I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now: Razz

Continuing our examination into the mixed games and general dissection of things that I’ve learned in a decade of playing poker professionally, in this issue we move into our first lowball game, Seven-card razz. For discussion about the mechanics of stud and the ways that ante sizes affect optimal strategy, please see my previous article on seven-card stud.

Razz came into existence shortly after its brother stud when one cowboy, suffering from just bad luck, said “I’d win every hand if the worst hand won. His opponents said, all right.” Ace plays low, straights and flushes are okay, and the lowest hand wins. Clearly these weren’t the smartest cowboys, especially since Kansas City rules already existed for draw poker, where the actual worst hand is the best hand, 2-3-4-5-7 without a flush. For whatever reason in history though, we are at a place where A-2-3-4-5 is the best possible hand in Seven Card Razz.

Razz is a simple game but manages to bring the donkey out in many players, mostly because of ignorance of the math involved. Since a five-card hand is required in razz to make a winner, you cannot start with a strong hand, never improve, and win the pot like in stud. Because of this, a hand with a brick early loses a significant portion of equity, and hands with three low cards are very close in equity, regardless of their three-card strength. Let’s look at some examples, using propokertools.com:

Standard strategy says that starting hands should contain three cards eight or lower. Consider these equities for various starting hand matchups in Razz:

A-2-3: 59.56%
6-7-8: 40.44%

A-2-K: 32.64%
6-7-8: 67.36%

A-2-K: 45.04%
x-x-8: 54.96%

As you can see, having a brick on third street is extremely bad for equity, while having three better cards is not that big of a deal. As a result, it is usually correct to open with a completion when you are the first player to enter the pot, and it is usually correct to just call completions when other players have entered the pot. Exceptions to this rule are when it is at least somewhat likely that the completer is opening with a hand worse than three cards to an eight or when it is plainly obvious that raising is a good thing. An example of this is when an 8 limps, as does a 7, as does a 9, and then a 5 completes. If we have three cards 8 or lower without the 8 showing in this spot, it is optimal to raise the completion to get the pot heads up with dead money, rather than just calling and letting those three other rough hands see fourth street with no additional charge.

The swing of equities on fourth is where most players make their first mistake, setting themselves up for bigger mistakes down the road. Let’s consider some more numbers:

A-2-3, K: 33.7%
6-7-8, 5: 66.3%

Wow! Talk about a big swing, eh? Our nut starting hand taken against the worst standard starting hand is now a 2-to-1 dog after fourth street when we catch bad and they catch good. Brutal, right? Nature of the game though, and it must be heeded, because if we continue past this point showing the king, we’re in for an expensive road ahead of us. In a best case scenario, we catch perfect and they catch bad, swinging our equity back to 62 percent, which is great for us because the big bets start going in on fifth street. In a worst case scenario though, we catch good and so do they, and in this case that brings our equity up to 47 percent if we catch a 5, 6, or 7, and puts us at 33 percent if we catch an 8. If our opponent’s hand is any better than this worst possible hand we’re examining, then our equities start dropping considerably, and putting in big bets with the worst equity is never the way to go. Remember, three-quarters of the money you put into a stud pot comes from fifth, sixth, and seventh streets.

If we have no reason to believe that our opponents are weaker than usual on third street, then we should just be calling their completion. Then on fourth street, if we catch bad and they catch good, we should fold. Our hand has lost enough equity and we have kept the pot small enough to not make it worth peeling fifth street and risk getting ourselves into an expensive second-best hand. If we raised on third street, then we should continue when they catch good and we catch bad on fourth street. This is because their initial hand strength is supposed to be weaker and now the pot is bloated enough that we are receiving the correct price to continue with our hand.

How do you know if they made a pair? Pay attention to the exposed cards. If a player catches a five on fifth street and you haven’t seen a five anywhere up or down throughout the hand, and you have no reason to believe that the player is getting out of line, then it is somewhat likely that they made a pair. If you have A-2-6-8-3 and they’re showing 4-7-5, they will often have a pair, and if I’m in this spot and the 4-7-5 bets, then I’m probably going to raise and at least call down.

Razz is a bunch of fun if you avoid the expensive frustrations of the game by abandoning bad hands quick. Pay attention to the board and use it to find spots to steal. Value bet seventh street often, and when they raise seventh street, they’re (almost) never bluffing. Make the best hand, put more money in the pot, and profit… as in most other variants of poker. ♠

Bryan Devonshire has been a professional poker player for nearly a decade. With over $2m in tournament earnings, he also plays high stakes mixed games against the best players in the world. Follow him on Twitter @devopoker.