Everything about the structure and betting is identical to 7 Card Stud, except the value of the hand that you are looking for. The only change is that instead of the low card having the forced bet on the first up card, the high card (Aces are low unless stipulated, so the King is the high card) will initiate the opening bet.

The key to this game, as it is in regular stud, is to get established early and not chase down a losing hand. You are going to have to use your memory skills to both realize the possibility of your hand hitting and to also be able to rate the strength of your opponents hands. This is not a game where you can sit back and listen to your music and stargaze, you need to pay attention to every card at every time.

The game starts with 2 down cards and one up card. With lowest hand winning, you are looking to start off with 3 cards to a low of 7 or under. The only way you can even consider playing without 3 low cards is if you are looking down and see A2 as two out of your three. At this point, you can pay to see the 4th card, but you are going to have to fold immediately if that card does not peel off on the next round.

It is not very often that you will see a raise before 4th street unless someone is exploiting position or is looking down at A23. If you have that, by all means hammer the pot and reduce your competition. 4th street is going to be the tell tale card though as if you manage to hit another low card, you now have 3 cards to fill in your low hand. This is why it is so important to watch what the other players have.

Let’s say that you are dealt A23 to start the hand off. On board you see (1)A, (2)3’s, (1)4 , (1)6 and (1)7. This is actually fairly good news for you as far as exposed cards go because of the 16 cards that you can fill your hand with, only 3 of them are dead. When 4th street comes out, the totals are now (2)A, (2)2’s, (2)3’s, (2)4’s, (1)5, (1)6 and (1)7. Let’s also assume that you were dealt a five, which would mean that there are now only (2)5’s left live in the deck.

This is a situation where you would start to raise down through the river if anyone else is betting. At this point, you only need one more card to hit your low and out of the 12 cards that will improve your hand, there are still 8 of them left alive. For an 8 handed game, the dealer will hold 16 cards (I have already eliminated burn cards from the count) in his hand that can hit the board. Out of those 16 cards, half of them will improve your hand. You can assume that one or two of them are in other people’s hands, but regardless, you have a huge percentage to hit your hand.

Also, when you are looking at the other hands that are going to need help, you can obviously eliminate all the cards that you are holding that will improve their hands. Now this is a dream situation, but you get the general idea of how important it is to be able to crunch the numbers and recall what everyone is dealt. As players fold, you must be able to remember what cards they took to the much in order to be able to compute the advantage over your opponents.

This is a great game to learn online as most of the tables that are active are micro-limit tables so you won’t be putting very much at risk. However, as H.O.R.S.E. continues to rise in popularity, you will have a huge edge on anyone that is playing the game if you can hone your Razz skills. We are going to have some more in depth articles about Razz coming up, but this will get you started in what is one of the more enjoyable and interesting games of poker being played today.

First, depending on how the game is structured, there may be players in your group that will decide to sit out many of the hand in the Razz round.  This is more common in H.O.R.S.E. cash games as opposed to tournaments.  As a result, these players may only play a hand that is really strong.  Sometimes, you can play a marginal hand against these players in the hopes that they may catch bad and fold to pressure.  I’m not saying to call down this type of player if you are showing a King and they come in with an ace.  However, if you are showing a 9 or 10 and they are showing a card from 5 to 8, sometimes you can come in and see 4th street.  Sometimes if they catch paint and you improve, they will fold to a bet on fourth.

Next, if a player calls a completion bet on third that was a bring-in or has a card 10 or higher, it is a safe bet that they have a couple of really strong low cards underneath.  As a result, pay close attention to how they improve and if you are improving, bet your hand strong.  Usually if someone calls a completion with a 10 or higher, I am going to put them on A-2 or A-3 in the hole.  If by 6th street they are showing potential to have a better hand than yours, slow down or even fold if you can’t outdraw them.

If someone hits a pair on their board and they call a bet from you, their hole cards are either strong or perfect.  I would continue to push my advantage unless they happen to improve or you fall behind.

Next, as in any form of poker, don’t try and bluff a calling station.  There are some players that will not fold their hand even if you are showing A-2-3-4 and they are showing K-7-8-9.  I know this seems odd, but I have experienced it.  (I have also lost when my hole cards were 8-9-10 to this type of player.)

Remember that most players that play H.O.R.S.E. tend to specialize in some games and just are average in some games.  Razz is the game that most players have the least amount of experience with.  As a result you will see some bad plays during the course of a H.O.R.S.E. game that you may not see that often in a Razz cash game.