The object of Razz is to make the lowest five-card hand. Each player is initially dealt two cards face down and one card face up, this is called the 3rd street, as you have been dealt 3 cards. You then get dealt 4th, 5th and 6th street face-up, while 7th street is dealt face-down. At showdown, the lowest five-card hand, which is formed from your dealt seven cards, wins. 5-4-3-2-A is the best Razz hand. Straights and flushes are ignored and do not count against the hand. Aces are only low in Razz.

In Razz, as in other stud games there is no button in play. On 3rd street the player with the highest up card (king is the highest, ace is the lowest) acts as the ‘Bring-in’, which can effectively be looked at in a similar light to posting a blind. If two or more players have the same highest card, the bring-in will be determined by highest suit (from high to low: Spade, heart, diamond, club). The bring-in size compared to the limits will vary from level to level when playing live, but is usually around 1/3 of a small bet, the player could also complete for a full bet instead of putting the bring-in, but it’s almost always the wrong play. After the bring-in is posted, the action will start to the direct left of the bring-in and go round the table clockwise.

From 4th street onwards the action will always start on the best board, also known as the lowest board for Razz. Therefore position can change between hands. Razz follows a limit bet structure with a small bet on 3rd and 4th street, and bigbets on 5th, 6th and 7th street. On every street there can be a maximum of one bet and four raises, this typically will almost only occur in multiway spots where two players squeeze a third person.

As previously mentioned, a 5-4-3-2-A is the best possible hand in Razz. It’s worth remembering that your hand strength is defined by the highest of your 5 cards. For example, a T-5-4-3-2 is beaten by a 9-8-7-6-4. In situations where both players have the same highest card, the next card is the kicker (eg. 8-5-4-3-2 is beaten by 7-4-3-2-A) and so on.

• Make sure to pay attention at the beginning of every hand. Both to know which cards are being tossed into the muck, but also to get an idea of the strength of players’ ranges.
• Take note of how big the antes and bring-ins are related to the bets, as this will vary between levels and will change the odds you’re facing.
• Make sure your cards stay in the same order as you got them, the dealer should control this, but players should help out – the order is very important when doing hand reading in stud games.

• Representing in this game is very important. If your board shows 5-4-3-7 but your two buried cards are also 5 and 4, you’re still going to appear to be ahead of someone with a board of 6-T-9-K for example. Use the board to your advantage!
• Stealing is a big part of this game. Often you will not even need to look at your cards to steal. For example folded to you with a 5 up and only a J and a K behind.
• 8 and lower are considered good cards in this game and if you have 3 of them you will usually play the hand. Although the lower the better, you can usually treat A-6 as the same strength, a 7 is not far behind, but 8s and especially 9s need to be played with more carefulness.