Raising the up-card in stud and razz

Poker Variants / Marcus Bateman / 15 February 2011 / Leave a Comment

All limit games are as much about saving bets when behind as they are about winning them when ahead, and simply throwing money around every time you have the highest card is generally a recipe for disaster in the long run in all variants of stud bar razz.

In the first betting round of seven card stud, the 'bring in' bet forces the lowest (or highest card in razz) to make a forced bet to kick off the action. Generally the action then falls to the player with the highest (or lowest in razz) to play. Many people tend to either raise the strongest card showing pretty much regardless in both games, or only ever raise with a hand of some kind, but there are some key adjustments needed in both games in this area, ones that it is crucial to understand if you are starting to play these two games.

The key difference between the games is that you can be much looser in raising the up-card in razz than you can be in stud. This is simply because the concealed hand combinations in razz are much smaller, which means that your hand is strongest a much higher percentage of the time. In stud high, people can easily have concealed pairs, three suited or connected cards, or even roll up trips any time they have just a lowly card showing. In razz, even assuming they have two very small cards concealed, the best they can have at that point is a hand worse than yours appears.

If you have an eight showing in razz, then even someone with a (2h3c)9s like hand in razz knows that they could well be behind if you raise, where as a similar situation in stud you will get action much more frequently, as there are vastly more possible concealed holdings lurking beneath your opponent's down-cards. Your raising of the up card in razz can often hover around the 100% mark (particularly in short handed games), but this figure must be much lower in stud in all but the most passive games.

All limit games are as much about saving bets when behind as they are about winning them when ahead, and simply throwing money around every time you have the highest card is generally a recipe for disaster in the long run in all variants of stud bar razz. In all limit games, cards have to do the majority of work for you, simply because it is so hard to bluff when you cannot control the odds on offer.

Building large pots with weak hands simply because you appear to be ahead of the one card showing can make your life much harder in stud, and although they can appear great spots to steal in, they will often end up costing you a lot more than you bargain for. On the flip side in razz, not raising enough can see you miss out on huge numbers of pots that you could have stolen, and balancing these two conflicting interests is crucial to long term success in stud games.

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