Day One of Razz Rules

With 5 days to go before the KORD Classic I thought I'd throw out some of My Guiding Rules to Razz. There will be a little each of the next 5 days so stay tuned to see what it takes to be in the know about Razz.

Razz at the Start

When playing any game the first thing you have to do is look at your cards and determine if they are playable or not. In Razz, a 7 card stud game, you are looking for a 5 card low hand with the best hand being A2345. That’s right, straights don’t count in Razz. Flushes don’t count either. So realistically, and 3 card combination with all cards being 7 or under can be seen as a playable hand. You may want to avoid the 765 hands but you can certainly see a flop with it . Any of the hands above are worth seeing a flop with and even calling raises pre-4th street is perfectly fine. After you get 3 cards to an 8 pre-flop you start running into marginal at best hands. Calling with an 8 is ok based on reads but you must be careful with it and because it is vulnerable to the chasers. It is better to play with an 8 if it is a down card but remember to proceed with caution. Most other hands are not playable in Razz. There are exceptions to these rules but that depends on chip counts and what your up card is compared to the up cards of your opponents.

Tomorrow I’ll have the next installment of My Guiding Rules to Razz.

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We got through the weekend without any issues. We had no soccer so that made things easier. Friday we went to the homecoming football game and watch our team fight hard to tie up the game late in the 3rd quarter only to watch our opponents march right down the field and score a touchdown. That was the beginning of the end as we lost by 2 touchdowns.

Saturday had a little cheerleading for Speedy E. and softball for Softball E. We split up the forces and got each of the girls where they needed to be and spent the afternoon in the chilly weather watching the kids do thier thing.

Sunday was spent at church early and moved into sftball in the afternoon. Softball E. threw great and continues to improve her control each time she pitches. The end of the day came witha trip to the chinese place down the road and some fried rice and crab rangoons.

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Poker was about average with the exception of winning a $75 token for the Razz sat. For FTOPs event #2. I'll go after this some time this week and with 1 of 5 players getting a tivket I think my chances are good. I won the token on my first try so if I can win my way in on this attempt I'll be in a $300+ tourney for $15. I like my chances.

I also took my first shot at event #3 and ran KK into AA and got knocked out early. I used a token for this also and thus I'm only in for $6.60 so far.

As for every other tourney I played, I donked out of 2 others before going deep in a hold'em tourney. It was a night of 3 outers as I lost a big hand early but clawed back into it only to lose with my KQ vs. Q7. The guy raised 3x to 480 from the button and I pushed my 2800 chips into the mix. He called 80% of his stack to play his Q7 so I know I made the right move based on my read. I'm glad people play like this because it is going to pay for me when i win the big one when the odds line up in my favor.

I also played a little cash but lost a few bucks doing so. I made a terrible call after he bet and I re-raised. He push and I called with my flush draw. All of this was on after the flop and I did have odds in the end to call getting 4-1 on my money. He pushed with top pair of tens and a crappy kicker. So I guess I ended up with 15 outs so it was really the right call at th end.

I grinded for the next hour or so I got back to even before giving a little back just before I quit.

So don't forget the Kord Classic on Friday and while you are at it you can play Kat's $1 rebuy earlier that same night. You can have double the donkarama for a cheap price and spend the night with bloggers.