How to Play Razz

When you play Razz, you need to take everything that you know about winning poker hands and do a 180 degree shift. Razz is a seven-card-stud low poker game where instead of the highest or best hand winning, the lowest or worst hand wins. Knowing how to play Razz will give you one more game in your poker playing repertoire.

Instructions

1. Shuffle and deal 3 cards to each player--2 cards are dealt face down and 1 is face up on the table. The player with the highest exposed card is the first to act and needs to make a bet of either half of a small bet or a full small bet (for example, $1 or $2 in a $2/$4 game). Each player must bet in turn, going clockwise, or fold their hand.

2. Deal a fourth card, face up, to each player that is remaining in the hand. The first player to act is the player that has the lowest poker value in their exposed cards. The player may check or bet. The remaining players, acting in a clockwise order, can check or bet depending on the actions of the previous players.

3. Check, bet or fold. In order to stay in the hand, you must either check or bet. You can check if the players to your right have checked prior to your action. If a bet has been placed, you must at least call the other player's bet in order to stay in the hand. At this stage in the hand, the bets can still be small bets--$1 or $2 in a $2/$4 game.

4. Deal a fifth card, face up, to each player that is still in the hand. The first player to act is the one that has the lowest poker hand exposed. At this point, any bets must be in a big bet increment--$4 in a $2/$4 game.

5. Deal a sixth card, face up, to the remaining players. The player with the lowest exposed poker hand is the first to act by making a bet or checking their hand. The betting continues in the same fashion as the previous rounds.

6. Deal a seventh and final card face down to the remaining players. The first player to act is the one that has the lowest exposed hand. Betting is the same as in previous rounds.

7. Finish the hand by winding up the betting. If there is more than one remaining player after the final bets have been placed, the last player to bet has to show their cards first. If there was not bet in the final round, the player whose exposed cards have the lowest rank shows their cards first.

8. Determine the winner by seeing which player has the five lowest cards out of the seven that were dealt to that player. The "best" lowest hand in Razz is A-2-3-4-5. If there are two hands with an equally low value, the pot will be split between the players holding the equal hand.

Tips & Warnings

• Straights and flushes have no ranking in Razz.

• The rules of seven-card stud apply to Razz, except the high card (aces are low) is required to make the forced bet on the first round, and the low hand acts first on all subsequent rounds.