Please help me Understand Razz !!

I read the rules on fulltilt online games guide. but im still confused !
i'll be in a HORSE tournament and think i have the best hand and then lose to somebody with a hand that i dont even think beats my hand.
Please tell me if hands like pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight etc.. count as the best hand , or is it just the lowest non matched up cards ?

any help would be appreciated.

thanks, Luckymurph44

only if u explain badugi 2 me lol......

no seriously what u said 2nd pretty much right, a2345 best hand, try 2 stick with cards 7 and below gl

One VERY important point to remember in RAZZ is the order in which the hands are evaluated. The HIGHEST card in your 5 card hand is compared to the HIGHEST card in the other players hand. If they are the same, then the next highest is compared and so on.


So:

2-3-4-5-8 beats 1-2-3-6-8

on the 5 being better than the 6. Many people look at the 1-2-3 as near nut...

It's the five lowest cards in your hand, evaluated from the highest one down as Doh has mentioned

Pairs and trips are bad. Straights and flushes, on the other hand, are ignored (this is where Razz differs from other lowball games like 2-7 draw) so the best hand you can make is A-2-3-4-5. Aces play low.

If you will avoid using 2 for "to" when you have a lot of "2"s in your post it will make reading easier.

everything everyone said is correct and kind of sums it up, you just need to be able to read other peoples hands and realize what you can draw to to win the hand. If there are tons of low cards out and it looks like you are drawing to a 8-7 low and there are a lot of lower cards out this is usually a bad hand to draw to seeing as you could very likely be drawing dead. Its a very easy and aggrivating game.

Easiest way to understand RAZZ is to think 7stud LOW ! At some point around 1980 (+/- a few years) that game picked up the nickname RAZZ. The nickname stands.

The big difference between RAZZ and omaha H/L or stud h/l is that in the split games, the low must be less than or equal to 8 lo.

Badugi is like razz except it hates pairs of any type, include paired suits!

A badugi is any 4 card hand containing all 4 suits. Lowest hand with the most cards unsuited wins. Any badugi will always beat a 3 card hand. TJQK unsuited will beat A234 3 suited. The ultimate badugi hand is A234 4 suited.

I think everybody's explaining it a bit more complicatedly than it needs to be.

This is what it boils down to: The "worse" hand wins. So, if you were playing a game of normal seven card stud and your hand would lose, it wins in razz.

You want to draw to hands that are 8-high or "worse" (lower), as a very overgeneralized rule.

better learn razz before Badugi. Badugi is just a bear to learn razz is easy and if you are going to play horse tourys you need to be good at razz and omaha and stud all are great games.

Recommend before playing Badugi for real money play some play tables to get down the rules and understand the game concept same with razz or any game play for free before putting real cash on the table.

For more info see:


Razz (poker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

How to Play Razz -- Razz Poker Rules -- Seven-Card Stud Low or Razz Poker Rules

Razz Primer

Razz is pretty easy, but many players in HORSE games play it pretty badly... if you start with 3 cards to a 7 low or better, then you have a decent enough starting hand. If you have any 'paint' cards or paired cards in your starting hand then you generally don't want to put any more money in. If you have the lowest face-up card showing, however, it may be worth a bet just to see if everyone else folds (not worth doing in loose RAZZ games, though).
If you think about it, you can discard 2 cards to make a hand. If you discount the 2 least useful cards in your hand and your next worst card is higher than all the up cards of another player, then you are behind, and at best chasing, and at worst dead in the water. If you get 2 paint (court) cards or pairing cards then you need all remaining cards to be low and not to pair your existing cards or you're in deep trouble.
The main exception to those cautions is if you catch a paint card and everyone else catches a worse paint card, then their hand depreciated in value more than yours, so it's less of a worry. If you ever find yourself against someone with trips or 2 pair or the like showing who bets, they probably don't realise what game they're playing, or they're an idiot, and take them to the cleaners.