Bloggers / Chris Edwards / 10 December 2008 / 2 Comments

Razz is a simple game. It is played identically to 7 Card Stud with one key difference, the lowest hand wins.

Straight and Flushes don't count against your hand, while pairs or better do, so the best possible low hand in Razz is A2345 (or a 5 low), then A2346 (or a 6-4 low) then A2356 (or a 6-5 low) and so on.

The simplicity of Razz gives it a unique quality over most poker games in that your receive much more information about someone's hand. Lets say in Hold'em the board shows 2 3 6. While these cards are weak, it is still possible to make a very strong hand such as a set, a straight or two pair. Similarly in Stud Hi, if someone has a deuce as their doorcard (or upcard) they could still have a strong hand with any large pocket pair, or a very strong hand with rolled up deuces (three of a kind).

In Razz however, as we only play for low, high cards can't be part of a good hand. So if someone is showing a King as their doorcard we know they don't have a good starting hand. This kind of information means that we can steal antes and bring-ins with relative ease, much more so than other games.

A good starting hand in Razz is, as you might of guessed, three low cards. The lower the cards, the better the starting hand. As a general rule you don't want to be playing a hand for value unless it contains three cards 8 or lower. You can be slightly tighter than this to begin with by never playing a hand worse than 8 6 x in full ring games. Like other poker games the value of hands goes up the shorter the table, however to begin with its probably best to never show down a worse hand than an 8-6 low.

Another major factor on how how strong your starting hand is in Razz is a general Stud concept, how 'live' it is. If you see that there are lots of your pair cards (cards that if dealt to you would give you a pair) out as doorcards then this makes your hand considerably stronger. Conversely, if there are none of your pair cards but lots of low cards as doorcards, then this can make a starting hand like 8-7-6 very weak as there is less chance of improving.

Finally, now that we know all of this, we need to look at stealing. Lets say we are dealt (KQ)A, with the Ace being our doorcard. The player to our left brought in with a Q showing and the action was folded to us. We know he does not have a good starting hand, yet he can't know that about our hand. We can raise him and even if he suspects us of stealing, there is little he can do about it. Even if he does calls, we can confidently double barrel if we catch another low card and he catches another high card or open pair. Because you can't get trapped by a deceptively weak looking hand, stealing is very important.

Razz is a simple game on the outside, yet it is often played at a very low standard. Following these basic strategies will help you gain an edge very quickly in this fun and unique game.

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