Razz Tournaments Tip #1 – Use Your Position

In many other poker games, having the high card is a good thing, but in a Razz tournament turning up the high card is a double-edged sword. The downside is that you’re obligated to make the first bet, but the upside is that it helps you to conceal both good and bad hands while giving you an opportunity to observe your opponents’ bets. Of course the very best betting position to have in a Razz tournament is the last one. Like the bring-in you get a chance to observe your fellow players’ hands, but unlike the bring-in you can bet whatever pleases you. You can often limp through on a weak hand, or try to fold out the field by raising aggressively. The late position becomes especially valuable when you also have the lowest visible hand. You should always bet in this scenario, and if the other players’ bets are weak then you have a good shot at stealing the antes by raising.

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Razz Tournaments Tip #2 -Know the Starting Hands

Most poker players have memorized the hierarchy of possible poker combinations, and almost as many know by heart the best starting hands for their favored games. For high-only games, these hands often contain high pairs or suited kickers. For Hi/Lo games these hands should have draws toward flushes and straights. But in Razz, you’re looking for something totally different. In fact, you’re pretty much looking for nothing. The only card that remains valuable in both high and low style games is the Ace. Remember that you absolutely don’t want pairs, regardless of their individual face value.

Razz Tournaments Tip #3  – Bet Wisely

There are potentially as many as five betting rounds in Razz plus an opening ante. That means that hands can become very expensive if more than one player follows through to the showdown. Unlike games like Omaha and Texas Hold ‘em where you get three cards for the price of one, in Razz you’ll pay for every single card. Remember that when you decide you want to see the second round of dealing. If your initial hand is dreary and you’re assigned to the bring-in position, don’t let that puny bet tie you to the hand. If you’re holding JQK after the first deal and one of your opponents is kind enough to raise, then by all means fold.

Razz Tournaments Tip #4 – Fold Wisely

Speaking of folding…While it’s ideal to start off with a hand of A23, even this beautiful hand can get ruined in the long run. Remember that a lot of evidence is on the table. Even if your down card is an Ace, if you’re showing 239J and an opponent is showing 2456 nothing you bet is going to convince them to fold. At this point, it is you that should be folding.

When you’re playing in a large field, it’s important to start playing aggressively immediately. You want to build your stack as quickly as possible, and the low blinds make it easy to play marginal hands through the flop without investing too much. Likewise this strategy immediately identifies the calling stations and the habitual bluffers, information that will prove useful as the tournament progresses.

Your less skilled opponents will either follow your bet—pumping the pot when your hands are strong and you stand a good chance of winning—or fold—surrendering the blinds for a small but quick win. When you get a monster hand early in the tournament, play it for all its worth. These truly good hands are few and far between and while marginal hands are your bread and butter the big hands will make or break your stack and will ultimately decide your position at the final table.

As the blinds get bigger and the players get better, you’ll have to tighten up your play and betting accordingly. This does not mean playing less aggressively, just avoiding losing your stack by playing over-aggressively with players that aren’t afraid to call or raise. You’ll be folding more in the middle of the tournament where the blinds are more significant, but you’ll also be betting more aggressively on good hands. It’s especially important at this stage in the razz tournament to pick your battles.

By the final table, the blinds will be so big that folding everything but the best hands will be out of the question. At this point, there are few enough players that a middling hand is a good one and a better one is unlikely to come along. Don’t let the blinds or chip leaders push you around—it’s better to take a smart risk going all in on a good hand than to throw your stack away on blinds.

Unlike razz tournament strategy where you have a strategy that encompasses all hands, in razz ring games each hand should be considered individually. Bet conservatively with a middle hand when waiting on the draw and bet aggressively to protect your hand when it is the best going into the draw. Most poker games have a basic strategy, and in razz poker the foundation of your strategy should be to never play a starting hand with a card higher than eight. The best possible starting hand is A23, but any three cards from Ace to five (excluding pairs) is a strong hand and should be played as such.

A very low pair like 2’s is still playable because ultimately you will only be using five of your seven cards, but double pairs are nearly impossible to overcome and are often reason enough to fold unless you are already on seventh street (the seventh card dealt) and your remaining opponents also have visible pairs or bricks (high cards). Which brings us to another important factor in Razz strategy.

The fact that so many cards are visible in Razz makes playing it strategically pretty straightforward. To the end, you have a pretty good idea of where you stand in regards to your opponents just by comparing the face up cards on the table. This makes bluffing nearly impossible as most of your hand is visible, but semi-bluffing is still a common and advantageous strategy in Razz going into fourth street. For example, if you have an A, 2, or 3 as your door card and your opponents are all in the range of 7’s and up, then just going by the basic play strategy of eights and under you may be able to push them to fold thereby stealing the antes and bring-in.

Another thing to keep in mind when playing Razz is that the betting gets more serious by fifth street, so if you get a brick or a pair early on, it’s better to start backing away from your hand early. As with any poker game, a good razz strategy requires you to not only play smart but to bet smart too.