Razz Poker Strategy

The most important decision you’ll make in any Stud poker game is choosing what hands to play on 3rd street. This is especially true in Razz. Picking the right hands to play will make or break your game; therefore it’s important for you to really know what’s worth playing. Razz is not a game for loose-aggressive players. That’s not to say you shouldn’t play an aggressive game—far from it. You should play a very aggressive game, but only with stellar holdings; hence the importance of tightness in Razz. Follow the simple rules below to maximize your 3rd street value. Your overall Razz game will thank you.

Razz Rule #1: Low and Low Alone

It’s critical that you don’t play marginal hands on 3rd street in Razz. A marginal hand is here defined as basically any 3 cards that are not all low. Some examples of marginal/bad Razz hands are:

• A-4-9
• 4-5-T
• A-2-A

If you choose to play hands like those listed above, you’ll need to be content with high-variance results; more likely, you’ll need to get used to a lower winrate, provided you aren’t the next Daniel Negraneu on all other streets.

What are some good starting hands, then? Any 3rd street holding containing 3 low cards is considered good. And of course, the lower the better. Some examples of good Razz starting hands are:

• A-2-5
• 3-4-5
• A-2-8

All of the above hands put you in excellent standing to win by 7th street. If you’re dealt something like what you see in the above list, you can pretty confidently bet, bet, bet your way through the first few streets of play. That is, of course, until an opponent gives you a reason to slow down.

Razz Rule #2: Look Around You

Stud games are unique among types of poker in that you can see some of your opponent’s cards. This can be used to your advantage in a big way. Top caliber Razz players win precisely because they know how to relate upcards back to their own hands. Here’s how you can start to do so, too.

The basic idea in Stud is that you want as many outs as possible from the get-go. You’re drawing to low cards; it follows that you want lots of low cards to be available for you to draw. Razz differs from Stud Hi in that high hands don’t count at all, for anything. Thus you also want your opponents to hold as many cards that you already hold as possible.

An example might make this a bit more clear. Imagine you’re dealt A-4-5 on 3rd street. Your table looks like this:

• You:  (A-4)-5
• Opp1: (x-x)-A
• Opp2: (x-x)-4
• Opp3: (x-x-)-J

How do your opponent’s upcards affect your relative hand strength? Well, you’ve got two villains showing cards of a rank that you already hold. This is in fact good for you in Razz, whereas in Stud Hi it would be bad. It’s critical to understand this concept: you want the cards you hold to be relatively dead.

Since in Razz high hands mean absolutely nothing, drawing a pair actually hurts you. Knowing that your opponents hold another A and another 4 decreases the likelihood that you’ll draw to a pair; in turn this increases the likelihood of your drawing to a low card that helps you. Thus your hand is stronger than it would be if your opponents were showing two random cards, and you can play a bit more aggressively.

Razz Rule #3: Don’t Call Me, I’m Busy

As mentioned earlier, playing aggressively is extremely important in Razz. You want to pump pots full of as much cash as possible when you’ve got an edge. This means bet, bet, bet whenever you feel a sense of strength.

For example, if you’re dealt A-2-3, you need to bet as much as you possibly can. It’s the best hand you can possibly be dealt, and you need to maximize the value you get from it—it’s not coming around every day! A lot of players—especially from Holdem backgrounds—would slowplay a dominating hand like A-2-3. This is a huge mistake.

Razz is not a game of subtle tricks and huge, trappy edges. It’s a drawing game. You need to think in a long-term way, injecting pots with money whenever you have an edge. Other than in very specific situations—which we won’t get into hear—this is pretty much always correct. If you’ve got the goods, let ‘em know with a bet. Chances are they’ll pay it off.

• Razz Poker Strategy