Razz Poker – Strategies, Tips and How to play Razz Poker Game
Although not as popular as Omaha or Texas Hold’em, Razz is a fun, interesting, and profitable poker variant.
Razz is the ideal online poker variant for players who get frustrated with their inability to create high-ranking poker hands. This is because Razz requires players to make the weakest poker hand in order to win. Owing to this fact and also due to the fact that the rules of Razz are strikingly similar to the rules of 7 Card Stud, Razz is also known as 7 Card Stud Low. Compared to popular poker variants such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha, Razz is a relatively little-known game, but smart players can easily rake in a profit playing Razz. Besides, the game, when properly understood and played, can be great fun.
Learn how to play Razz Poker using our demo game below:
Razz Poker Basics
Razz requires a group of anywhere between two and eight players and a standard deck of 52 playing cards. If players are familiar with the rules of Seven Card Stud, they will not find it difficult to understand the rules of Razz. As previously mentioned, Razz is an inverted variant of Seven Card Stud, in which players are required to create the lowest poker hand instead of the highest poker hand. While in case of 7 Card Stud, the strongest hand gets the jackpot, in case of Razz, the lowest hand gets the jackpot.
The lowest possible hand in case of Razz is Ace, deuce, three, four, and five. One might wonder how a hand could be considered weak if it has an Ace, but in case of Razz, aces are the weakest hands and flushes and straights are not taken into consideration.
Razz Poker Rules
A game of Razz begins with an ante bet, after which each player receives a hand of two hole cards and one face-up card. The player who gets the lowest face-up card will have to place the bring-in bet and initiate the first round of betting. During each betting round, players are free to call, fold, or raise depending on the nature of the cards they have got.
After the first betting round, players will receive a fourth face-up card followed by a second round of betting. From now on, the players with the highest face-up cards will initiate the betting rounds. Players will then receive another face-up card followed by another betting round. Thus, players will receive the sixth and the seventh and last card followed by a last round of betting.
It is now time for the showdown and the players who have not yet folded will use their seven cards to create the lowest possible hand. The jackpot goes to the player with the lowest hand.
Razz Poker Tips
Needless to say, players who have never played a game of Razz before will have to first learn its rules and strategies and play a few games for free before playing the game for real money. Most of the best online poker rooms offer free games of Razz for beginners.
Razz is one of the profitable variants of poker, but it is just not as popular as Hold’em or Omaha. Players will, therefore, find it difficult to find a Razz table even at the best online poker rooms. Players are therefore advised to sign up at poker sites that attract a good volume of player traffic to their Razz tables.
