Razz Poker Rules – Reward A Bad Hand
There are some nights in poker when you just cannot seem to get a good hand. Everyone else around the table appears to be cleaning up and yet you get poor hand after poor hand so it is maybe time to switch to Razz Poker. Razz Poker rewards the poorest hand on the table but if your luck is against you, this will be the point that you start getting the cards you wished for all night.
It is not that winning at Razz requires a poor hand; it is only in comparison to other poker games. The concept of playing and reading other players and combining your cards to obtain a specific outcome are as relevant in Razz as they are in any other game.
Lowest Hand Takes the Pot
What you need to remember about Razz is that if you hold the lowest hand, you win the pot. The style of the game is similar in nature to seven-card stud high but a difference comes with the high card. In this instance, aces are deemed to be low. In Razz, flushes and straights are deemed to have no ranking and the best possible hand you could have would be 5-4-3-2-A, which is called a wheel.
The betting begins by way of a forced bet, which is forced upon the holder of the highest card by suit. After this and in all subsequent rounds, the holder of the low hand is the first to act. If there is a tie involving low hands, the tied player that is closest to the dealer in a clockwise fashion is first to play.
Know Your Limits
Razz can be played as a fixed limit game with the lower limit coming into play on the third and fourth streets. On all subsequent streets, the upper limit is taken and the limit is not affected by an open pair. The dealer will announce all pairs when they first occur with the exception of face card pairs, which are not announced.
It is always good to have variation when playing poker and Razz poker can help you hone your skills. Thinking about the combination of cards and how other players react can always be of benefit to a poker player and Razz is another style of playing. It may not be the common poker game that people play but it can provide an enjoyable twist and a break from the normal routine.
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