Razz is a game tailor made for fast, fun action. With each player ‘owning’ four upcards visible and separate to the other players’ four upcards, it makes strategizing Razz quite complicated. The general strategies in most Poker games do not easily fit straight into Razz play. The two main strategic moments in a Razz game are at the 3rd Street, with 2 downcards, and at the 7th Street, with 3 downcards. Also, when the 7th Street becomes a ‘common’ upcard shared by all. Otherwise, the strategies of bluffing, folding, raising, and checking have a somewhat more convoluted effect in Razz. As with Seven Card Stud, the important thing is to not chase cards if it’s unprofitable to do so. This is even more relevant in Razz as there are usually more plot-twists with each turn of a card. There are moments when playing conservatively is detrimental to the situation, and moments when playing aggressively is detrimental to the situation. Committing oneself to any decision is a recipe for danger. Nimble and flexible decision-making is required. Learning to play Razz ‘one card at a time’ is the attitude to take, and it is a great training ground for just this lesson in playing other Poker games. It also helps one keep a close eye on every card and every situation and be able to quickly remember key bits of information.
It can be pretty frustrating to keep folding hand after hand in razz, or to start with a good hand and hit a wall on fourth street. Being discipline is key, because a bad starting hand is a bad starting hand. There's no flop that will magically turn Q-9 / J into a good starting hand.
Starting Hands
Your first decision in razz comes as soon as the cards have been dealt. Assuming you're not the bring-in, you have a decision to fold, call or complete/raise. More often than not you don't want to be playing anything worse than a three card eight. Meaning, if your hand doesn't consist of three different cards ranked eight or lower you should usually fold.
4-8 / 3 is more powerful hand than 4-3 / 8
Razz is a game of strong boards. The stronger (lower) your board is, the more pressure you can apply to your opponent. A three card eight with the eight exposed is much weaker than a three card eight with the eight hidden, because if the eight is exposed, your opponent will know for a certainty on fifth street that you can't have anything better than a made eight. This may encourage him to draw against you (to a seven, for example) when he might otherwise fold.
Obviously, if you only played three-card eights, you'd be bleeding quite a bit in antes and bring-ins and would give your opponents a pretty easy line on your play. Sklansky suggests an easy way to mix up your play is to attempt to steal the antes with a two-card eight or better. For example, let's say you have
2-10 / 4
A king brings it in before a deuce, a queen, a nine and a ten all fold to you. Behind you are an ace and a nine. You might try to complete the bring-in here in the hope that everyone folds and you can steal the antes. In the typical structured razz game, you are risking 1 small bet to win 1.85 small bets, with the added luxury that if the ace calls you, and you catch a baby to his bad one on fourth street, he is almost certainly going to fold. If you're at a table where players are more likely to call you, you shouldn't steal as frequently, for the simple reasons that you know you will almost always get action on your good hands. Otherwise, this can be an easy way to at least maintain pace with the blinds and antes until you pick up better hands that (hopefully) don't brick up and you can take to a showdown.
What if you have a three-card eight and someone has completed the bring-in? Generally speaking, you should raise, and there are a few reasons for this. 1) If you suspect they are stealing, then you have the better hand and are getting good pot equity on every additional dollar in the pot. 2) Even if you don't have the better hand, you want to discourage other marginal hands from seeing fourth street. 3) If you catch a baby on fourth street to their bad one, you will probably induce a fold.
Once again, I want to stress that not all three-card eights are created equal. A
7-8 / 6
is generally a pretty marginal hand, especially if there are lots of low cards already out. Be careful how you play hands like this. They do have potential if you draw into a strong board, but it's limited potential.
Dead Cards
If razz is a game of strong boards, it's also a game of dead cards. Unlike holdem, where you will only ever know, at most, six cards when forced to make a decision, in razz you might have seen 13 cards by fifth street, and retaining memory of these cards is critical in the decision-making process as whether to bet, raise, call or fold. It even comes into play as early as third street. A hand like
A-4 / 6
while generally a pretty strong starting hand in its own right, is made even stronger if other players are showing K, 9, A, 4, 4, 6 and T as their doorcards. In such a situation, it is less likely that you will make a pair (hidden or exposed) and more likely that you will draw into cards that complete your hand. Consider instead, the same example
A-4 / 6
where your opponents are showing K, 9, 2, 3, 3, 2 and 5 as their doorcards. Half your cards to a six are already dead. This doesn't mean that you should throw away your hand just yet, but you should understand it's not nearly as strong as it appears at first blush.
In the beginning it's easier to focus on cards that almost always factor into the decision making process: cards ranked 8 or below. As soon as the hand is dealt, note everyone's door card. If it's a 9 or higher, don't worry about it. Otherwise, try to note the cards in order, and repeat them to yourself in your head. For example, let's say the door cards go like this: J, 8, 4, J, T, 4, A, 3. I would look around the table, ignore the ten and the two jacks, and formulate the dead cards like this: A 3 4 4 8 and would repeat that to myself once or twice. Ordering the information this way makes it easier for your brain to process it and hopefully retain it. After third street, it's much easier to keep track of dead cards, because if the hand is not heads up, it will be pretty soon. Rare is the hand of razz that is played three-handed past fourth street, unless you're playing with total donkeys. Which is very likely if you're playing the lower limits at Full Tilt Poker.
Just about all poker players will agree that the game of Razz can be taught to anyone. As a matter of fact, a monkey could probably learn this game. Razz is certainly the easiest game to learn, mainly because most situations are cut and dried. Very often in Razz, it is simple to see who has the best hand. So if you are looking for an easy game to learn, or teach someone else, this is the game for you. Razz is played like 7-Card Stud, except for the fact that it is backwards. Instead of trying to make the best poker hand, you are trying to make the worst. It is much like the 2-7 Triple Draw game we talked about in another article, except that straights and flushes don’t count against you. In other words, the lowest five unpaired cards win.
The game starts by having each player ante in order to receive a hand. For instance, in a $20-40 game (used as specific example), the ante would be $3 per player. The cards are then dealt to each player with the first two face down; the third is face up - followed by a round of betting. The player with the highest ‘up’ card (or door card) has a forced bring-in bet. The bring-in bet would be $5. This player also has the option of starting the betting off with a full $20 bet. The action follows the bring-in bet in clockwise order. To stay in the hand, each player must call the $5 bet, or complete the bet to a full $20.
After the round of betting is complete, a fourth card is dealt face up to all of the remaining players. The player with the lowest board cards is first to act. This player can either bet $20 or check. Once again, the action follows this player clockwise. Then comes 5th street, another up card to all remaining players and is followed by another round of betting. This time the bet is doubled to $40. This is followed by 6th street, the final up card for everyone, and then another $40 betting round. The final card (7th street or river card) is then dealt to all remaining players, but this one comes in face down. This is followed by a final $40 betting round.
Remember, the lowest board cards act first. For instance, a board that reads K-Q-9-3 is a lower board than 7-5-2-2 because the second player has a pair. Each player now has three down cards, and four up cards. The lowest five-card hand wins. With Aces always being low in this game, the best hand possible would be A-2-3-4-5 (a wheel or a bicycle).
The strategy in Razz is really quite simple, play the small cards. Your goal is to make a wheel. While it would be great to make that hand every time, it just isn’t realistic. What you are trying to do is make 6 and 7 lows (low hands that are headed by either a 6 or a 7). Eight lows are fine too and will often win, but just don’t put too much money in the pot with them. It would be great if you could pick and choose the cards that you are dealt, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. So when you are dealt big cards to start, don’t waste your money by chasing long shot draws. Wait until you have a good starting hand to get involved.
Getting started on Third Street is very important. The lower your three cards are, the better your hand is. Ideally, you would like to start with A-2-3. However, you are probably going to play any three unpaired cards under a seven. Playing an eight with two babies (A-2-3) is fine also, but not for more than two bets. What you want to avoid is getting started with a picture card in your hand. Even if you have two babies to go along with it, trust me when I tell you that you are going up hill most of the time. Now, remember earlier when I said that this is the easiest game to learn, here is why.
Fourth Street is the most important street in Razz. When one player catches a good card, and the other catches a bad card (or banana as it is commonly referred to), it is easy to see. For example, suppose that you and I both start with the same hand, (A-2) 6 then you catch a Jack on Fourth Street and I catch a seven. This gives us hands that look like: Your hand (A-2) 6-J. My hand (A-2) 6-7.
I know for sure that I have the best hand right now, and I’m a big favorite to win the hand. Even if I don’t know what your hole cards are, I know for sure that you only have a Jack low right now, while I have four cards to a seven low. While you have to catch two good cards in the last three, I only have to catch one. As a matter of fact, any time that your opponent catches a big card, and you catch a little card, you should bet. It is true that the card you caught might have paired you, but your opponent doesn’t know that. This remains the same throughout the remainder of the hand. Anytime one player catches a big card, and another player catches a small card, everyone at the table will know who was helped and who was hurt. Because of the fact that there are so many up cards in this game, it remains fairly simple to figure out if you are ahead or not throughout the entire hand. Another reason why this game is so simple is that you don’t ever have to worry about your opponent making straights and flushes because you are only trying to make low hands. Also, it is a good thing if he pairs one of his ‘door’ cards, because that way you know for sure that your opponent didn’t improve on that card. One more important part of Razz that is different than Stud is that you don’t need to remember the big cards that have appeared in your opponent’s hands. They simply don’t matter in Razz because your opponents will be playing the small cards too.
As you can see, because of the nature of Razz, this is not the game for you if you want to gamble it up and build monster pots. But if you want a game that requires little people reading ability, yet is still fun, than you better give Razz a try. You just might find something you are good at. Play Razz online today at Full Tilt Poker or Poker Stars.
