How to Play Razz Poker

Rules of Razz Poker

If you’ve ever played 7 Card Stud, Razz will look quite familiar. In fact they are almost identical except that in Razz the lowest hand wins the pot. Because of this, Razz also sometimes goes by the name “7 Card Stud Low” (please don’t confuse that with Stud Hi-Low).

Despite being relatively unpopular compared to Texas Holdem, Razz is a game worth learning for several reasons. As a poker player, it’s good for your mind to expand your horizons and learn new games - especially challenging ones like this one. Additionally, you’ll need to at least be proficient at Razz if you ever want to play in more mixed games - primarily H.O.R.S.E., where Razz is one of the most critical games in the rotation.

Hand Rankings

In other games like 7 Card Stud 8/b (aka Hi-Lo), low hands are not allowed to have pairs or cards higher than 8. In Razz, this is not the case. Low hands in Razz can have pairs and high cards. It’s just not very likely these hands will win at the showdown. The best possible Razz hand is A-2-3-4-5.

Razz hands are evaluated starting from the top and working down. In a showdown between two Razz hands, look at the highest card in each hand. The hand containing the lowest high card wins. Aces have a ranking of 1.

For example:

A-2-3-4-J would lose to 4-5-7-9-T

Even though the hand with the ace contains more low cards, it loses because its highest card is a Jack while the other hand’s highest card is only a Ten.

If two hands have the same high card, you simply look at the next highest card in each hand to determine the winner.

For example:

A-4-6-7-9 would win over A-3-4-8-9

Since both hands are tied for the highest card (Nine), we look to the second highest card. In this example, the Seven beats the Eight.

Antes

At the beginning of each hand, every player places an ante. The antes can vary in size but they are usually equal to 10% - 25% of the size of the small bet. In a $5/$10 game, the antes would be somewhere around 50 cents.

Third Street

After the antes are placed, each player is dealt three cards. Two are dealt face down and one is dealt face up. Next, the player with the highest card showing must post the bring-in. The bring-in is equal to half the low limit bet. In a $5/$10 game, the bring-in is $2.50.

After the bring-in is posted, play moves clockwise around the table with each player choosing to call, fold or raise. All bets must be in increments of the lower limit. In our $5/$10 example, all bets and raises must be $5.

Fourth Street

Now a fourth card is dealt face up to each player. The player with the lowest hand showing starts the betting this round. He may check, bet or fold. The play continues clockwise around the table. The lower betting limit is still in effect this round.

Fifth Street

A fifth card is dealt face up to each player. Fifth street is played the same way as fourth street except from now on all bet sizes must be equal to the higher betting limit. In $5/$10, all bets and raises must be $10.

Sixth Street

A sixth card is dealt face up to each player and play continues exactly the same way as fifth street.

Seventh Street

One final card is dealt face down to each player. There is one more round of betting just like there was in sixth street. After betting is completed, the players still remaining have a showdown.

Showdown

The players may use any combination of their seven cards to make the lowest five card hand possible. The player with the lowest five card hand wins the pot. See “hand rankings” above for more details.

Where to Play Razz Online

Razz isn’t spread at as many poker sites as some other poker variants but there are places where it can be found. We’ve done the research and come up with a list of poker sites that offer Razz:

Full Tilt Poker - Full Tilt is a great place to play Razz because of the large player base. Our detailed Full Tilt Review should give you a better understanding of the many different games and limits the site also has.

PokerStars - PokerStars is even bigger than Full Tilt Poker and has a wide variety of games, including Razz. Our top-notch PokerStars Review gives information on not just Razz, but the many other different poker games the #1 poker site in the world has to offer.