What Is Razz Poker?
Razz Poker is a lowball version of Seven Card Stud where the objective is completely different from most traditional poker games: the lowest five-card hand wins the pot.
Instead of trying to make pairs, straights, flushes or other high-ranking combinations, players are trying to avoid them. Aces count as low, while straights and flushes don’t count against your hand.
Razz can be found in online poker rooms and at selected Nigerian online casinos offering poker games. It is also a longstanding World Series of Poker event and remains one of the best-known forms of lowball poker.
How Razz Poker Works
Razz follows much of the same basic structure as Seven Card Stud. There are no community cards like you would find in Texas Hold’em.
Each player can receive as many as seven cards during a complete hand. Some are dealt face down and can only be seen by the player, while others are dealt face up for everyone at the table to see.
Your final Razz hand is made from the lowest five cards available from the seven you have been dealt.
Unlike Stud Poker variants where players generally want to create strong conventional poker hands, Razz turns normal hand rankings upside down.
Pairs are bad. Three of a kind is worse. High cards are something you generally want to avoid.
Third Street and the Bring-In
At the start of a hand, each player is dealt three cards.
The first two are dealt face down and are known as hole cards. The third card is dealt face up and is often called the door card.
This is known as Third Street.
Unlike later betting rounds, the first player required to act is determined by the highest exposed card. That player must make the bring-in bet.
A King is therefore the worst possible exposed card to receive on Third Street, while an Ace is low.
If two or more players have the same high card, suits can be used to determine who must bring in. This is only used to decide the betting order and does not make one suit stronger than another when determining the eventual winning hand.
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Street
Players remaining in the hand receive another exposed card on each of the next three streets.
From Fourth Street onwards, the betting order changes.
The player showing the lowest-ranking exposed hand acts first. This is the opposite of the initial bring-in, where the highest exposed card is forced to act.
As more cards appear face up, players can begin forming a clearer picture of what their opponents may be trying to make.
This is one of the most interesting parts of Razz strategy. You can see many of the cards already in play and use that information when deciding whether the cards you need are still likely to be available.
Seventh Street and the Showdown
The seventh and final card is dealt face down.
Players who remain in the hand therefore finish with seven cards:
- Three face-down cards
- Four exposed cards
After the final betting round, the remaining players enter the showdown.
Each player uses the best five-card low combination available from their seven cards. The other two cards are ignored when determining the final hand.
The player with the lowest five-card hand wins the pot. If two players have identical winning hands, the pot is divided between them.
Razz Poker Hand Rankings
Understanding hand rankings is the most important part of learning the game.
The easiest way to remember Razz is that lower is better.
Aces always count as low, while straights and flushes are ignored. This means the best possible hand is:
Because straights don’t count against you, A-2-3-4-5 is treated as a five-high hand rather than a straight.
There is also no eight-or-better qualifier as there is in some other lowball poker formats. Whatever the lowest hand is at the showdown wins, even if it is a relatively poor low hand.
How to Compare Two Razz Hands
Razz hands are compared from the highest card down.
For example:
| Hand | Result |
|---|---|
| A-2-3-4-5 | Best possible hand – five low |
| A-2-3-4-6 | Six low |
| A-2-3-5-6 | Six low, but loses to A-2-3-4-6 |
| A-2-3-4-7 | Seven low |
| 2-3-4-5-8 | Eight low |
Suppose one player has A-2-3-4-7 and another has A-2-3-4-8.
The seven-high hand wins because 7 is lower than 8.
If the highest cards are identical, you move to the next-highest card until a difference is found.
Key Rules to Remember
- The lowest five-card hand wins.
- Aces always count as low.
- Straights do not count against your hand.
- Flushes do not count against your hand.
- Pairs hurt your hand because you want five different low-ranking cards.
- There is no qualifying low hand required to win.
- The highest exposed card makes the initial bring-in on Third Street.
- From Fourth Street onwards, the lowest exposed hand acts first.
- Only five of your seven cards form your final hand.
- Identical winning hands split the pot.
Basic Strategy for Beginners
A good starting hand is generally made up of three low, unpaired cards.
Cards between Ace and Five are particularly valuable because they give you the opportunity to build very strong low hands.
You should also pay close attention to the exposed cards around the table.
If you hold A-2-4 and several threes and fives are already visible in other players’ hands, for example, some of the cards you would ideally like to receive are already unavailable.
Conversely, if your opponents are showing high cards while your own board remains low, you may have a considerable advantage.
Another important skill is knowing when to fold. Continuing with a poor hand simply because you have already put chips into the pot can quickly become expensive.
Razz at the World Series of Poker
Razz has a long association with the World Series of Poker and has been played at the WSOP since the early years of the tournament series.
Some of poker’s most famous names have won major Razz events.
These include Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed and Doyle Brunson.
The game has also traditionally formed part of mixed-game formats such as H.O.R.S.E., where players need to be proficient in several different poker variants rather than specialising exclusively in Texas Hold’em.
Final Thoughts
Razz Poker can initially feel strange because it reverses one of the most basic ideas players learn about poker: instead of trying to make the strongest conventional hand, you’re trying to make the lowest one.
Once you understand that A-2-3-4-5 is the best possible hand and that straights and flushes don’t count against you, the rules become much easier to follow. The challenge then comes from reading the exposed cards, judging the strength of your opponents’ boards and knowing when your low hand is worth pursuing.
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