Online Razz Strategy and Tips

Full Tilt Poker was the first major online poker room to introduce Razz, which is an Ace to Five lowball version of 7 Card Stud. This introduction came at the perfect time as ESPN had just broadcast one of the more memorable WSOP Razz final tables which saw Scott Fishman and other crew members watch TJ Cloutier win his historic sixth WSOP bracelet by sending their teammate Dutch Boyd to the rail as the runner up. Also appearing on this final table was Team Full Tilt members John Juanda and Howard Lederer as well as DoylesRoom team member Hoyt Corkins. When Full Tilt rolled out the game it instantly caught on as a huge hit and while other online poker rooms continue to offer it Full Tilt is still the most popular Razz site online, to get start playing online Razz visit the Full Tilt Poker website.

How to Play Razz, Betting + Hand Rankings

Razz is played exactly like 7 Card Stud, however the object in this game is to make the best low hand using standard Ace to Five Lowball hand rankings. In A-5 there is no such hand as a straight or a flush so A2345, no matter what the suits, is the best possible hand and A2346 is the second best hand. When ranking the hands, first players compare the highest of their five card low hands: for example A2358 is an eight low and would lose to 34567 which is a seven low. In the case of copies such as A2367 (seven low) versus A2567 (also 7 low) the second card must be examined which in this case is again the same with both players having a 7-6 low, when we go one more kicker deep we see that 7-6-3 low beats 7-6-5 low so the hand A2367 is the winner. Razz hand rankings are often confusing to new players; just keep in mind its like normal poker rankings where kickers often play just in reverse as the goal is to make the lowest hand possible.

Also reversed when comparing Razz to traditional 7 Card Stud is which player acts first in the various betting rounds. During the opening betting round the bring-in is with the player with the highest card and during streets to follow betting starts with the player with the lowest hand showing.

Razz Tips and Strategy

In Razz your premium starting hands are ones with three to a wheel (A2345) with A23 being the best hand, however in this game it’s not profitable to always be sitting around waiting for premium hands. Stealing antes and bluffing is a big aspect winning Razz strategy. For example if your door card is 8 or lower and all you opponents are showing a card ten or higher it is usually correct to raise even if you have a high pair in the hole. Even if players suspect you’re bluffing half the time, it simply is not profitable for them to make call these raises often having so far only invested a small ante each. First and foremost Razz is a game about stealing antes and playing aggressively when your opponents blank.

Aggression and Bluffing is also important on later streets of Razz Hands. Even premium starting hands often develop into concealed pairs. For example if you start with A2 in the hole and a 4 as your door card and then catch another Ace and four you got yourself two pair on th which is obviously a very poor razz hand. However what your opponent sees is A24 on your board and even if he suspects you’ve paired once he still probably puts you on at least a four card wheel draw. If his board is showing something like 875 it would be correct to bet in this spot. He might call you on this street, but if either you catch a low card on sixth or he catches a brick on Sixth Street, an additional bet will almost certainly earn you the pot.

One theme you’ll see in our advice so far is that Razz is a game of aggression. It is rarely ever correct to slow play a big hand, so in this game you’ll often be representing big hands with raises and reraises both when you have the big hands and when you’re simply trying to bluff your opponent out of the pot.

In addition to being about aggression and bluffing Razz is also a game about memorization and odds. Often time you’ll find yourself in spot where the only way to win the pot is to showdown the best hand. This will occur both when you’re up against a made hand and when you’re in a pot with an unbluffable opponent. For this reason its important to keep track of what cards have been mucked.

Let say for example you’re in a 3 way pot on 6th street and you’ve determined that you can win the hand for sure with a deuce and might win the hand if you’re dealt a six. At this point you know the six cards you are holding, you know four additional cards of each of your opponents and you know the upcards of four players that mucked on Third Street. This is 18 of the 52 cards you’ve now seen leaving 34 you haven’t seen. If none of the cards you’ve seen were a two or a six you’d be able to calculate your odds bases something like this:
“a six will win me the hand half the time so let me discount the four outs to two outs”
“a two will win me the hand every time but it seems likely that one of my opponents has one of the four unseen twos so let me discount that to having 3 additional outs”.
You’ve now determined your odds of winning the pot are roughly 5/34 with is 1 in 6.8 times. Here you’ll examine the amount of money in the pot as well as what will likely be in the pot in order to determine the correct poker decision. This will get easier to do with through experience especially if you also spend time studying the game.

Razz is a game that best learned from experience and hand discussion with fellow players. A good place to discuss challenging Razz hands would be the forums at twoplustwo.com. As far as book recommendations to be honest this is one of the few games I don’t know of a decent book that has been dedicated entirely to the game, one might exist but because I haven’t read any, I can’t judge. The best reading material I know of is the Razz section in David Sklanky’s book Sklansky on Poker. If you read that book, get some practice in the game and discuss occasional tough hands on 2+2 you’ll likely stand a decent shot at doing well at Full Tilt Poker’s Razz games as to be honest the game competition there is not all that difficult to crack.