All about Razz Poker

Razz Poker game is a good game to begin with and to understand the basic rules and regulations that are common to almost all the poker games played in the casinos. Razz Poker is sometimes also referred to as a five-card stud low or a seven-card stud low game. This game is played in a similar manner to that of the seven-card stud game except that one has to look to get the worst hand possible in the Razz Poker than the best and the strongest hand in the seven-card stud game.

In Razz Poker, each player is distributed two cards with closed faces and one card with open face. The player with the lowest valued card starts the bet. The cards are distributed in such a manner that every player gets a total of five card for the five card stud low game or seven cards for the seven card stud low game. The aces in this game are designated at the lowest level with a ‘one’ assigned to it and thus, the players look to build their consequent card with consecutive numbers of two, three and four etc. The strongest looking card in a five card stud low game is 5,4, 3, 2 followed by an ace and that in the seven card stud low game is 7,6,5,4,3,2 and an ace.

In Razz Poker, any card can claim to win as long as its value is lowest. If you were extensively into playing seven card stud poker games, then switching to Razz Poker game would be a bit difficult for you as the requirement to win at the Razz Poker game is exactly opposite to that of the seven card stud game. However, the bluffing experiences gained from playing the seven card stud poker game would surely give you a cutting edge over all your opponents who might have less experience than you. Most of today’s poker games are played with Blinds, but Razz Poker is not.

It uses mandatory bets known as Antes which are a percentage based bets. Here, every player has to place an Ante of equal betting amount before the cards are distributed to them one by one. Thus, all the players have their stake in the pot that is desired to won. This in turn, encourages all the players not to fold their cards and to stay in the race and thus the amount, which is won by the winner in the showdown of cards, is a handsome amount.

The Antes must be made equal to half of the low-end stakes, which starts at the first round where betting begins, by the player having lowest valued card. Razz Poker is generally played with two to eight players all having the same objective to get cards with the lowest values possible. However, a player having the highest valued card is not allowed to fold out his cards from the beginning and thus the game becomes more interesting than any other traditional game of poker. This game can be a bit confusing at the beginning but players reach higher level of excitement after the passage of each draw aiming at the lower valued cards.