Razz and the Art of Bluffing

This blog is the result of a comment that stated you can't bluff in RAZZ. Boy are they wrong. The art of the bluff starts with hand selection. Thus you must be profiecent at board reading. You also must be a student of the art of table image.
You get (K 10) 2 an insta fold normally. You can also replace either hole card with a paired flop. Your in mid position to late mid and the bring has been done and then folded to you. You look at the board cards of the opponents left to act. I also watch all folded board cards as part of my card counting procedure every hand. The first criteria is you should have the lowest board card of the players remaining. I will make the play with a 2 and an ace showing if the ace is a tight player. He'll fold the none 3 card low. Which actually helps me against the other opponents. To clarify for those who don't play RAZZ much. The 3 low is generally 3 cards 8 or under unpaired on the flop. A low 3 can become a problem on future streets as odds favour lower cards on those streets becoming more likely. We prefer to make this play when hands are 7, 8 , 9 ect. against us on the flop. You complete only. Never reraise here! If reraised after you, fold and move on.Then you look to 4th street for the key card. A low card is important, but higher cards for the opponents is much more important. Lets say you get a 4 to go with the 2. Board (X X) 2 4 and the best of 2 opponents is 3 9. You got something started now. Next you only bet the minimum if its unraised to you, never check and never, ever reraise. They will alaways call. Important point here. Your table image should of established you as a tight good player already. That means your reraises are on nut made hands only! And I mean only. So lets get 5th street. You have ( X X) 2 4 6 and you chased 1 opponent with the last bet leaving (X X ) 2 9 10. They have a ten low possible at this point to your possible 6 low. More Importantly we know they need 2 card improvement to beat our mythical 6 low. This is board reading at it's fundamental level. We set this up by betting 4th street and now bet again on 5th street. You take down the pot 8-10 times right here. The opponent has to consider runner/runner to beat you and that's a tough hill to climb. If he had 2 low cards less than 5 in the hole he would have raised you after the flop. Thus you can be assured he doesn't have the ability to beat a made 6 high. That's the good RAZZ players thinking here. What's my best possible hand and and what is likely to be there's. If your called and you both see 6th street one rule applies because they needed runner/runner to get to a hand that beat or equalled your 6 high potential holding. Raise with anything after 6th street. Your playing probabilities versus your actual hand. I've used X X for our hole cards because they don't matter here. Who cares about them being K 10, we didn't when we decided to play so don't now. If 6th street gives us a Q we bet out and reraise if we are given the chance, even reraising the reraise if we are so lucky. We are representing the nut 6 low to the max. If they improved by hitting a card under the 9 they still only have a 9 low ar best. You gotta sell the nuts for all it's worrth. The best you can get yourself is 10 low now and that's not going to win against a perpetual caller here. You now should have the pot won 9-10, maybe a little better percentage than that. On the river you absolutely bet out. There are very few things in poker more satisfying than scooping a pot with garbage! You must be willing to sell it to the very end. If they bet out on the river even reraise again, though your probably going to get called I like it as one last stab at getting them to fold.
A somewhat similar approach can be used on another simillar bluff/steal. This is the semi bluff on 3rd or 4th street. You can only use it once per hand. But many times at a table once you've established table image. You must have established your table image 1st. You must also not have reraised before 5th street and only raised with made nut hands, Again board reading so important to deciding to make this play! You get ( A K ) 2 the bring and folded to you in late position, 2 players or fewer to act. This is a very key point to this steal. 3 or more players and you do not make this play. In the event of multiple callers you have to be able to manage future streets. More players makes this very difficult. Where 3 low On the flop 5 high or lower is a natural reraise in RAZZ I save that exclusively for A 2 3 to allow me the opportunity to reraise to steal here. A 2 3 rarely makes it too the river. Betting will normally shut it down before 7th street. I always make sure the table knows what I reraised on after the flop to help set up this play. The other criteria is the board cards of the other 2 opponents., excluding the bring of course.They must both be 6 or higher. we don't want to reraise into a potentail 3 under 5 hand on the flop. Not with are ugly king in the hole. I should point out that your not reraising as a form of pot building. You just want to win the pot and move on. This is simillar to the holdem strategy on the button raising to steal blinds and antes. Stealing small pots allows you to see more hands and stay longer in a tourney. Same here in RAZZ. Those antes add up. It helps negate the pain of the bring also. note The bring is the complete bet and is forced by the house to be done by the highest card on the flop. What do you do if you get a caller or even 2 to 4th street. Now we read the board for each opponent again. If you have the "potential" best nut hand raise or reraise again. We're stealing after all! Lets say our board is now (A K) 2 A. Its a terible card, couldn't be worse? Yes it could! Much worse. We may have some bluff/fold equity with a bet. You only have 2 choices give up on the hand as you need runner/runner/runner to make any kind of low or fire a bullet. We reraised on the flop thus we can make the holdem equivilent of a continuation bet here. Your looking for a board that is (X X) 6 7 or worse held by your opponent/s. There staring at potentially needing 3 runners to beat or tie your potential 5 high. Good players rarely call your raise. If they bet 1st reraise everytime or fold. Never call with this type of holding.If they call and you get a 3 4 or 5 on 5th street absolutely fire another bullet even if thier hand gets a card under 5. They have to decide if they need runner/runner to chase you for low. The most important cards in RAZZ are the board cards for leveraging your bets. In other forms of stud the hole card are more important. Your playing the other players boards in these steal examples. Simply put in RAZZ your always playing others boards as well as your own. Playing the player is the second, less desireable option. Nut low boards is a key to deciding wether to see another card or not. Moving your chips on the other hand is always designed to convey information. Including the old favorite of mine. You gotta pay for your draws folks!
You can't make this kind of play early in a freeroll or tourney. But your not ready to anyway because you haven't established table image yet as being a tight player. Remember also you want your bets to mean something to the rest of the table. Only reraise with nut made hands 5th street and beyond. Never reraise on a 4 card draw. You want your opponents to believe you have the made hand when you reraise. In limit this is the only true form of fold equity I have been able to develop. They're folding on my word that I'm good in the hand, But we all know there's a little larceny in poker.