How to Play Razz
By: Chris Iaquinta
While Texas Hold’em may reign supreme in both the live and online card rooms across the globe, a number of different poker games are still widely played and enjoyed by a number of poker players, including Razz. Razz is a seven-card stud variation where instead of the highest hand winning, the lowest and worst hand wins. The best hand to have in Razz is A-2-3-4-5 because flushes and straights aren’t counted against a hand being low, plus aces in Razz are counted as low.
As opposed to split-pot hi-lo games like Omaha, Razz doesn’t have an “eight or better” aspect to it’s play. In a hi-lo eight-or-better game, the winning low hand must not have a card any higher than an 8 in it to count as a low hand — but as Razz is a game with only a low hand winning it means that any hand can win, including those with low pairs. However, even though this is possible, it is highly unlikely, and the majority of winning Razz hands will not have a pair in them.
Here are the best 10 Razz hands:
1. A-2-3-4-5
2. A-2-3-4-6
3. A-2-3-5-6
4. A-2-4-5-6
5. A-3-4-5-6
6. 2-3-4-5-6
7. A-2-3-4-7
8. A-2-3-5-7
9. A-2-4-5-7
10. A-3-4-5-7
