Razz is very similar to Seven Card Stud Hi Lo with a couple of exceptions. The player with the lowest hand wins the pot and there are no qualifying rules for the lowest hand so any hand is eligible.

The Complete Rules of Razz Razz is played almost exactly like 7 card stud, except the lowest five card hand wins instead of the highest. The best possible Razz hand is an A, 2, 3, 4, 5, which is called a wheel. Straights and flushes do not count. Razz is a poker game for 2 to 8 players, using a standard 52-card deck and is one of the more interesting poker variants, based on the rules of Stud Poker, but with very different requirements for winning. In 7 Card Stud, like most poker games, the highest ranking hand wins the pot. In Razz, however, it is just the opposite – the lowest hand wins the pot.

Razz is a poker game for 2 to 8 players, using a standard 52-card deck and is one of the more interesting poker variants, based on the rules of Stud Poker, but with very different requirements for winning.

In 7 Card Stud, like most poker games, the highest ranking hand wins the pot. In Razz, however, it is just the opposite – the lowest hand wins the pot.

Razz can be played in Fixed Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit; however Fixed Limit is the most common option and that’s what I’ll be focusing on in this guide.

Object of Razz Poker

The object of Razz is simple – to use any 5 out of the 7 cards dealt to you throughout the hand to create the lowest ranking 5 card poker hand.

As always in stud poker 3 cards are dealt face down so only the player can see them and the other 4 cards are dealt face up so everybody can see them.

Unlike Stud Hi Low, which requires a low hand to “Qualify” as 8 or better (nothing better than 8-high), there is no restriction for a qualifying hand in Razz, therefore any hand qualifies. You simply must develop the absolute lowest hand to win.

The lowest possible hand would be A-2-3-4-5. How is this low, you ask? It’s got an Ace, and by the way, it’s a Straight! Actually, in any “Low” version of poker, Aces are always counted as the number 1, the lowest card, whilst Straight and Flushes aren’t considered combinations and hence are ignored.

Fixed Limit Poker – How to Bet

Razz is almost always played with a Fixed Limit betting structure, although you may come across a No Limit or Pot Limit game on occasion.

Fixed Limit means that no player may wager more or less than the stakes of the game; $2/$4 for example.

Fixed Limit means a player must place all Bets or Raises in a pre-determined increment which is related to the stakes of the table, for example at a $2 / $4 table.

• For the first two betting rounds (3rd and 4th Street), bets must be in increments of the low-end stakes of $2. Bet $2 -> Raise $4 -> Re-Raise $6 etc.
• The final three betting rounds (5th, 6th and 7th Street) require bets / raises in increments of the high-end stakes of $4. Bet $4 -> Raise $8 -> Re-Raise $12 etc.

There are a maximum of 4 raises permitted on each betting round.

The Antes & Dealer Button

In Razz Poker, a dealer button is used to mark the theoretical dealer before each hand begins. This is important as it dictates the order that the cards are dealt with the first card being dealt to the player to the left of the dealer button.

At the end of each hand the dealer button rotates to the next player to the left so that each player takes it in turn to be the “dealer”.

Razz does not require blind bets, as in Texas Holdem or Omaha Poker, but uses a small Ante Bet and Bring-In Bet.

Before the start of each hand, every player must place an “Ante” into the pot. This small amount ensures that there are chips to be won in every hand. The Ante varies somewhat, but is generally 10% to 25% of the low-end stakes, so for example at a $2 / $4 stakes table then the Ante would be around $0.20.

The Hole and Door Cards

The hand begins with all players putting their Ante bet of $0.20 into the pot.

Each player is then dealt 3 cards:

• The first two cards are dealt face-down for only the player to see. These are called the “hole cards“.
• The third card is dealt face-up so that everybody at the table can see it. This is called the “door card“.

The door card is important as the player who has the lowest door card must place a forced “Bring In” bet into the pot. If two or more players have the same lowest card then it is decided by the player with the lowest suit. Suits rank lowest to highest in alphabetical order – Clubs (lowest), Diamonds, Hearts, Spades (highest).

The bring in bet can also vary, but is most often equal to half of the low-end stakes, so for example at a $2 / $4 stakes table then the Bring In would be around $1.

The First Betting Round (“3rd Street”)

Once the Bring In bet has been placed then the first round of betting begins, starting with the player left of the bring in player and proceeding around the table in a clockwise fashion.

Each player in order must choose the action they wish to take from the following options:

• Call: You match a bet already placed in the current betting round. In this case it will be the bring in bet amount unless another player has already raised that bet.
• Raise: You not only match, but increase a bet already placed in the current betting round. After a raise is made all other players must match your raised bet or fold (or raise again!).
• Fold: To forfeit the current hand, and all chips in the pot by throwing in your cards, face-down without showing them to any other player (in order to not influence the hand)
• All-In: If you do not have enough chips to cover a bet (or just enough to cover), you may go All-In by pushing your remaining chips into a separate stack near the center of the table. If you lose, you are out of chips and out of the game. If you win, you may only collect chips from each player equal to the amount of your All-In Bet.

When it comes back around to the bring in player, he may call by adding enough chips to his bring-in bet to match the current bet. He may also raise or fold, of course.

Razz Rules And Strategy

4th Street – Second Betting Round

Each card dealt is called a street. A fourth card is dealt to each player, face-up.

The second round of betting commences, same as the last, except that for this round and every round hereafter, the player with the highest open hand (face-up cards only) will always start off the betting.

On 4th Street there are only two exposed cards per player so the highest possible hand at this point is a pair of Aces.

As no bet has yet been placed in the pot in this round of betting there are additional betting options now as follows:

• Check: To place no chips in the pot, but to continue in the hand (not fold). A check can only be placed if no other player has already bet in the current betting round. If a player bets after a check has been made, all players who checked must at least call the bet or fold their hand
• Bet: The first person to place chips into the pot in a betting round is placing a bet which must then be matched by any other player who wants to continue in the hand.

Betting will continue until all players who wish to continue in the hand have placed an equal amount of chips into the pot. Players who do not, must fold and play no further part until the next hand is dealt.

5th, 6th and 7th Street

The pattern continues with another 3 cards dealt individually and after each card is dealt a betting round takes place:

• 5th Street: Each player is dealt a fifth card face-up, followed by another round of betting, same as the last and starting with the player showing the best hand from the three exposed “up cards”. From here out, all bets and raises must be equal to the high-end stakes, for example in a $2/$4 fixed limit game the increment would be $4.
• 6th Street: Each player is dealt a sixth card, face-up. Another round of betting begins again with the player showing the best hand from the now four exposed “up cards”.
• 7th Street: Each player receives a seventh and final card, this time face-down. The exposed “up cards” have not changed, therefore the player who started the previous betting round will do so again for this final betting round.

The Showdown

It is not uncommon for all but one player to fold at some stage during the hand, with other players not wishing to match the winning players bet and negating the need for a showdown, In this situation the winning player receives the pot and is not required to show his hand to the table.

If two or more players are left in the hand after the betting completes on 7th street then a showdown will take place to decide the winner.

All remaining players will use any 5 of their 7 cards to reveal their lowest ranking 5-card poker hand. Again, Aces are always low and Straights / Flushes do not count as combinations.

The player with the lowest ranking poker hand wins the entire pot. In case of a tie, the winning players will split the pot.

The lowest hand is always read from the highest card down, and the hand with the lowest high card will win. To review the low hand rankings and get more information about how low hands are formed then please see our Poker Hand Ranking Guide.

Help – We’ve Run Out of Cards!

There’s not enough cards! Okay, it is possible, though very rare, for an 8-seater hand of Razz to run out of cards before the 7th street is dealt out.

If all 8 players remain in the hand without folding (hence the rarity of this occurrence) there will not be enough cards remaining to deal the 7th street (8 players x 7 cards = 56; there’s only 52 cards in the deck!).

Should this occur, the 7th street will be dealt as a single, face-up card in the center of the table. This card then becomes a community card and all players will use it as their 7th card.

Where to Play Razz Poker?

We recommend Pokerstars for a great place to play Razz Poker. To find out more about them see our Pokerstars Review or to see alternate rooms to play Razz Poker then see the Professor's reviews in our Poker Reviews section.

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Razz poker variation (sometimes referred to as “seven-card razz”) is a stud variant first made popular several decades ago alongside other “lowball” games. Its popularity waned somewhat during the 1990s and early 2000s, but the rise of mixed games and H.O.R.S.E. (of which razz is the “R” variant) helped reintroduce the game to a new generation.

Razz can be played with two to eight players. Like seven-card stud, it does not involve a flop (like hold’em or Omaha) nor any community cards. Unlike seven-card stud, the object in razz is to make the lowest possible five-card poker hand out of the seven cards.

Game Play

Game play for razz is very similar to that of seven-card stud. To begin each player is dealt the first two cards face down and a third facing up. As in stud, this first deal and the betting round that follows it is commonly referred to as “third street,” with each subsequent deal/betting round referred to similarly (“fourth street,” etc. through “seventh street”). The two down cards are referred to as “hole cards” with the third card facing up called the “door card.”

As in seven-card stud, in razz a player will decide on the basis of these first three cards whether or not to continue in the hand, with starting hand selection again being a key element of the game’s strategy.

Each player who doesn’t fold prior to seventh street eventually will be dealt a total of seven cards — the first two down and one up, then three more up, then the last card down. From these seven cards the player has to make the best possible five-card combination, only instead of making a high hand the player is trying to make the lowest possible hand with the ace always counting as the lowest ranking card.

Flushes and straights don’t count in razz, meaning the best possible razz hand is 5x4x3x2xAx with suits being entirely inconsequential. The second best hand is 6x4x3x2xAx, the third best is 6x5x3x2xAx, and so forth following the same procedure used for ranking low hands in other “lowball” or split-pot games.

Also there is no “eight-or-better” qualifier in razz — the lowest hand at showdown wins, regardless how low it is.

Antes, bring-in and betting

As in seven-card stud, antes and bring-in bets are employed in razz in order to stimulate action. We’ll use the example of a $10/$20 razz game with an ante of $1 and a bring-in of $5. (Like most stud games, razz is most typically played as a fixed-limit betting game.)

Each player wanting to be dealt in to receive a hand would have to post the $1 ante, creating a pot worth competing for. The first three cards are then dealt to each player before it is determined that one player must post the bring-in. Whereas in seven-card stud the player with the lowest-ranking door card must post the $5 bring-in, in razz it’s the opposite — the player with the highest door card must pay the bring-in, with the Kx being the highest-ranking card in the game.

If multiple players have a king showing on third street, this becomes the only instance in razz where suits matter, with the player having the highest ranking king being the one forced to post the bring-in according to the following ranking: K♠ (highest), K♥ (next highest), K♦ (third highest), and K♣ (lowest).

As in seven-card stud, the player posting the bring-in has an option to “complete” the bet to $10 (the small limit of the game). From there betting clockwise around the table, with each player having the option to call, raise, or fold. Once the betting is complete, every player left in the hand is dealt a fourth card (i.e., “fourth street”).

In seven-card stud, the first player to act from fourth street on is the player displaying the highest-ranking hand. Meanwhile in razz the first player to act on fourth street and on subsequent rounds is the one with the lowest hand showing.

In a $10/$20 razz game, the limits of betting on third and fourth street would be the smaller limit, or $10, then on fifth, sixth and seventh streets the limits would increase to $20.

Strategy

The best starting hand in razz, then, would be Ax2x3x. Often in full-ring razz games (i.e., with eight players), experienced razz players will fold three-card starting hands containing any card higher than an 8x. Also worth noting — pairs count in razz, making hands undesirably higher. That means any starting hand that has a pair is a bad one, and that pairing up on subsequent rounds is also detrimental to players making strong razz hands.

That said, it will often happen that a table might fold around to the player sitting to the left of the one who was forced to post the bring-in with a high card showing. In that case, a player will want to complete the bet with what will necessarily be a lower door card showing, a move which will often win the antes and bring-in.

Say a player showing the Q♦ posts the bring-in and it folds around to the last player who has K♠J♥ in the hole and the 7♥ showing. That player should complete even with those face cards in the hole, because the player with the queen showing will very likely be unable to call and continue in the hand. Stealing the antes and bring-ins is a key component of solid razz strategy.

From there razz strategy involves understanding when it is worth continuing to draw to a strong low hand as well as keeping track of opponent’s up cards to know which cards have been used and which remain as “outs” with which to complete a hand. Sometimes even a good starting hand like 7x3x2x becomes less attractive if several fours, fives, and sixes are showing up as other players’ up cards, thus making it harder for you to draw to that 7-low.

In razz players with low cards showing as their up cards often will be aggressive with their betting and raising, although sometimes it can be correct to bet and raise with an especially strong draw that is concealed by the fact that your lower cards are face down.

It is possible sometimes in razz to have a “lock” on a hand where you know with certainty your opponent cannot draw to a better hand than yours. Say on sixth street you have 4♦2♥ / 3♣A♠K♥6♠ and you see your opponent with XxXx / 5♣6♠J♦7♣. You know that whatever card your opponent ends up drawing on seventh street, the very best that player can make will be 6-5-3-2-A, a hand you already have beaten with your current 6-4-3-2-A.

Conclusion

Rules Of Razz Poker

While not everyone finds razz the most exciting poker variant, it is a favorite game among many, and definitely worth learning how to play. Often in H.O.R.S.E. games razz is one of the lesser known variants in the mix, meaning just a little bit of study can make you considerably better at the game than your opponents, thus potentially making the razz round a profitable one for you.

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