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g_420man · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:44 pm Post subject: Great Razz Advise

I found this post in another forum. i thought it would be good advise to share here in this one. I like the game of razz so I will share this with you here. Good Luck. Hope this helps.

Very Happy

Razz is one of the simplest forms of poker around, and it can be a refreshing change from a game like Hold�em � but it can also be incredibly frustrating, as it�s easy for a premium hand to turn into rags with the turn of a card. To play and enjoy Razz tournaments, you�ll need plenty of patience and good control over your emotions.

My recommendation is that in the early and middle stages of a Razz tournament, you play tight, straight forward poker � a generally low-risk style. This means that your starting standards should be tight - you�re looking for all three cards to be eight or lower to even enter the pot, and you would usually want something better to call a completion.

Like Omaha, in Razz the starting hand values run closely, with very few hands being a significant favourite over another. The best possible starting hand, 3-2-A, is only a 60% favourite over 8-7-6, for example. However, just because the hands are close does not mean you can play a lot of hands. In Razz, the best hand is at a significant playing advantage, because they can see exactly how their opponents� hands develop and plan their action accordingly. Often it�s very easy for them to know where they stand.

For example, let�s assume that I have (3-2)-A and you have (8-7)-6. On fourth street, we both catch a four. I know for certain that I am winning and I can play accordingly. You will never be able to bluff me off my hand, and I will charge you the absolute maximum to draw to beat me. Essentially, I won�t ever make a mistake � putting you at a significant disadvantage. It�s better not to put yourself in this difficult situation in the first place.

Astute readers will have realised the importance of your door card (upcard) already. In the above example, because you had the six up, I knew for certain that the best possible hand you could have was 6-4-2-A. If you enter the pot with a weak door card, you are giving away a lot about the strength of your hand. Therefore, you should be much more willing to play when your upcard is good and vice versa. For example, if you�re in late position with (8-5)-A, you might call a raise from another player showing, for example, a six. However, with (A-5)-8, you probably wouldn�t call that same raise.

Your opponents upcards are also extremely important, as they give you information about how �live� your draw is and how the hand is likely to develop. If you have seen a lot of the cards that you need in other players� hands, your draw is weakened significantly as you�re not only less likely to catch a card that you need, you�re more likely to pair up too. As an example, let�s take the same hands from before � but this time, two eights, two sevens and two sixes are gone. The percentages reverse � 8-7-6 is now a 60% favourite over 3-2-A! What�s more, the 8-7-6 has a playing advantage, because they know if their opponent catches an 8, 7 or 6 it has not paired them.

The average Razz pot is fairly small when compared to other Stud games, and Razz hands are often over on an early street. As a result, a lot of your profit will come from stealing the antes, which is especially important in tournaments because you�re under constant pressure to accumulate chips. The highest card brings in, and unlike in other stud varieties, having the bring-in almost always means you have an unplayable hand (any hand with a king up, for example, is unplayable except on rare occasions against a steal raise).

Don�t be afraid to make aggressive steal s when you have a low door card and you�re first in the pot. You�re risking only a few chips to win all the antes and the bring-in, which is a reward well worth shooting for.

The strategy I�ve described so far is a pure example of the gap concept. That is, in all stages of a Razz tournament, you should be much more willing to open the pot with a completion than you would to call a completion from another player. You will almost always want to take the lead in a pot and start off with the best hand, in order to avoid significant disadvantages on later streets.

One of the biggest mistakes made by weak players in Hold�em tournaments is that they defend their blinds too liberally. The same applies to defending your bring-in in Razz. To be frank, if you never defended your bring in when you were showing a bad card, you wouldn�t be giving up much. There are reasons to defend your bring-in occasionally however, particularly in a tournament. These are:

The second you call a completion showing a face card, every player at the table will label you a fish. You�ll be able to profit from that image later on by value betting marginal hands.
By defending you�ll discourage your opponents from making correct steals later in the event.
Because it�s rare for a player to defend their bring-in, many of your opponents will play extremely badly on later streets, because they can�t properly adjust to the situation.
Your bad card will often give you position for the rest of the hand (because the best board bets first).
To defend, I look to have two cards lower than my opponent�s upcard, and a live draw. For example, if I brought it in with (A-2)-K, the player to my right completed with a 9, and a couple of aces and deuces were gone, I would consider defending. I would be much more inclined to defend in the early stages of an event, where it won�t cost a large percentage of my stack to do so. If I don�t improve on fourth street, I plan on folding to a bet immediately.

In the later stages of the tournament, the stacks will get shorter compared to the stakes, and players will begin to go broke. It�s incredibly important at this stage to pad your stack with aggressive steals, or you may find yourself in one of poker�s most hideous situations � being all-in on third street!

Being all-in on third is something to avoid at all costs, because it�s so easy for even the best hands to lose. If you are all-in on third just twice in a Razz tournament, you�re usually a favourite to have been eliminated, even if you have the best hand each time.

If you do find yourself getting to the stage where you must make a stand on third, you shouldn�t wait too long for a hand. In fact, when you�re very short, any two live wheel cards is a good enough hand to get your chips in, as is any three card nine or ten. It�s much better to get 1000 chips into the pot with a 40% chance to win than it is to wait for a great hand, then get 200 chips in as a 60% favourite.

If you�re lucky and skilful enough to reach the final table, your playing style will have to change once again. As the number of players decreases, your starting and stealing standards should loosen up. You should be willing to complete extremely often when you have the lowest door card on third street, and you can start to relax your starting hand requirements to include nines and tens, particularly if your draw is smooth and your door card is strong.

Heads-Up Razz is different from other poker games, in that you shouldn�t play quite as many hands. In Hold�em for example, you should be willing to play almost every hand when heads up, as long as the stacks are deep enough. In Razz, you should still throw away poor hands like three big cards and pairs, unless you will have the opportunity to steal either on third street or later in the hand. That�s because of the huge playing disadvantage the worst hand has, as we discussed earlier.

Other than that, heads up Razz is simple. You play the strength of your board, and what you think your opponent has. Once you have entered the pot, you should fight hard to win it. The player who fights the hardest, and who catches a few good cards, will be the one to leave the fray victorious

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