Razz is one of those games that generally people love or they hate—and even those that love it spend a little time hating it. Razz has gained more attention in recent years as part of the popular mixed game HORSE (Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven card stud, seven card stud Eight or better), but people DO play Razz by itself…sometimes.

If you plan on playing HORSE, mastering Razz is a great way to win, because so many people are either inexperienced or focus on the other games that they will be very weak during these rounds, and you can clean up.

Razz is like playing Hi/Lo without the Hi. It is nearly like the opposite of most poker games, because in Razz you want to get the lowest hand possible rather than the highest. You want to have a collection of five cards that don’t make anything, that just miss making a hand. The bet hand in Razz is A-2-3-4-6, as it is a collection of the lowest sequential cards without making a typical poker hand. A-2-3-4-5 would be a straight, A-2-2-4-5 would be a pair, etc.

Here is a test- which hand wins 2-3-6-8-K or 2-3-4-8-K? If you said the second hand you are on your way to understanding the game. The second hand wins because it holds more lower cards than the first hand (the 4 is lower than the 6).

Razz is a stud game, which means that each player is dealt two down cards and one up card. The up card is a powerful card in stud—it can scare away other players or it can make they think you are weak. If you have an upcard of King, for example, players are going to be confident playing back at you if they hold a lot of smaller cards. If you have an upcard of a deuce, however, you might get them to give you the pot with aggressive betting, even though your pocket cards might both be Kings!

With Razz take the time out to understand the rules and play for fun or for very low stakes when starting out. Time put into learning Razz can be very rewarding, however, especially with the increasing popularity of HORSE.