Definitions of important concepts.
One to three pages.

Schedule for Completion

I expect to reach a midpoint around July 4th, and should be finished by Labor Day,
September 7th. The horrific, global pandemic should give me some extra time to
work with.

8 This a the cute, pseudo-spiritual term which basically means the continuity of all poker hands. Coined
by Abdul Jalib M’hall (AKA Michael Hall) back when the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup was the main
place to talk about the game online.