A Game Called Razz

Filed Under: Poker

When I woke up this morning I didn't know much about the game of Razz. I still don't know a whole lot, but I know I kinda like it. I've been seated at a table when Razz was played on two occasions before today. Both were in HORSE events and I pretty much just folded through the Razz portions. With the WPBT Razz event on tap I decided I needed to learn more about the game and I headed off to the play money tables of Full Tilt.

I've never condoned the use of play money tables in the past due to the poor play you'll see. When you don't know the rules of the game though, it's a good place to learn. I knew Razz was a game of having the lowest hand and that the hand was dealt like 7-card Stud. I mistakenly thought that you had to use your best 5 cards, to make the worst hand. This meant that I thought pairs, straights, and flushes counted against you. This was wrong. You get to use your five lowest cards regardless of suits and straights don't count. The best hand is A2345. Ace is always counted as a low card.

Most people despise the game because it is easy to have your hand decimated by the later streets, but god help me, I enjoy playing it. The game requires concentration and maybe that's why it held my interest. I have no plans to play it on any regular basis but I might play the odd tourney every now and then.

At any rate, the reason for learning more about the game today was for the WPBT event. I'm happy to report that I finished a strong 2nd out of 17. I went into the heads up battle with lucko21 as a major underdog but fought my way back to just about even before the cards abandoned me and I was eventually eliminated. Since lucko21 was ahead of me in the points race already and the points leader, S.T.B. went out in fourth, I imagine I'll still be sitting in 3rd place. I missed playing in two events this year and I can't help wondering if I'd be a little closer to the lead if I'd played in them all.