Coming from a Discord conversation, I’m a little unclear on how HRM affects lowball. To start with, I’ve seen this post, and specifically this within that post. And I’m not quite sure it lines up with core rules as they exist now (might have been different back then?).
Starting with the core rules; the lowball rules never actually call out how HRM affects it. You have to jump into shootout rules to get an idea. On page 23, under Takin’ Yer Lumps:
When a card effect increases your hand rank, it is considered to be the worst possible hand of its
new rank unless it is changed to a rank of 11 or above, in which case treat it as rank 11 and equal
to all other rank 11 hands. When a card effect reduces your hand rank, it is considered to be the
best possible hand of its new rank unless it falls below rank 1, in which case it is treated as the
worst possible rank 1 hand.
Somewhat tangential, but this is very confusing, as, while the terms “best” and “worst” are very clear in shootout results (where the rule is defined), they are not at all clear in terms of translating that to lowball (where worst is best, and best is worst).
In the second post of the linked rulings, it claims that a Heretic Joker cannot lower you below a hand of “K Q J 10 8”. Why is that? I would not Intuit that from the core rule (specifically, the bolded part). I am also confused by the discussion above it, which seems to suggest that this was acknowledged, and then redacted?
In the first post of the linked rulings, it claims that hand rank reduction causes you to have the worst hand:
If both players now have hand rank 1, but one was through a modification (ex. Heretic Joker’s -3), the modified hand is considered the “worst” for that format - in lowball this means K, Q, J, 10, 8.
This seems to insinuate that “best possible” (from the core ruling hand rank reduction section) means “highest value” (IE: worst for lowball). This would mean that lowering it beyond HR 1 and getting the “worst possible” would mean the lowest value “A 2 3 4 6” hand, AFAICT?