Razz Guide Part 2 - Starting Hand Selection

PLAYING RAZZ POKER

STARTING HAND SELECTION

Third Street is where you will make the most important decision in any Razz Hand – whether to play it, or whether to muck it. If you have the highest Door Card showing you will have to make a forced bet (called the Bring-in), but in most situations you will muck a Bring-in hand automatically.

Starting hand selection in Razz is the cause of one of the most frustrating aspects of this poker game. In Hold ‘em, the best starting hand is Pocket Aces, which is a decent hand in its own right, and will often be enough to win the pot at showdown without improving. In Seven Card Stud High, this is even more pronounced – the best starting hand is Rolled-up Aces (three Aces), which will usually be enough to win the pot at showdown (the average Stud High hand is Two Pair). In Omaha, the situation isn’t quite as clear –starting hands in Omaha being much closer to each other in value, and the various combinations of four pocket cards increase the likelihood of a five-card hand (such as a straight, flush or full-house) being made by showdown; even so, Ace-Ace-King-King double suited, is a hand that can win at showdown unaided. Unfortunately, this premise goes completely out of the window with Razz. In Razz the best starting hand is A-2-3, which by itself is not enough to even make a hand at showdown… in Razz, promising starting hands can become pure trash a few streets down the line. An important consideration in all poker games, is not getting too attached to your hand - in Razz, this is a primary consideration!

However, starting hand selection is still a key aspect of Razz poker. Strict starting hand requirements will increase your Razz earnings, and make subsequent decision making much easier. There are a several key elements to consider when choosing whether to play a hand on Third Street.

POTENTIAL STRENGTH

On Third Street, your potential strength is the value of your highest card. If it is a five-or-lower, you have the greatest potential strength (a Wheel-draw); if your highest card is a ten-or-higher, you have no potential strength – there are situations where you may play a hand like this, but they wouldn’t be made on the basis of your potential strength.

RELATIVE STRENGTH

Relative strength is based on your highest card (potential strength) matched against an opponent’s door card. If your potential strength beats an opponents door card, you are unambiguously ahead of that opponent. If your highest card is equal or lower to an opponent’s door card, you have no way of knowing whether you are ahead of, or behind that opponent on Third Street, and should proceed with a certain amount of caution.

DRAWING ROUGH AND SMOOTH

We have already discussed the concept of rough and smooth hands, in Lowball Ace-to-Five hands – a rough hand is one where the kicker is close in value to the highest card, as the kicker gets further in value from the highest card, the hand becomes smooth. When you considering your hand on Third Street, this is already a consideration that you will need to make. If your second-highest card is close in value to your highest card, you will be drawing to a rough hand and, in Razz, the kicker often plays. If your second highest card is further in value from your highest card, you will be drawing to a smoother hand, and will be more likely to win at showdown, against a hand of similar value to your own. Remember – if you are dealt A-2-8 on Third Street, you are in a much stronger position than if you were dealt A-7-8.

OVERT AND COVERT STRENGTH

Another consideration on Third Street, is how overt (or covert) the strength of your hand is (because your opponents will be looking at your door card to consider their strength relative to yours). If your lowest card is your door card, you have an overt hand – your strength will be more obvious to your opponents, and you may lose some value because of this. If your highest card is your door card, you have a covert hand – your strength will be less obvious to your opponents, and you may gain (or extort) value because of this.

NOTE

Cards shown with a double-underline represent face-down hole cards

Both of these hands have the same potential strength, the same relative strength, and are both as smooth as each other. However, the hand with the Ace showing will look stronger to some opponents.

The second examples, are more significant – now most opponents will perceive the overt hand as stronger than the covert hand.

MODULATED STRENGTH

Another consideration on Third Street, is your hands modulated strength, by which I mean the value of your hand adjusted for the cards that are dead to the stock. As a clear example, if you are dealt A-2-3 on Third Street, you are drawing to a Wheel; but if four of your opponents are showing fives as their door cards, you would actually be drawing to a six-high. Your modulated strength is not usually this clear, but if two of your opponents held fives, the probability of you completing a wheel would be significantly reduced.

We will look at reading the board in more detail further on, but as far as hand selection is concerned, you should consider all of the door cards that are an eight or lower. All of these that match cards in your starting hand, increase the modulated strength of your hand – as you will be less likely to pair-up. All of these cards that do not match cards in your starting hand decrease the modulated strength of your hand, as you will be less likely to draw the cards that you need to make a playable hand at showdown.

A net reduction in your modulated strength, can make a marginal hand unplayable; and a significant net reduction (four or more) can make a strong hand unplayable, when faced with aggression and low relative strength. Conversely, a net increase in modulated strength can improve a marginal hand into one that can be played with less caution and more aggression.

PREMIUM STARTING HANDS

The best possible starting hands in Razz are those holding three cards to a wheel. These hands can be played from any position, for any number of bets; and should usually be raised / re-raised in order to thin the playing field, and build the pot.

STRONG STARTING HANDS

A Six or Seven high is a strong starting hand in Razz, although with these hands, you will also want to consider your relative, and modulated, strength; in addition to how rough and/or overt they are.

MARGINAL STARTING HANDS

An Eight or Nine high is a marginal starting hand in Razz, and should only be played under favorable circumstances - if your opponents hold similar or higher door cards than you, or if you are in late position, and can close the betting cheaply. Smooth Eights or Nines, are obviously preferable to rough Eights or Nines.

Poker Update - Stick to the Plan!!

Just time for a quick note on how I've been doing this week.

I've not had much table time, and when I have, I've had mixed results. I've gotten a bit distracted from playing Razz a few times, and they've not been profitable ventures for me!

My overall cash position currently looks like this:-

If I look at my Razz results alone, I get this:-

So I feel like my plan is a good one, but the execution needs some refining!

On the other hand, I did play a very enjoyable session of 8-game, maybe a little bit above my current stakes at $0.20 / $0.40 but poker is supposed to be fun (actually, I'm not sure if maybe that's where I'm going wrong, but for me it is)!

I'm gonna concentrate concentrate on Razz for the next week. I've got a small stakes home game on Monday evening, and the Hendon Mob Forum League 8 game on Tuesday, so all-in-all a good week to look forward to.

I'm hoping to post another rambling article on playing Razz at some point soon - starting hand selection, if I can make any sense of my own playing notes!

Razz Guide Part 1 - Introduction

PLAYING RAZZ POKER

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

‘Razz isn’t a poker game, it’s a disease!’

Popular card room saying from the 1980s

Razz (or Razzle Dazzle, to give it its full, original, name) is a Seven-Card Stud poker game, in which the lowest hand wins.

As with most poker games, the exact origins of Razz are unknown, but it is clear that it wasn’t too long after the emergence of Seven Card Stud.

Razz was first played at the World Series of Poker™ (WSOP) in 1971, when the bracelet was won by Jimmy Casella; and it is one of only a few games to have been played at every WSOP since.

In 1992 Archie Karas, a poker player and pool shark born in Greece, turned up in Las Vegas with $50 in his pocket. He did not know it then, but he was only months away from one of the most significant events in Razz poker history. The story, as it is told, is that Archie ‘The Greek’ Karas ran his bankroll up from $50 to over $30k playing mostly Razz and finishing up in the $200/$400 Limit Razz game at Binion’s Horseshoe. He then spun his bankroll up from $30k to over $7m, playing pool and poker. Then, armed with $5m in chips, Archie sat at a heads-up table in Binion’s Horseshoe, with an open heads-up challenge to the worlds best poker players. The first man to challenge Archie was the great Stu Ungar (probably the best poker player who ever lived). Stu and Archie played heads-up Razz for several days until Archie had completely busted Stu, taking a total of $500k from him. It was the biggest heads-up Razz poker match the world had ever seen.

It wasn’t until 2004, that Razz experienced another popularity boom. The 2004 WSOP was televised by ESPN™, and won by poker legend T. J. Cloutier, after playing heads-up against the retarded Dutch Boyd. This sparked a reaction amongst the poker playing public, and several online poker sites added Razz to their selection of games.

Finally, in 2006, Pokerstars (www.pokerstars.co.uk) added Razz to the repertoire of games. Since then, Pokerstars has had the broadest selection of Razz tournaments and cash tables, available to play.

RULES

Razz is a Seven-Card Stud poker game, for two to eight Players, played with Antes and a Fixed Limit betting structure; in which the best Lowball Ace to Five Poker Hand, at showdown, wins the pot.

FIXED LIMIT BETTING STRUCTURE

Razz is played with antes and fixed betting limits.

One of the simplest formats for playing Razz uses the proportions 1:2:4:8. In this case the ante is the ‘1’, the bring-in (2) is double the ante, the Small Bet amount (4) is double the bring-in, and the Big Bet amount (8) is double the Small Bet amount. The game may also be played using a 2:5:10:20 betting structure.

SETUP

Each player places their ante into the pot.

THIRD STREET

Each player is dealt two Hole Cards face-down, and a Door Card face-up, this is known as Third Street. The player with the highest Door Card, must place the Bring-In (in the case of a tie, the Bring-in is decided by suit – in order from Lowest to Highest - Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades). All players may now look at their Hole Cards, and the first round of Betting is undertaken, clockwise from the Bring-In. A player may either call the Bring-in amount, or complete the betting, raising the Bring-in to the amount of one Small Bet.

FOURTH STREET

Each player is dealt a second face-up card, this known as Fourth Street. Now the player with the lowest open hand (i.e. looking only at the face-up cards) commences the second round of Betting, using the Small Bet amount.

FIFTH STREET

Each player is dealt a third face-up card, known as Fifth Street. Again, the Player with the lowest open hand commences the third round of Betting. From Fifth Street onwards, betting uses the Big Bet amount.

SIXTH STREET

Each player is dealt a fourth, and final, face-up card, known as Sixth Street, or the Turn. The Player with the lowest open hand commences the fourth round of betting, using the Big Bet amount.

SEVENTH STREET

Each Player is now dealt their last face-down card, known as Seventh Street, or the River.

NOTE

In the very unlikely event that all eight players at a table remain in the hand until Seventh Street, there will be insufficient cards in the deck to deal each player their River card. In this case, a single Community Card is dealt face-up in the middle of the table.

The Player with the lowest open hand commences the final round of betting, again using the Big Bet amount.

THE SHOWDOWN

After the last round of betting, if more than one player remains in the hand, there is a Showdown. The best Lowball Ace to Five Poker Hand wins the pot. If two or more players hold the same [best] hand, the Pot is split. The next Hand then commences.

RAZZ POKER HANDS – LOWBALL ACE-TO-FIVE

In Razz, players must try to make the best Lowball Ace-to-Five hand, in order to win the pot.

In a Lowball Ace-to-Five hand, Aces are the Lowest card (and always count low), and Straights and Flushes to not count against a low hand. The best hand possible, is A-2-3-4-5, hence the name – Ace-to-Five.

Pairs or Sets do not disqualify an Ace-to-Five hand, but they do significantly weaken it. The lowest pair possible is a pair of Aces. Fortunately, Quads cannot be made in Razz, as the worst possible hand is K-K-K-K-Q-Q-Q, which could still be played as three Queens and two Kings!

Razz hands tend to be declared by their highest card, or their highest card and kicker (second highest card) e.g. A-2-4-6-7 is a seven-high Razz hand, with a six kicker - this is often shortened to a ‘Seven-Six’.

Rough and Smooth Hands

A rough hand is one in which the kicker is consecutive with the highest card e.g. the hand A-2-3-7-8 is an eight-high with a seven kicker, or an ‘Eight-Seven’ – this is a Rough Eight, as the kicker is consecutive to the highest card.

A smooth hand is one in which the kicker is at least two cards less than the highest card e.g. A-2-3-4-8 is an eight-high with a four kicker, or an ‘Eight-Four’ – this is a Smooth Eight, as the kicker is much lower than the highest card.

Five-high Ace to Five, The Wheel, The Bicycle, The Nuts

Smooth Six [Six-Four]

Rough Six [Six-Five]

Smooth Seven [Seven-Four]

Rough Seven [Seven-Six]

Smooth Eight [Eight-Five]

Rough Eight [Eight-Seven]

Smooth Nine [Nine-Six]

Rough Nine [Nine-Eight]

Razzle Dazzle

I'm finally back playing poker again, after a long summer hiatus... and this time I mean business - small business, maybe; but business nonetheless!


I've decided to go back to basics - which for me means (a) Cash Stud, in particular Stud Low or Razz, as it is known for some reason[!], and (b) 8-Game mixed poker tournaments. Armed with a mighty $10 deposit on Pokerstars, I've given myself a strict plan of operation for the next couple of weeks:-


1. Playing micro-stakes Razz $0.04 / $0.08 ($1.60 buy-in for me) to earn enough to enter tournaments whilst (hopefully) still increasing my BR slowly.


2. Playing $2.20 8-Game tournaments, using any winnings to increase my BR further, and to hopefully [eventually] enable me to move up to the $0.10 / $0.20 Razz tables.


Things kicked themselves off very nicely, with a 5th place finish from 86 runners, in my first 8-Game tournament - taking down a gigantic prize of [just] over $10, and small wins on my first six sessions of Razz. My second tournament brought things back down to earth with a terrible 59/69 performance - perhaps things weren't going to be as easy as they had seemed!


So far I've stuck to the plan for a week. My cash game performance looks like this:-

The downwards bump around session 14 was an off-plan game of PLO on the Hendon Mob Forum Home Games table - I doubled my buy-in and needed to leave... I made the infamous 'one more hand' speech at the table, and *BOOM* I got Bogus'ed!


I have to wonder how long I can remain disciplined, and stick with the plan... who knows, I may be able to make another week?!

Getting Started

So, I'm up and running again on the micro-stakes cash tables.


I've started fairly slowly, as I'm not particularly confident about my game, at the minute. I managed to get about 1,000 hands in during the week playing one table at a time, on Full Tilt Poker. Things started very shaky, but I think I've managed to turn them around a little.

My current stats are:-

Progress, such as it is:-

I've found myself limping a lot less than I used to, which is probably the most positive thing to report. I'll try and get at least 2,000 hands in during next week, and see how things look after that.

Back to the Grind

Well folks - since I last wrote, I played out both of the Hendon Mob Forum league play-offs that I'd qualified for.

I managed a decent showing in the runners-up play-off, taking an aggressive line; although I was never able to get maximum value from any of the hands I was involved in - mostly due to the quality of the competition, I suspect - and bust-out in ninth place.

The loyalty freeroll, which I played the following evening, was a total disaster! I think I tried too hard from the start, and ended up chasing losses, badly.

At a bit of a loss what to do next, I've spent the last week playing 8-Game, H.O.R.S.E., PLO8, Stud8, and Razz for cash; at limits that my bankroll most definitely doesn't support ($0.10 / $0.20) - great fun, but a losing game - especially as I couldn't seem to concentrate on one game and kept flitting between formats, looking for a win.

So... after an exhilarating week of fun, I've now decided to give my [much battered] bankroll a bit of a rest, and have returned to the very beginning...

You guessed correctly, Einstein - it's back to the the heady heights of $0.01 / $0.02 Hold 'em for me!

(1) Yes, it's boring; and (2) Yes, it's full of disrespectful upstarts, that are constantly looking-me-up with such utter trash, that it's only slightly ahead of my trash; but (3) it may help my BR recover (albeit slowly); and (4) I've got to admit it - my game has been getting sloppy over the past week, and it really is time to get back to basics.

After having exploded yet another laptop recently, I've now downloaded Hold 'em Manager again, and am gonna start working on all the basics that have been slipping - bet sizing, positional play and hand reading.

I'll post some numbers up once I've managed to get my first 1,000 hands in, and let's hope I can show a decent return at the same time!

The Eye of the Tiger

Haven't managed to write-up an entry for a little while, because I've not had much to write home about.

I've been too busy working to get much [any] time in at the cash tables, which is where I tend to make-up the BR ground I lose in the tournaments.

A quick, but depressing resume of what I've been up to:-

Black Friday

Yes... I was one of those melodramatic souls that made a run on Full Tilt and Stars... after lots of anxious introspection my withdrawals... were deposited HOORAY... now what?

Super50

So I decided to use a sizeable portion of my bankroll to play in the Super50 at Dusk til Dawn. As I think I've said before, Dusk til Dawn is an amazing poker club to play in, with some fantastically structured tournaments - in particular the Super50 is a great tournament - decent field, nice structure and stacks. However... it really didn't help my state of mind getting my entire stack in on the first hand and not-winning. Ok, I didn't lose either, but as far as omens go it certainly wasn't propitious!

I managed to stay true to form and played [consistently] badly throughout... but saved my finest [bad] moment to the last hand I played - trying to bluff a solid player off a flopped full-house with air - inspired really... just inspired by these guys:-

Hendon Mob Forum League
I last wrote about the Hendon Mob Forum League the last time I made a final table - funny that. Since then, there have been two more league matches - the last two games in the league. The first was a double-stack Pot Limit Omaha [PLO] tournament. I'm not very good at PLO - it's best to admit it - I play draws too aggressively - which isn't necessarily a losing habit, it's just that I play non-nut draws to aggressively, which is. The final league game of the season was a triple-stack Hold 'em tournament. To be fair to myself, I played this fairly well, and didn't make many stupid moves throughout the first two hours - went out to a decent player with a decent hand in a decent spot, so I'm not going to beat myself up too much about that... stupid f**king idiot!!


However... not everything has gone wrong in the league. Once the final scores-on-the-doors had come in, I'd managed to scrape into position for the second play-off (runners-up play-off); and had managed to cover my costs for the season with tournament winnings from the league - so actually achieved my two goals from the start of the season.

I also think that my overall poker game has improved quite a lot during the nine months I've been playing in the league games. They are a great opportunity to play a range of poker games and formats, with a decent group of players, cheaply. I'd recommend anyone to come and try it out next season, if you want to learn to play tournament poker on a budget.

My cash game has also improved during the same period (mostly since xmas, really); and I'm confident that I can take it forward once I get the time to begin playing again, properly... in about two weeks time - HOORAY!!

The two league play-offs that I'm in take place tonight and tomorrow - the first is the runners-up play-off, for finishing 22nd in the league; and the second is the 'league loyalty' play-off for competing in 33 of the 34 scheduled games. Each play-off is a winner-takes-all tournament, with a $2,500 tournament prize for first place. Given the players that I'm competing against, I'm not expecting to win both tournaments ;-)

However, I have been motivating myself during the week, to give myself the best shot. I really shouldn't give away all my secrets, but suffice it to say, it involves eating several bananas (they can work wonders) and sporadically listening to this:-

With this sort of preparation, it's almost unfair on the other players... good job I didn't have also have a  tangerine, otherwise it would have been tantamount to cheating!