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Razz Poker-Strategy
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Razz is essentially Seven Card Stud played for the low hand. Aces are always counted as low cards, and both straits and flushes don't count against you. The best starting hand therefore is A-2-3.
Razz Starting Hands
As mentioned above, the best starting hand to be dealt at a Razz table is A-2-3. Generally, a good starting hand strategy is to play if you're holding any hand that's ‘3 card 8 or lower', meaning any three unpaired cards that are 8 or lower. However, this depends on your opponents' showing cards, or ‘door cards'. If everyone is showing low door cards, you may want to only play ‘3 card 7 or lower', which is a good hand to limp into Fourth Street with. If you're holding ‘3 card 5 or lower' you probably want to raise.Another thing to consider is your door card. In the first Razz hand you are dealt three cards, two facing down and one showing (the door). The lower your door card, the better the hand, because it can be used to put pressure on your opponents. For example, consider you were dealt A-3-6, with the ace showing and (3-6) as your hole cards. That hand will be represented as follows: A-(3-6). It's simple to see that the hand showing the ace is stronger than 6-(A-3).
Dead Cards at the Door
Though flushes and straits do not count against you when making your low hand, pairs and trips do. It is very important to closely monitor your opponents' door cards, and to evaluate your chances of hitting a pair or a set. Pay attention to ‘dead' door cards as well. These are the showing cards that belonged to your opponents who have already folded their hands. Monitoring your opponents' showing cards is a must in all stud games. The more you remember about folded cards, the more information you have regarding your outs and your chances to hit them. When it comes to Razz starting hands, this information becomes crucial. Your starting hand strength is greatly influenced by the chance you have to hit a pair.
Suppose, for example, you're holding A-(3-4). You look around the table and the door cards that you see are A-2-3-3-4-J. You are holding a strong hand, since there is a very good chance that you will not pick up a pair. It's important to remember all the dead cards in every round, and that is a lot to remember. Unlike Hold'em, where you only see seven cards each round, in Razz you may see as many as twelve cards (including your own) before you've placed your first bet. That's one reason playing Razz online has its benefits - you can use a spreadsheet or special poker software designed specifically for monitoring all the cards on the board.
Comparing Razz to other Poker games, players must take note of significant differences. In Seven Card Stud, for example, you want your cards to be ‘live', so you can hit your doubles and sets. Razz is the opposite. Here you want your cards to be dead as a doornail. Catching a pair on Fifth Street can kill a great hand, so this is an essential part of any Razz strategy.
Steal the Antes
Razz is played with an ante and a bring-in bet on Third Street. If you only play 3 card 8 or lower starting hands, you will loose many antes, and your opponents will have an easy read into your game. For this reason, you should attempt to steal the ante every once in a while. This move obviously depends on your position, but if you are in late position and feel there is a good chance the players ahead of you will fold, you should go for the ante with ‘two card 8 or lower'. This also depends on the showing card, of course. For example, a 2-(8-J) can be a good hand to try and steal the ante with. Plus, there is still a chance you will hit a good hand if you are called, despite the jack in the hole. If, on the other hand, the same hand is showing the jack - J-(2-8), a steal would be very improbable.Fifth Street Magic
A little know fact that can be used to your advantage is that on Fifth Street in Razz city, the best drawing hand is the mathematical favorite to beat any made hand with a 9 low. This may contradict your Hold'em instincts, and that's where the beauty of this strategy lies. In Hold'em, raising after the flop with only a drawing hand (a chance to hit something, but nothing yet) is generally considered a ‘semi-bluff'. If you have a made hand, and your opponent is holding a drawing hand, Hold'em mathematics declare that you should raise, and most of the time you can expect to win. This is true because most of the hand is already determined by that stage in Hold'em. In Razz, however, this couldn't be further from the truth. Having this piece of information and using it against players with a Hold'em mindset can be very advantageous.
On Fifth Street in Razz, the best drawing hand is the favorite to win. The player holding it can expect to beat any made hand with a 9 low. For example, if you're holding (A-3)-2-7-K and your
opponent holds (A-3)-7-8-9, you have a better chance of winning the hand, even though right now your opponent holds the better (made) hand.A good strategy in this situation is to credit your opponent with the best two hole cards possible, since you have no way of knowing what they are. If you hold a good drawing hand on fifth street, and it's better than the best made hand you can place your opponent with, you should go ahead and make use of it, and get him to put more money into the pot. This is not the case come Sixth Street, so if you're still drawing on that hand you should try to get the next card as cheap as possible.
Good Hands Gone Bad
As is the nature of any ace-to-five low game, Razz hands have a tendency to go bad. Players who are used to playing Texas Hold'em may not fully grasp this concept right away. In Hold'em, even
though the relative value of your hand may go down after more cards are flopped, your hand can only improve itself - at least from a strictly technical point of view. Even if your hand doesn't end up winning, you can expect it to be a runner up. In other words, not every flop will win with a pair of aces, but that pair of aces is still a strong bet after most flops. Razz is a slightly different story.When you've played Razz for a while you'll notice that good hands can quickly deteriorate into bad ones. A great ‘3 card five or lower' can quickly turn into a pair, and that pair into a set. When this happens, it's important to respect your opponents' showing cards and the hands they are representing. You must learn to let go of hands that turn sour if you want to succeed in Razz.Know Your Enemy
Where to Play
Razz is a game of board pressure. The lower your showing cards are, the stronger you are. This is because in Razz it's relatively easy to make out the best (lowest) hand your opponent can possibly be holding. Since the goal is to get the lowest ranking hand, many combinations of exposed hands leave your opponents with no possibility of bluffing. For example, if you see your opponent with an exposed pair on Fifth Street, he can not bluff anything less than a pair. If you know you don't have a pair, or at least you know that your opponent doesn't know you have a pair, you can apply pressure with a strong raise.
