Razz (7 Card-Stud Low)
by Mel Leggett (MellowYellow on the Low Limit Poker Forum)
Razz is a version of Seven Card Stud where the lowest hand wins. It’s played exactly the same as Seven Card Stud; there are antes and a ‘bring-in’ rather than blinds, you start with 3 cards and have 5 rounds of betting. The only difference is that instead of trying to make a high hand or choosing to go for either a high or low hand as in Stud 8b, you are only going low. The low hand ranking in Razz is the same as any hi/lo game. You must use 5 cards to make your low hand, Ace is the best low card, the wheel (A2345) is the lowest, and pairs do not count as two separate low cards (for example 22345 would not count as a 5 high since only one 2 counts toward your low).
One final thing to remember when calculating your hand strength is that although pairs are not good in Razz, straights and flushes do NOT count against you.
If you’ve played any other 8b(hi/lo) games you should already have a basic understanding as to how the hands are ranked, the only difference between the low in 8b games is these lows must consist of five cards, 8 or lower. Unlike the other games however, Razz is not a split pot game so any low is playable, even King high!
Razz is spread on a table of 8 just as any Seven Card Stud game, and is also one of the tournaments held every year in the WSOP, but it is most often encounter as part of a HorseSit-n-Go or tournament. HORSE is a tournament that rotates between 5 games every time the blinds escalate. These include
| H | oldem | |
| O | maha | |
| R | azz | |
| Seven Card | S | tud & |
| Seven Card Stud | E | ight or better (hi/lo) |
Not for the Faint of Heart
Do you REALLY hate bad beats? Are you the kind of guy who’s dog better be out of kicking distance when your pocket Aces get cracked by some suck-out bastard? Do you regularly have to replace your monitor after smashing your keyboard though it? If this sounds like you, Razz might not be your game, especially if your wife isn’t the type who thinks domestic violence is funny, and part of a healthy spontaneous relationship.
Razz is a drawing game. No one has a made hand at the start, you are always going to need cards to fill you in, and this means that many times the best hands will turn to garbage by 5th street. To put it in perspective, when your pocket Aces go up against a hand like AQo you are over 90% likely to win. In Razz the best starting hand, A23 vs. a hand like 876 is only going to win about 60% of the time. So why would anyone subject themselves to this? Well there is an entire adult industry based on people who enjoy pain, but beyond that, Razz is a game that is often played very poorly where people are constantly making mistakes. Many poker pros even think of Razz as a game of luck. However, Razz is a game that requires skillful reading of the board and putting players on hands as well as calculating when your draws are more or less likely to hit, and as with all poker, when your opponents are making mistakes you are making money, provided you are not making them as well!
Starting Hands
Razz starting hands can be put into categories based on their highest low card such as:
| 3 High |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 High |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| 5 High |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
And so on. Obviously the best starting hands are the 5 high or lower, but as we said above, there is not as much difference in value between starting hands in Razz as there is in Holdem and other poker games. For this reason we will put the starting hands into 3 groups:
Group 1: Premium, 7-hi or better:
These are all of your non-paired 7hi or lower starting hands such as
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
etc. In Razz any 7hi or better is considered a strong starting hand and can generally be played from any position for any number of bets. These should make up the vast majority of the hands you play.
Group 2: Marginal, 8 + 9hi:
These are all of your non-paired 8 and 9hi starting hands. These hands should only be played under perfect circumstances, late position when there hasn’t been much action before you and a few other special circumstances we’ll cover later.
Group 3: Heads Up Only:
These are the hands that you would normally never consider playing, hands that have poor low value, 2 hidden low cards and one high door card such as:
|
|
||||||||||||
These hands should only be played when you posted the ‘bring-in’ and you suspect someone is attempting to steal the pot and everyone else has folded putting you in a heads-up scenario.
Reading the Board on 3rd Street
When figuring the strength of your hand relative to your opponents in Razz, your hand is only as good as the board says it is. There are a few times when the hand basically plays itself just based on the door cards.
On a board where tons of your opponents have low door cards you may have to fold your 8 high or even a very high 7 like
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | |
Still on other hands your 9 will be the lowest door card and it is time to start betting. These situations above often dictate themselves, but on average about half of your opponents will start with a door card of 7 or lower, and this is where the players approaching the game with technique surpass those that look at Razz as a game of luck.
Because Razz always forces the person with the worst door card to start the hand off by ‘bringing-in’ there should almost always be at least one raise on 3rd street. This is one of the most obvious plays in poker. Since everyone has only 3 cards to begin with, when your opponent brings in with his Ks obviously he is going to be behind the rest of you that come into the hand with your lower cards, so someone needs to push him out of the hand to get a little dead-money in the pot. Now if he decides to call the raise, more power to him, he’s obviously entering the pot at a disadvantage and is going to have to catch 2 or 3 perfect cards in a row to stay in, so make sure you either charge him to play catch-up or get that free bring-in bet in the pot.
When to Re-Raise on 3rd Street:
It shouldn’t take long before you notice that in almost every hand you play there is a raise on 3rd street, but rarely a re-raise. This is because with each person needing at least 2 more cards to complete their hands many of your opponents won’t want to get over invested in the pot until they feel confident in their hands, and as we said above, one good starting hand doesn’t generally have a significant advantage over another good starting hand... at least not at face value. The things to pay attention to when you decide to play a hand are the door cards. Not because you are worried that your opponent is showing a 6 so he has your
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | |
crushed, but because you want to see how live your cards are. If you look around the board when holding your (3A)7 and see a few 3s a 7 and an Ace you are more than likely a favorite over your opponent with his 6 high (unless of course he has the last 3 in his Hole Cards as well). When you are playing a hand and you see many of your cards already on the board but few of the cards you need to complete your low it is time to jam the pot. You run a very small risk of pairing your cards whereas your opponent is going to have to get lucky to catch any of the remaining 3s or 7s. Most of the people you will be up against will not even consider this when entering a hand. They will simply see their 6 is lower than your 7 and bet back at you, paying no attention to the fact that the cards they need to complete their hands are already out on the board. Another thing you should note is what cards you don’t see in abundance. If there were no 4s or 5s on the board and on 5th street you find yourself holding
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
against your opponents
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
it is probably time to pop him with a raise when he bets into you. Because you haven’t seen any 4s or 5s it is very likely that at least one of these cards have paired him up and you are actually ahead with your 8 high. Conversely, if he manages to catch those miracle cards that were in short number, and you find your
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
against his
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
you are going to have to be very cautious as there is a good chance he has already made his 6low and you are now drawing 2 cards behind!
Never Slow-play 3rd Street:
As we’ve mentioned throughout this article, one reasonable starting hand never has a huge advantage over another (without regards to what cards are in short supply). For this reason you should never slow play your hand on 3rd street. With the flow of the game, the person bringing in with his king will be expecting a raise and if there isn’t one you likely wont induce a bet out of him unless he actually catches up with you. This can happen a lot faster than you might think. Even a hand like
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||
is vulnerable. If you catch another 6 pairing you up on 4th and he catches a good low card like a 2 putting your
|
|
|
|
|
|||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
against
|
|
|
|
|||
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
you’ve now slow-played yourself into a situation where you are practically 50/50 in a hand that you could have probably taken down on 3rd and collected the bring-in and antes without a fight. Slow-playing is rarely worth the risk in this game, don’t do it.
Steals:
Sometimes you will find yourself in great position to make steals in Razz. The most common situation is when the high card brings in a few spots to your left and it is folded around to you, with a good low card as your door card, say a 6 for example. You look to your left and see a Jack and then the King who originally brought in. This should be an auto-raise Every Time regardless of your Hole Cards, even if you have
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | |
Your opponents have no way of knowing if you are strong or not, and for all you know they may have a hand like
|
And |
|
||||||||||||
and be waiting for an opportunity to get out of the hand and move on to the next one. This play should result in you winning the bring-in and antes the vast majority of the time, and even when you are called in this situation you are generally only one card away from taking down the pot. As soon as the King high catches another high card or a card that pairs him up he will be dropping the hand.
Marginal Hand Play:
As we mentioned above, sometimes it will be ok to play a hand where you are starting out drawing to an 8 or even a good 9 low. Say for instance you are in a hand holding: (39)4 in late position. You look across the board and see: J, 4, 8, A, 4, 3, 7. The Jack brings in, the 4,8 and Ace simply call the bring-in, the 4 folds the 3 calls and now the action is on you. Clearly there are a lot of lows already on this board, but no one has completed yet, and with only one person to act behind you there is a good chance no one will. With this many lows on the board and the lack of aggression its likely that none of your opponents have solid starting hands, and this coupled with the amount of 4s and 3s on the board may mean you are in pretty good shape. Also with the amount of people that have limped in, the pot is now offering you good odds to make a call and see what happens on 4th street. These are the rare circumstances where you can get away with taking a look at 4th street with a less than optimal starting hand.
*Note: This is a strategy designed for the majority of the tables you will encounter, where you normally see at least one 3rd street raise, if you are on a table that is very passive and there is often no completing on 3rd even when your opponents do have a 7low, you are never going to be sure that your hand isn’t way behind and should therefore avoid getting yourself into this situation.
Don’t Draw 2 Cards Behind:
One of the most important things towards your win-rate is knowing when to drop your hand. You should never continue to draw when you are two or more cards behind one of your opponents. If you catch a blank on 4th but feel your opponent has a very poor low in the works it is fine to continue, but if you miss on 5th again and your opponent continues to catch low cards you need to get rid of the hand.
Even the best starting hand is no exception: You hold
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | |
your opponent boards an 8, when 4th brings:
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Assuming he hasn’t paired up you are about a 2:1 underdog, but if you are only faced with one bet you should be fine to see one more card. However if 5th brings
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
It’s time to fold. Once you are two cards behind it doesn’t matter how good of a draw you think you have or how bad their low is. Trying to make up 2 cards on 5th is only going to result in paying off your opponents as you are forced to call the larger bets with little hope of catching up.
Taking Control of the Hand:
Although a lot of times it is painfully obvious who is ahead in Razz, such as
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
There will often be times when you are unsure. For instance you have been calling down your opponent when 5th street hits and you hold,
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
At first glance it looks like you are probably behind here. However, you do have a 7 low on 5th street, not a very good 7, but you have made a hand. Although your opponent’s cards look scary, this can be a good time to pop him back with a raise, there is a reasonable chance that he has paired his hand and is just betting on the strength of his draw and the cards that are on the board hoping you have paired as well and drop the hand.
We know that he needs a 7 low or better to be ahead of you. This means he needs 2 of the 4 possible cards to make his hand, either a 3, 4, 5 or 7, and don’t forget that when you have some of these cards in your hand it is even more likely that his board cards paired him up. When you have a 7 low or better on 5th street, it is pretty unlikely your opponent has made one as well, especially if you have seen a lot of lows burned in your other opponents’ hands. Don’t assume that just because he has a stronger looking board that all of the cards have hit him perfectly, particularly when you haven’t seen any of his board cards in anyone else’s hands, since this means it’s more likely he has a duplicate in the hole.
Draws on 5th & 6th
An interesting aspect of Razz is that the made hands are not always leading. In holdem you would always rather have 2 pair on the flop rather than just a flush draw since the made hand is ahead. However, in Razz, on 5th street with 2 cards to come, the drawing hand is often actually in the lead!
Say on 4th you held
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||
you bet and he calls when 5th gives you
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Now on 5th he has a 97 low while you are still drawing hoping to make your hand. Because of everything we’ve learned about people chasing draws and sucking out in holdem, most people would assume your opponent is in the lead with his made hand. But with 2 cards to come and such a vulnerable hand to your great draw, you actually have an edge here and shouldn’t be afraid to cap it with him on this street, especially if your opponent has a hand even weaker than 9 high. You will be amazed how many opponents will make a terrible low like Jack high on 5th
|
vs. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
see that you are paired up, and start capping you just because they have a made hand not realizing that YOU are actually way ahead. On 5th street, the best drawing hand is still a favorite over a weaker, made, 9 Low or worse.
However, on 6th street with only one card remaining, if you are still unable to catch your card, you are behind. Let’s continue the same hand and we see on 6th you now hold
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
and he catches another Ace for
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
even though he hasn’t improved here, with only one card left you now would find yourself as a 2:1 underdog going into 7th street. This is where you check/call him down hoping to improve on the last card. Even though you are a 2:1 underdog the pot should almost always be large enough to justify you seeing the last card, especially if you were able to cap on 5th street.
In summary when you are drawing to the best hand as shown above, get as many bets in the pot as you can up to and including 5th street, on 6th if you still haven’t improved get to 7th as cheaply as possible.
On the opposite end, if you find yourself with a made 9 low or worse against an opponent who looks like he is drawing to a monster, do not try and punish him for drawing as you are probably behind, wait until 6th street, if he still hasn’t made a hand, now is where you put in your raises. Once he has made the call and the last card is dealt, unless you have improved to at least a 7low you still should most likely check this hand. There are several reasons for this:
1) Your opponent will usually fold with anything worse than your 9 low so he won’t call any value bets you make on 7th.
2) If he has improved, you’ll probably find yourself faced with a raise and lose an additional bet.
3) If you check to him he may bet at you even though he hasn’t improved hoping to bluff you off the pot. This will net you an extra bet that you would normally not have gotten by betting out.
Reading their Hands:
Sometimes it can get a bit confusing when it gets down to 7th street. Should you value bet? Will he only call if he has you beat? This can be especially difficult online where the games are fast paced causing you to make decisions sometimes before you’ve had a chance to fully process everything. The way to do this is to look at your opponents up cards. Since there are only 2 down cards on 6th he must be using at least 3 of the up-cards for his low, and then on 7th, since everyone gets a 3rd down card, they must be using at least 2 of their up-cards, so in many cases you can tell what your opponents low must be at the minimum.
For Example:
1) You make a 7542A low, your opponent shows:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
With a 75 showing if he caught the perfect card on 7th he could at best have a 7532A, but with only 2 lows showing he was still drawing to beat your 7 low on 6th, in this case you want to bet out since he would have been drawing to only 4 outs or less to beat you, and more often than not, he will have to call with an inferior hand like an 8 high, just because the pot is so big on 7th.
2) You make 8652A, while your opponent holds
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
On this hand you know you were definitely ahead on 6th as he is at best holding an 8732A low, but if he catches a good card on 7th, with his board it is possible he has outdrawn you to a better 8 or 7 low since he could only be using the 7 & Ace from his up cards.
3) You make 76532 while your opponent shows
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Hole Cards | Up Card | 4th Street | 5th Street | 6th Street | River | |
As you can see from this example, there will be times when it is clear that your hand cannot be beat. This is called having a board-lock, when you take your opponents best 2 board cards and plug in the best possible 3 cards he could have and still come up with a low that would not be as good as your own. In the above example his best 2 cards were 8A, so the best low he could have would be 8432A, if you are holding a 7 low he cannot beat you and you should get as many bets into the pot as possible.
Final Plays on 7th:
Razz can be a little tricky on 7th street, most often you are betting, knowing you are ahead on 6th but still with a pretty vulnerable hand. You catch a blank on 7th and are faced with a tough decision. No one wants to miss out on value bets, but betting isn’t always the right answer. Generally when your opponents are calling you down they need to catch a good card to make their low. So if you bet out they either end up outdrawing you and forcing you to call a raise or they miss and fold since they won’t call with garbage. Because of this players are more likely to either raise or fold to a bet on 7th then they are in any other versions of poker. This doesn’t mean that you should never value bet, obviously when you have a power hand like a 6 low or a board lock on your opponent you want to get money into the pot. But when you have only an 8 low against an opponent with a scary board, it is generally better to just check since they won’t often pay to showdown a hand that is worse than yours. It may feel like you are giving up too many bets, but when you see all the times you would have been re-raised or when your opponents would have simply dropped the hand your bankroll will thank you.
