How The Razz Do You Play Razz?

[CodyDean 0]

ok seriously. everytime i think to myself, "alright cody, you got it down man. you know how this game goes, give it a shot" i try to play razz. think i have the best hand...and find out, my hand blows and i lose. how the fuuuuuuuuuuuck do you play this game? i mean, if a-5 is the best possible hand. then why does a 8 high hand beat a 7 high hand. someone please set me straight. i don't even know what i'm talking about. this game is just stupid and i'm even more stupid i can't figure it out.

[cuddlemonkey 0]

ok seriously. everytime i think to myself, "alright cody, you got it down man. you know how this game goes, give it a shot" i try to play razz. think i have the best hand...and find out, my hand blows and i lose. how the fuuuuuuuuuuuck do you play this game? i mean, if a-5 is the best possible hand. then why does a 8 high hand beat a 7 high hand. someone please set me straight. i don't even know what i'm talking about. this game is just stupid and i'm even more stupid i can't figure it out.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it's because you don't know how to read the hands.

[silkyjonson 1]

You start from the highest card and work your way down, so 8 high does'nt beat a 7 high. Just do yourself a favour and stick to holdem for cash if you cant grasp these concepts yet, play it for play money a bit and see if you can get the hang of it there.

[CodyDean 0]

you start with the high card and work your way down. that is the best explanation anyone has given me. thank you. so 876 is better starting hand than 123? 87654 beats 12345?

[MoChipsPlese 0]

Only play Razz if you have a severe headache and want it too be worse!

[CodyDean 0]

i really hate razz but i want to diversify my game and get better at all of them. including the retarded ones

[alanstats 0]

Bottom line, stud is a 7 card game, you use 5 of those cards. In razz, you want the lowest 5 cards possible, without a pair. Flushes/straights don't matter.The hand that has the lowest high card among the 5 wins. If both players at showdown have an 8 high, the lowest second hi card plays.2/4 limit razz on stars, we'll be waiting

[silkyjonson 1]

you start with the high card and work your way down. that is the best explanation anyone has given me. thank you. so 876 is better starting hand than 123? 87654 beats 12345?

No, you count your hand from the top down. so a 65432 you would look at as a 65 which would lose to a 64321 which is a 64, with the 4 playing as lower. so you start from the top and work your way on down. 123 is your best possible starting hand. And you have to realize that razz is different from stud8 in that there is no qualifier, you dont need cards below an 8 to qualify.

[silkyjonson 1]

i really hate razz but i want to diversify my game and get better at all of them. including the retarded ones

You can't look at other games as "retarted" you will never get anywhere if you view them as that. You should approach each game as a seperate entity that has other little nuances and subtilties that you will encounter and try to master. These skills that are necessary in other games that do not come up necessarily as often in hold'em, will improve your overall poker game and allow your overall poker game to grow.

[CodyDean 0]

see, i know all this. but i get confused once there are hands that involve high cards with aces and blah blah blah. i understand the game but it seems like there is always some scenario that pops up that just doesn't make sense to me.

[doox 15]

I used to be the same way. I wanted to diversify my game and learn Razz. I did, started feeling the game out, and got to the point where I knew roughly what I was doing. I played 7 stud, so the transition wasn't too tough. I got a good idea of starting hands, when to bet, when to bluff, and so on. I came to the conclusion that I really hate Razz. I think it's boring and lacks the creativity that other games have. I'm sure the hard-core razz-addicts will disagree, but I will never play another Razz tourney/sng/cash game again.I will play H.O.R.S.E. though.

[silkyjonson 1]

I started playing razz when I started playing horse. I found it fairly easy to pick up as I played a lot of stud8, did'nt really love the game by any means, but I noticed that while playing horse there were a great number of people that played razz horribly. So basically if you can learn the game well there are juicy games out there, and if you just play horse tournies it can add to your game that much.

[CodyDean 0]

exactlycheers

[Azwethinkweiz 0]

In the spirit of this being a great community, Im going to attempt to fix your brain. Most would say let the aquarium clean and regulate itself, but I will break the unwritten code of poker(dont educate the fishies).To cut right to the chase, Here is a hand ranking, hopefully you will figure it out on your own, what concept you are failing to grasp. 23456 is lower then A2378, do you see why? 5 cards lower 6 and lower is lower then 3 cards under a 7.A2345A2346A2356A2456A345623456A2347A2357A2457A345723457A2367A246723467A2567A356723567A456724567Are you grasping the ranking yet? Now how you put this to use is to take the information provided. That information being your opponent or opponents cards face up on the table. If your opponent is showing 5679 face-up on the river the best hand by rank he could possibly have is A2356. And that would be his two hole cards and the river card being A23. Now you paint the picture of how likely situations are. This is the part I wont get into. You have to use judgement to determine what is most likely. To go back to the example I provided, its very unprobable for the opponent to have A2356. My thinking in general(most of the time) would be that he has A2567, 23567.This is the part where it's up to you as a player to observe and make decisions. Did the opponent raise from jumpstreet? Did he ever slow down? In live play, did he have his mind made up before he checked the river card? What does my board look like? What might he think I have? The rest is up to you to figure out. Play the game, ride the tide, ebb and flow, then figure out how to best play.

[KoRnholio 2]

Easy Razz (or any low) hand reading:1. Pick your best 5 cards2. Order them highest to lowest3. Compare hands one card at a time, if the first card is a tie, move the the next cardHence:8432Aloses against76543

[psujohn 0]

see, i know all this. but i get confused once there are hands that involve high cards with aces and blah blah blah. i understand the game but it seems like there is always some scenario that pops up that just doesn't make sense to me.

Yeah, there's your problem. In Razz Ace is low.Razz is an "easy" game because you always know exactly what your target is. You want a wheel. In Texas Hold'em (and even more so in Omaha) your "target" changes based on each new board card. Your A high flush is the best possible hand on the turn but when the board pairs on the river you can be beat - in Omaha you're almost certainly beat. 2-7 TD and Badugi are similar in having a fixed best hand that's always possible to make.Razz being a stud game it has the added interest/difficulty of reading your opponents boards and remembering which of your outs are gone. It's also quite possible that you can know for a fact that your opponent is drawing dead after 6th street.I'm not a big razz player and don't play any of the other stud games but suspect that Razz is a good intro to stud since it's easier in a lot of ways that stud high or stud/8. It's also (according to the experts) less of a skill game than most of the other casino games.

[MR_BIZKITZ 0]

just know that no matter how good of a hand you start with you will catch bad everytime and the donk with the K high bring in bet will always donk you down and win with a series of runners

[xzanos 0]

ok seriously. everytime i think to myself, "alright cody, you got it down man. you know how this game goes, give it a shot" i try to play razz. think i have the best hand...and find out, my hand blows and i lose. how the fuuuuuuuuuuuck do you play this game? i mean, if a-5 is the best possible hand. then why does a 8 high hand beat a 7 high hand. someone please set me straight. i don't even know what i'm talking about. this game is just stupid and i'm even more stupid i can't figure it out.

Fold preflop

5 cards lower 6 and lower is lower then 3 cards under a 7.

What?

[mtdesmoines 3]

More than any other game, I'm a total razz card rack. AINEC. I don't know why I play any other game.

[SpiderGuard 0]

I'm horrible at remembering what cards have already been dealt in stud games, which is why I don't even try to play them. If someone wrote a computer program that would remember what cards have been shown already I'd be a happy man, and a much better stud/razz player.

[dereeekho 0]

just pick a table with scotyno (on ftp) or scottyno (at stars/absolute). he's quite the fish.

[CodyDean 0]

i got it down nowfinallycheers

[scottyno 0]

razz sucks, obvsw

[scottyno 0]

just pick a table with scotyno (on ftp) or scottyno (at stars/absolute). he's quite the fish.

i know, that guy sucks

[SpiderGuard 0]

just pick a table with scotyno (on ftp) or scottyno (at stars/absolute). he's quite the fish.

Let's keep this just between us on the forum, but I'm going to try to lure him in to higher stakes than he wants to play. Then I'll use my scary talented razz skills to take all of his money. It's the perfect plan~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!