Razz (7-Card Stud Low)

Razz is a 7-Card Stud variant where the best Ace to Five hand wins the pot at showdown. Unlike Texas Hold'em and Omaha, there are no shared community cards in this game.

In Razz, players are dealt seven cards throughout the hand - three faced down and 4 faced up – and players use those cards to create their lowest five-card hand. Straights and flushes do not count against you in Razz.

The Deal and Betting Rounds:
Before a hand of Razz begins, all players must post an Ante – a forced bet to ensure all players are incentivized to win the hand. Once the dealer has collected all the antes into the pot, gameplay will proceed as follows:

Third Street: Each player is dealt two (Hole) cards face-down and one face-up, the “Door Card”. Unlike most of the other stud variations where the low card is the bring-in, the player with the highest door card starts the betting in Razz with either a "bring-in" – a small, forced bet for an amount specified by the tournament structure, or they may “Complete” the bet by betting the Limit – also specified by the tournament structure. If the player with the highest door card opts to post the bring-in, a player wanting to raise may “Complete” to the limit, which will be considered the first bet.
• For the purpose of determining the bring-in in Razz, ties in card rank are broken by suit. The suits are ranked in alphabetical order – clubs (lowest), diamonds, hearts and spades (highest). The lowest suit breaks a tie, so if the 4 and 4 are visible at the beginning of the hand, then the 4 would be the bring-in.
Fourth Street: Once action is complete on Third Street, each remaining player will receive a fourth card dealt face-up. Now, it’s the player with the lowest hand showing on the table begins this round of betting. If two or more players’ two up cards are of identical rank, the player with the lowest low-card by suit will be begin the round of betting.
Fifth Street: A fifth card is dealt face-up to each player still in the hand. The player with the lowest hand showing on the table starts the betting. However, now the betting limit double.
Sixth Street: A sixth card is dealt face-up. Again, the player with the lowest hand showing begins the betting.
Seventh Street (The River): The final card is dealt face-down to each player. This is followed by one last round of betting, which is also started by the player with the lowest hand showing.

Determining the Winner:
The player with the lowest five-card hand (best A-5 hand) wins the pot.
f two or more hands have the same value, the pot is equally split among them, odd chip awarded to player with the highest high card in their five-card hand.

Additional Stud Rule:
• Because Stud games are played with 8 players but there are only 52 cards in the deck, it is possible to run out of cards before Seventh Street can be dealt. In this extremely rare instance, a single ‘community card’ will be dealt face-up on the table, which will be shared by the remaining players.

Hand Rankings:
Razz uses the ‘Ace to Five’ system for ranking low hands so straights and flushes do not count against a hand and Aces are always low. So the best possible hand is a "wheel": 5, 4, 3, 2, A.

To help understand the ranks of low hands in Razz, please see below the following examples which are ranked from the most powerful (#1, the best possible hand) to the least powerful (#8, which will rarely win):

1. 5 4 3 2 A

2. 6 4 3 2 A

3. 7 5 4 3 2

4. 7 6 5 4 A

5. 8 4 3 2 A

6. T 7 5 4 3

7. K J 8 7 4

8. 2 2 7 6 5

Note that a low hand is always ranked from its highest card downwards. For example, hand #2 is known as a "Six-low" because its highest card is a Six. Hand #5 is an "Eight-low". In poker slang, you distinguish between close low hands by going further down the ranks, so hand #3 would be called a "Seven-Five low", which beats hand #4 a “Seven-Six low”.