What is Razz?

Answer 1

General
Razz is a form of Poker where the objective is, unlike the far more popular Texas hold'em, to have cards with the lowest values possible. Combinations like straights and flushes don't matter in Razz games. Each player is dealt a total of 7 cards (although not all at once) with some being dealt face up and some face down, but only the 5 best cards are used to determine the winner (exact rules explained below). The player who can make the lowest 5-card combination wins the pot. In Razz, the value of an ace is 1. Therefore, the ideal 5-card hand in is A-2-3-4-5, commonly referred to as a "wheel". Each of the 5 cards must be unique, so a hand like A-A-A-A-2 would be a bad hand.



Detailed rules
At the start of a game, each player is dealt three cards; two face down and one face up. The player with the highest card (again, aces count as 1, so the highest card is a king) is the "bring-in" and must place a mandatory bet. This is similar to the blinds in Texas hold'em. The person to the left of the bring-in now gets to act, and the round of betting continues clockwise. Most commonly, Razz is played as a limit-game, meaning there is a certain upper limit for bet sizes.

Then, another card is dealt and there's another round of betting. This continues until all 7 cards are dealt. Card 3, 4, 5 and 6 are dealt face up. As mentioned, in the first betting round the player with the highest card is first to act. For the rest of the rounds, the first player to act is the one with the best Razz hand (lowest valued cards).

At showdown, each player will have 7 cards, and the 5 lowest are selected. For example, if a player has A-2-4-5-7-9-J, the cards 9 and J are discarded, and the selected cards become A-2-4-5-7. The way the value of a Razz hand is determined is by looking at the highest of the selected cards. In this case, the highest is 7. Here are some examples:


Player A: A-2-3-5-6
Player B: 2-4-5-7-8
Player A wins because 6 is lower than 8.

Player A: A-2-3-4-J
Player B: 5-6-7-8-9
Player B wins because 9 is lower than J (again, we look at the highest card first. Even though B's sum is a lot higher, he wins the round).

Player A: 2-3-4-7-9
Player B: 2-3-4-8-9
Player A wins. Here the highest card is the same, so we look at the second highest card. 7 is lower than 8.


Strategy
Compared to Texas hold'em, Razz is a game where you can see parts of the other players' hands, because some of the cards are dealt face up. This changes the strategy a lot. If you have the five cards A-2-3-4-Q but there are already a lot of 5's, 6's and 7's on the table, you're most likely to get an 8 or higher for your two final cards. And as already mentioned, having four low cards is no good if your fifth selected card is high.

However, the fact that other players can see your cards can also be an advantage. If you have Q-K as your hidden cards and A as your visible card, you can pretend that your hand is strong and bet as a bluff. This is especially powerful if the players remaining have high cards. But again, if you have a Q and K and there are high cards face up, players are likely to have low cards as their hidden cards. This makes Razz a game about probabilities and bluffing, in most cases to a much higher degree than Texas hold'em.