For the past week and a half, I’ve been playing a healthy dose of SCOOP events – eleven in total so far, with a few more remaining to go. I haven’t had all that much luck and only have two cashes under my belt but with field sizes of up to twenty thousand, I can’t complain too much.
Initially, I was going to play two events today but I was running really bad in Event #27, Razz Limit and by the time the next event was registering, I was quite steamy. To top it off, it was a re-buy tournament and that’s pretty much a worse case scenario when you’re on tilt. The final hand I went out on pretty much summed up my luck for the day:
PokerStars Game #62262849972: Tournament #2011050271, $20+$2 USD Razz Limit – Level XII (400/800) – 2011/05/18 14:15:42 ET
Seat 1: HERO (2328 in chips)
Seat 2: DrPoita (908 in chips)
Seat 3: adomim (10543 in chips)
Seat 4: Jim1983Pim (11144 in chips)
Seat 5: thouvou (3469 in chips)
Seat 6: mauri antero (8501 in chips)
Seat 7: capdella (9468 in chips)
Seat 8: JoeyZara (21004 in chips)
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to HERO
Dealt to DrPoita
Dealt to adomim
Dealt to Jim1983Pim
Dealt to thouvou
Dealt to mauri antero
Dealt to capdella
Dealt to JoeyZara
mauri antero: brings in for 120
capdella: folds
JoeyZara: folds
HERO: raises 280 to 400
DrPoita: folds
adomim: folds
Jim1983Pim: folds
thouvou: calls 400
mauri antero: folds
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to HERO
Dealt to thouvou
HERO: bets 400
thouvou: calls 400
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to HERO
Dealt to thouvou
thouvou: bets 800
HERO: raises 648 to 1448 and is all-in
thouvou: calls 648
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to HERO
Dealt to thouvou
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to HERO
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO: shows (Lo: 3,3,7,6,A)
thouvou: shows (Lo: 8,5,4,2,A)
thouvou collected 5256 from pot
HERO finished the tournament in 1111th place
So in honour of my early exit, this week we’ll talk a little bit about the game of Razz. Razz is a game with a somewhat dubious reputation; some poker purists will thumb their nose at the thought of the game. While it’s true that it relies on a lot of luck of the draw, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any skill involved.
Razz is a variant of 7-card stud that bases the hand strength off Ace to Five lowball rankings. That is to say that the best hand is a low hand starting with A, 2, 3, 4, 5 then A, 2, 3, 4, 6 then A, 2, 3, 5, 6 and so on. Straights and flushes do not count and pairs/trips are of very disadvantageous, as proved in my exit hand above.
Keeping track of your outs is vital in Razz and will give you an edge over the typical amateur player. Since pairs are bad, you want to see a lot of your starting hand in other people’s shown cards to decrease the odds of that happening. For example, here’s a great starting situation that you can feel comfortable in raising:
Dealt to HERO
Dealt to player 2
Dealt to player 3
Dealt to player 4
Dealt to player 5
Dealt to player 6
Dealt to player 7
Dealt to player 8
Early Stages
The best early game strategy for razz is not dissimilar from regular holdem in that playing tight is generally advised. Starting hands should be unpaired and have three cards less then eight. This will give you the edge when drawing against weaker opponents who will take risks with weaker hands. As play progresses, keep an eye on what opening hands your opponents are playing with so you can exploit any weaknesses they show. The blinds and antes are too small to worry about in the early game and the tight image will help you steal them when they do become more valuable.
Late Stages
At this point in the game, the antes have increased to the point that stealing blinds will become more prevalent. If you’ve kept your tight image, this should be much easier to accomplish. Accumulating chips with selective aggression is critical in Razz. Here’s a fact that can be very sobering: a player that is forced to go all-in on third street more then once in any tournament is a favourite to be eliminated.
Short Handed Play – Defending Your Blind
The further you are into a tournament, the more likely blind steal attempts will be made on you. In general, it’s not highly advised to try to defend your bring in too regularly. However, A, 2, x and A, 3, x hands are worthy of seeing an extra card against loose aggressive opponents where you might even be ahead of their range. This is just further proof to why it’s critical to pay attention to your opponents hands and their playing styles as it will make the decision to defend that much easier.
Heads-Up Play
Playing heads-up Razz can be quite chaotic and the best strategy really depends on your opponents style but pre-flop the basic plan is very simple: If you have a lower card showing then your opponent, raise no matter what your hole cards are. If you are re-raised and your two hole cards are over nine, then fold. Other then that, play fairly straightforward and don’t chase marginal hands.
