How to Play Razz Poker

Razz is a variant of 7-Card Stud. The rules to Razz only differ from those to 7-Card Stud in a few ways, the most significant of which, perhaps, is that in Razz you are trying to make the lowest (or worst) possible hand, rather than the best.

Before we go through the rules to Razz in-depth, let’s first go over the key differences between Razz and 7-Card Stud for players already familiar with the rules to Seven-Card Stud.

The Differences Between Razz & 7-Card Stud

The Bring: Instead of determining the player responsible for the bring based on the lowest valued door card showing, it is the player with the highest valued door card showing responsible for the bring.
The Betting Rounds: Instead of basing which player starts the betting first by the one with the best poker hand (in other words, the “highest” hand) showing, it’s the player with the lowest or worst hand showing—in other words, the best Razz hand—who starts the betting.
The Showdown: Instead of being the player with the best 5-card poker hand, the player to win the pot in a game of Razz is the one with the worst possible 5-card poker hand.

The Rules to Razz

Except where they differ from the rules to 7-Card Stud, the rules to Razz below are otherwise identical to our Rules to Seven-Card Stud article.

# of players: 2 – 8 per table

Setup

There are three types of bets you must concern yourself with in a game of Razz: the ANTE, the SMALL BET, the BIG BET. The big bet is typically twice the small bet and ten times the ante. The ante is a small investment all players at the table must make in order to be dealt cards in any given hand.

Once every player has paid the ante, they are each dealt two cards face-down (their HOLE CARDS or DOWN CARDS) and one card face-up (their DOOR CARD or WINDOW CARD).

The player with the highest door card (Ace being lowest, face cards increasing in value in the order J, Q, K) is responsible for the BRING.

The Bring

As opposed to in Hold’em and Omaha, in which the betting starts to the immediate left of the dealer and rotates around the table each hand, in Razz the order of play is determined by the bring.

Whoever has the highest door card must “bring it in”. If two or more players both have the same value door card, then the losing card is determined by suit in alphabetical order from best to worst as follows: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.

The player responsible for the bring has two options: place a bet equal to the ante or complete the bet, which means betting the amount of the small bet.

Sequence of Play in Razz

Third Street (Betting Round 1)

Next, the player to the left of the bring (and every player in turn thereafter) has three options:

Fold – pay no chips into the pot and relinquish your hand, waiting until the next hand is dealt to get back in.
Call – pay into the pot an amount matching the current bet.
Raise – pay more chips into the pot than the current bet. In the case of the player after the bring, a raise to a minimum bring (or the amount of the ante) would complete the bet to the small bet, and raise to a completed small bet would be double the small bet, or the big bet.

Betting moves in a clockwise direction around the table until every player has had a chance to act and has either folded out of the hand or bet the same amount as everyone else still in the hand.

Fourth Street (Betting Round 2)

The dealer next deals one card face-up to every “live” player (or player remaining in the hand). This card is dealt in a clockwise direction around the table starting with the live player closest to the dealer’s left.

All face-up cards in a player’s hand are called UP CARDS or SHOW CARDS. Starting with fourth street (or the second round of betting) and every betting round hereafter, the betting starts with the player with the lowest value up cards, or in other words the best Razz hand showing.

Since a pair is always considered higher than no pair, no matter what value cards are involved, the lowest and therefore best Razz hand at this point is an A 2 of clubs and diamonds while the highest and therefore worst Razz had at this point is a pair of Kings.

The first player to bet now has three options:

Fold – Bet nothing and throw away your hand, waiting until the next hand is dealt to come back in.
Check – Bet nothing, but remain in the hand, with the right to bet passing one player to the left. Each player in turn thereafter has the right to check until and unless the first bet in any given betting round is placed.
Bet – Pay the amount of the small bet into the pot, thereby requiring all other players at the table to either match your bet or be forced out of the hand.

After the first bet in any given round of betting is made, each player in turn, moving clockwise around the table, must either call that bet, raise it (by an amount also equal to the small bet), or fold their cards and remove themselves from the hand. Players continue taking turns around the table this way until every player has either folded out of the hand or bet the same amount as every other player remaining in the hand.

Once this occurs, another show card is dealt (that’s face-up), again starting with the first remaining live player closest to the dealer’s left.

Fifth Street (Betting Round 3)

At this point each player has three up cards, and the lowest and therefore best Razz hand showing is A 2 3 while the highest and therefore worst possible Razz hand showing is three-of-a-kind Kings.

Betting on fifth street (or the third round of betting) follows the same rules as for fourth street with one exception: now bets and raises are based on the amount of the big bet rather than the small bet.

Once betting on fifth street is completed, another show card is dealt in the same manner as before.

Sixth Street (Betting Round 4)

At this point each player has four up cards, and the lowest and therefore best possible Razz hand showing is A 2 3 4.

This fourth round of betting, or sixth street, follows the same rules as fifth street.

Now one last card is dealt, however this time face-down.

Seventh Street (Betting Round 5)

Seventh street is the fifth and final round of betting. At this point, all the cards that will be dealt in the hand have been dealt—seven cards in all, lending to the name of the game.

As the players proceed, it is the strength of this hand (that is, the lowest or “worst” five-card poker hand each player can make with his three hole cards and four show cards) that will determine who wins the pot, should it come to a SHOWDOWN.

In this round, since the last card is dealt face-down, the player to bet first is the same player who was first to bet on sixth street (that is, once again, the player with the lowest show cards). Once again, the big bet is used as the betting/raising limit for this round.

After this round of betting is finished, assuming at least two live players remain, it is time for the showdown, when the winner of the hand will be determined.

The Showdown

If at least two players remain after seventh street, the showdown takes place, when the time finally comes for the remaining live players to reveal their door cards and show their hand. The player to win the pot is the one with the best Razz hand, as determined by the following rules:

There are no such things as straights or flushes in Razz, so the best Razz hand is A 2 3 4 5, regardless of suit.
A player’s hand is evaluated from the top down, meaning that 8 4 3 2 A is a poorer Razz hand than 7 6 5 4 3. In other words, in cases where two or more players have no pairs in their final hand, then it is the player with the lowest valued high card in their hand who wins.

Suits are not considered in evaluating hands in Razz, so if two or more players have the same hand in terms of card values, then they split the pot evenly.