Rules Of Razz Poker

The Rules of Razz Poker

Razz is a great game that is just like the 7 card stud Low, because it is where your low poker hand is the winner. In this game, each player is dealt 7 cards over the life of the hand, but can only use 5 of those cards to create the lowest possible hand, thus determining the winner of the hand. Unlike playing in the hi/lo versions of poker games like seven card stud and Omaha, there is no "eight or better" in order for you to win the Razz pot.

In Razz you will need to remember that having a straight or a flush will not count toward the lowness of your hand and the Aces are now low cards, so the best possible hand would be the A, 2, 3, 4, 5. The hands that are most powerful are the ones that are the lowest in an actual hand.

The Rules
Before the dealer will deal a hand everyone must bet a nominal ante amount. The poker table or the online game will have a listing of the ante amounts. Each player will then be dealt two cards faced down, and one that is shown to everyone. The player who has the highest card will have the "bring-in", and must make a wager of half a small bet or the full bet. Action goes in a clockwise way around the table until everyone has had the chance to make the bet or to fold their hand or to raise the bid.

An important thing to note is that in the determination of the bring-in, if the players should tie, then the cards are broken in order by suit. The order is spades, then hearts, then diamonds, and lastly clubs. For example, if one player has the queen of hearts and another has the queen of diamond then the queen of hearts would be the highest and that player is the bring in person.

Each card given is called a street, when you receive the next turned up card it is called the fourth street. The first player who may go first is the one who has the lower poker value in his or her up turned cards. Everyone is given the chance to either check, bet or fold.

The players will receive another up turned card called the fifth street, again each player will get a chance to check, bet or fold.

Another note during the first few hands the bet is the low side of the minimum. An example of this is on a $1/$2 game, for the first few hands your minimum bet will be $1, starting with your fifth street card and the rest of the hand your bets will be $2.

The next card is an up turned card called the sixth street. Again the players will get the chance to check, bet and fold.

The last card will be called the seventh street, it is dealt face down. There is one more betting round; the last person to bet will then reveal his or her cards.

The Showdown
In this part of the game the person with the lowest Razz hand will win the game. Remember that there is no qualifier like in the original 7 card stud hi/lo or the Omaha hi/lo. The hand showing the lowest wins the entire pot.
If there are two or more hands have the same value then the pot will be split between the players.
If you have played 7 card stud poker, you should be able to pick up this game rather quickly. If you are unfamiliar you can play one of the many free poker tables available online.