Chasing Low Cards

In Razz, it’s very tempting when you get a good or even mediocre starting hand to wait it out and see if it gets better. Many players will call their way through the rounds even after a couple bad cards. Remember that once you’ve gotten a couple bad cards, the remaining two have to be good if you’re going to salvage your starting hand. That’s not a friendly reminder—it’s a wake up call. If you’ve been playing poker (or really any casino game) long enough, then you know you don’t want to bet your chips on luck, and that’s what you’re doing when you chase low cards. If a quick look around the table shows that your opponents have gotten luckier than you have, and they’re betting to back that luck up, then it’s time for you to stop chasing the ghost and fold.

Underplaying Good Hands

In many cases, you can avoid chasing low cards altogether by protecting the ones you get in your starting hand. If your starting hand yields three cards under five, and the card you’ve got showing is significantly lower than most of your opponents’, then you can consider yourself well-placed. Protect your position NOW. Your low up card should guarantee a later betting position, which gives you a great chance to observe the other players and gauge which ones you might be able to eliminate with a strong bet.

Getting into Raising Wars

Once you’ve made your point about the strength of your hand, you can back off. Other low-carded players hoping to steal the ante might challenge you. Call their raises, re-raise even if your hand is that good, but don’t get into a raising war. Remember that the next card could always be a brick; your opponents’ could be too, so save some of your chips for the next round of betting.

Ignoring the Obvious

It’s good to come to the table with a consistent Razz strategy, but don’t let your analysis of your own hand blind you to what’s right in front of you. Razz gives every player the opportunity to see more than half of their opponents’ hands. The way you use this information can make or break you.

First, the game starts with the same old characters—a dealer and anywhere from two to eight players. The hands are dealt from a traditional deck of 52-cards but unlike more traditional poker games the point is not to build a high hand but to build a low one. You will be dealt seven cards with which you can build the lowest possible hand of five cards. In Razz, the Ace card always plays as 1 and is the lowest and thus best card you can get. Straights and flushes are not acknowledged in Razz, and having a pair or other combination is in fact a bad thing making the best hand an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5.

As with other seven-card stud poker games, each player will ante and then the first two cards will be dealt face down. These are your “hole cards.” Each player will then be dealt one card face up. This card is referred to as the “door card,” and will determine who is first to bet. The player with the highest door card must “bring it in.” That is, they must make the first bet. This process is similar to blinds in that the “bring it in” bet is obligatory and is traditionally set at 1/3 to ½ of a regular bet but is unlike blinds in that it does not rotate in any order.

After the initial round of betting, a fourth card is dealt face up and is followed by another round of betting (with checks, bets, raises, and folds as per usual poker rules) with all bets adhering to the low limit. The fifth and sixth cards are dealt in the same way and followed again by a round of betting with the only difference being that the bets are raised from the low to the high limit. The seventh and final card is dealt face down. Once the bets are placed, the “showdown” ensues wherein each player reveals their hands in an attempt to take the pot.
And that’s how you play Razz!