Some general tips for playing Razz

Some general tips for playing Razz:

• Start with a good hand - never start with a card higher than a 7. I sometimes bump that up to an 8 but never beyond that. Remember, the objective is to get the lowest hand possible, so if you start with, say, a Queen, you've already got a tough draw.

• Pairs suck, but they don't kill your hand - If you're hand is, say, 5-5-4-3-2-A-K, you've still got the nuts (A-2-3-4-5). But if you get two pair, it's hard to draw to a good hand, so even if you have A-A-2-2-3-9-J), that means your hand is a J-high, despite all the pretty cards. You should pitch double pairs. I almost never start a hand with a pair in it, unless it's something like A-2-2.

• Bluffing is difficult - It's by no means not impossible, but it's a limit game, and you've got a lot of cards showing, so if someone bets into me and he or she has some good low cards, unless I've got them too, I tend to believe the player and fold.

• It's also easy to see when you're ahead or behind - If your hand is A-3-5-8, and your opponent has a Queen showing, you know you're ahead so far and you can bet with confidence until sixth street or even check-raise. If you have the Queen showing, you might consider folding.

• By 5th Street you want to decide whether you want to continue - It gets more expensive on later streets, so you need to figure out if you want to continue with the hand. You need to fold a lot in Razz, just a good starting hand doesn't mean you shouldn't fold when you are behind. So if your opponent shows all low cards and you "brick" a King, you should probably fold. In general, you should probably fold on 5th street if you are behind based on what the board shows, if you chase beyond 5th street you`ll most likely end up losing money.

• Pay attention to the board - For example if there are three 4's on the board already, your chances of hitting one are pretty slim.

• Attack bricks - On 4th street, if you haven`t bricked a facecard yourself, you should bet if your opponent bricks one.

• Stay out of trouble - you want to stay out of potentially expensive hands in Razz. Don`t play a hand like A-8-5 to a raise and a reraise for example. Avoid marginal situations that might cost you a lot of money.