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Razz Me Up
Recently, I’ve been getting a little bored with No Limit Hold’em and I’ve been branching out into other games, particularly Seven Card Stud and it’s relatives. One game I’ve really fallen in love with is Razz, which is Seven Card Stud played low. Razz is played in relatively few places, but where it is found the games are invariably good. Many people look at Razz as a simple game, and in some ways it is, but it is their underestimation of the skill required to play Razz that causes so many people to play it so badly. These people wouldn't think of playing a 9-4 offsuit in first position in a Hold'em game, but they'll happily call a raise with a queen showing in Razz.
In a nutshell, Razz is a game which isn’t hard to learn, and a skilled player has a huge edge over people who look down on the game as ‘simple’.
Third Street
As in all forms of poker, if you start with the best hand you are usually going to finish with it. In Razz however, several factors affect the strength of your hand that might not have a bearing in other games. They are:
- How low your cards are. In Phil Hellmuth’s book Play Poker Like The Pros, the author suggests that any three card hand below a seven is considered strong enough to play for any number of bets on third street, unless there has been heavy action and your seven is rough. This isn’t quite true, but it’s not a bad guide. Jennifer Harman, in a recent article, suggests that you should usually start with three cards below an eight, and that’s usually true. Razz is a drawing game, and the smoother your draw the better. Starting with A-2-3, for example, ensures that any hand you make is likely to be the best of it’s type – although there isn’t really much difference in strength between A-2-3 and 3-4-5.
There is almost never a good reason to call the bring in or a raise with a hand that includes a pair, or a card ten or higher. Even if you start with a K-A-2 (the best possible king on third), you will make an eight or better less than 20% of the time (ignoring the cards that are out), and even when you do make it you will sometimes be beaten.
- The strength of your upcard. Which card you are showing is probably more important than the actual value of your hole cards. More often than not in a typical game, the hand with the strongest board will win before a showdown, so starting with the weakest board is a severe handicap. If your highest card is up (and it’s higher than a five), your opponent can gauge the strength of his hand against yours much more accurately, and he’ll make better decisions against you.
For example, lets say you start with [7-A]-3 (where the cards in brackets are your hole cards). On fourth street you catch a 4. Your opponent doesn’t know what hand you are drawing to – you could have A-2 in the hole and have a very smooth draw, or you could have a K-Q in the hole and be trying to steal the antes. In contrast, if you have [A-3]-7, and then catch a 4, your opponent knows that the best you can have at that point is 7-4-2-A (if you had A-2 in the hole). He can judge his hand against yours, and will bet or raise when he is ahead and fold or wait to catch up if he is behind.
- The cards that are out. As in Seven Card Stud, in Razz you have a great deal of information about what cards remain in the deck. The strength of your starting hand is greatly affected by the cards others are showing. For example, if you have A-2-3, and your opponents are showing 4,4,5,5,6,6,7, you can see that many of the cards you need to make your hand are gone, and all the cards that pair you are still left in the deck. Therefore, you have to play much more cautiously than you would if their upcards were A-A-2-2-K-Q-J, where all the cards you need are still in the deck and most of the cards that pair you are gone.
The cards that are out can also give you information on later streets. For example, if two sevens are gone, and your opponent catches one, you know it is less likely to have paired them than usual.
One of the things that makes Razz games so good is that most of your opponents will only use the upcards to make a decision about how strong your hand is, and forget how they affect their own. Some people will play an A-2-3 until sixth street or the river without improvement, with little or no chance to win, and then complain about being outdrawn. But the truth is they weren’t a substantial favourite in the first place.
If you do get dealt a strong hand on third street, you should usually enter the pot with a raise. If somebody else has already raised, you should often reraise, especially if you have them board-locked (for example if you have 2-3-5 and they are showing a 6). There is an argument for keeping the pot small against weaker players, to give them an opportunity to make a mistake by chasing a small pot on later streets, getting incorrect odds. Usually however, you want to get as much money in the pot as possible when you hold the best hand.
In Razz, a lot of ante-stealing occurs on third street, especially in short-handed games. This is because usually the person who brings in has a bad card like a king showing and can’t often justify continuing against a person with a better upcard. You should frequently attempt to steal the antes too. For example, if it’s folded round to you and only the bring-in remains, you should complete with almost any three card holding provided your upcard is low and his is high (which it usually will be). You can also get away with stealing through one other player with a low card, who will usually have to fold.
The good thing about stealing in Razz is that even if you get called, you can still take the pot away on fourth street if you catch good and your opponent catches bad.
With all this ante-stealing going on, it should be clear that you need to defend your bring-in bet occasionally. Lets say you bring it in with a jack showing, everybody folds to the person to your right, and they complete it with a nine showing. Under certain conditions, you can call. First, the person who completed it must be capable of stealing (which, fortunately most people are). Secondly, you want two cards lower than their upcard in the hole, so you at least have a good chance to outdraw them if they’re completing with a genuine hand. What you’re hoping for is that you’ll improve on fourth street and they’ll catch bad. It’s a long shot, but occasionally it works and you’ll nearly always win a big pot when it does (because most people will continue bluffing no matter what you catch).
Fourth Street
If there’s been a reraise on third street and you’re still in the hand, the pot is nearly always big enough to bet or call a bet. If however, there’s only been a raise or the pot has just been called, you must be more conservative.
If you both catch good, you should mix up your play. Occasionally bet, occasionally check-call, and occasionally check-raise. If you catch good and they catch bad, it’s an automatic bet even if you’ve paired a hole-card. Usually your opponent will be making a mistake by calling, and you should certainly encourage them to do so. You should almost never give your opponent a free card to beat you, unless you have a practically invulnerable hand.
If you catch bad while they catch good, you should usually fold. David Sklansky calls this your ‘big money maker’, because most of your opponents will call the ‘cheap street’ no matter what they catch, whereas you will not make this mistake. Never get attached to a good starting hand in Razz. If you have A-2-3 in a small pot and catch a king, while your opponent with a 6 catches a 5, you should probably fold to their (inevitable) bet.
If you both catch bad cards, there isn’t much point in betting unless your bad card is lower than your opponent’s. If your opponent pairs and you catch bad you should almost never bet for two reasons: you’ll be first to act on all subsequent rounds of betting (unless you catch a higher pair) giving you a positional disadvantage, and you may not even be the favourite.
Fifth Street
On fifth street in Razz, you can see three of your opponent’s four upcards and you already have an idea as to the best hand he can make. For example, if your opponent is showing something like J-10-9, you know that the best hand he can make by the river is a 9-4-3-2-A, since he must play at least one of the cards that he’s showing. If you’ve made a 9-4-3-2-A or better, you’ve got your opponent board-locked and cannot lose the pot.
One interesting facet of Razz is that on fifth street, a very good draw such as a four card wheel is often a favourite over a rough made hand, like a nine. This is a nice piece of information to know – it can save you bets when you have the nine and win you them when you have the draw.
Playing fifth is fairly simple, since its usually clear who has the best hand. If you’re showing two good cards to your opponent’s bad cards, it’s an automatic bet, and it’s an automatic fold if you’re showing the bad cards to his good cards. If you’re on even footing you should mix up your play by betting, check-calling and check-raising, with the bias towards betting if there’s a chance that your opponent has paired up.
Sixth and Seventh Streets
On sixth, there’s normally enough money in the pot to warrant calling a bet unless you might be drawing dead. At this point you have further information about what your opponent’s best possible hand can be. If they’re showing 9-8-7-6, their best possible hand at the showdown will be 7-6-3-2-A. If you have that tied or beaten you have your opponent board-locked and are in poker heaven!
On seventh street, a lot of silly bets are made. Often it is clear that your opponent is drawing to beat the hand you have. Lets say you’ve made a 9-7-5-4-2, and your opponent is showing 10-7-2-K. You should check the river, not bet. Betting would be ridiculous because it’s obvious that your opponent is drawing to a seven, and unless he is stupid he won’t call with what is probably a ten. So there is no value in betting since you won’t be called by a worse hand, and will probably be raised by a better hand. By check-calling, you give your opponent a chance to bluff at the pot, and lose less money if they have made their draw.
Some other players know that check-calling the river is the best course of action in certain circumstances. If you know which players these are, and then see them bet what looks like a checking hand on the river, you should call more frequently than usual, since the bet is often a bluff. I’ve made plenty of money in tournaments by picking off this particular bluff with as little as a jack-nine.
You should bluff yourself when your board appears strong and you are unlikely to be called as often as the pot odds dictate.
Final Thought
Razz appears to be simple, but I hope I’ve shown that there is more to the game than meets the eye. Because so many bad players inhabit the Razz games online, and because it’s easy for a good starting hand to catch a truckload of bricks, you’ll get outdrawn more than in most other forms of poker. Howard Lederer once said that ‘after playing Razz for a whole day, you really feel like you want to beat someone up’, and that may be true. But if you can dodge the bricks, catch a few cards, and keep your cool, you’ll reap huge rewards.
Alex Scott, June 2005
