Razz poker rules: how to read hands and follow the action

Razz is a seven-card stud game in which the lowest five-card hand wins the pot. By the ToolsGambling calculation, with no information about opponents' cards, seven cards make an eight-or-lower hand in about 18.3% of deals; with A-2-3 in hand it rises to 48.3% (assumption: full deal, no folds).

Key takeaways

• Razz uses the best five-card low hand available from seven cards.
• The ace is low, and 5-4-3-2-A is the best possible Razz hand.
• Any unpaired five-card hand beats any five-card hand containing a pair.
• Razz has no eight-or-better qualifier, so a hand higher than an eight can win.
• Opponents' exposed cards change the cards available to improve your hand, but do not reveal their complete hands.

What Razz is and how it differs from high stud

Razz reverses the goal of high stud: you want the lowest five-card hand, not a strong high-hand combination. A pair is undesirable, while a straight or flush does not improve or damage your hand.

The goal of the game

Choose the lowest five cards from your seven cards. PokerNews (Razz Poker Rules Guide, pokernews.com) describes this as the central objective and states that Razz can have two to eight players.

There is no flop. Rather than waiting for shared cards, follow your own cards and the exposed cards around the table. Your task is to evaluate the best five-card hand you can make, then compare it with the possible hands opponents can make.

Razz is a low variant of seven-card stud. A different format within the family is explained in our guide to five-card stud, but its card count and dealing structure should not be transferred to Razz.

No qualifier

You do not need an eight-or-better hand to win. PokerNews explicitly states that there is no such qualifier in Razz: the lowest hand at showdown wins, regardless of how high it is.

The eight-or-better qualifier belongs to other low-hand contexts, including stud hi-lo. Here, an eight is only the threshold used for our probability calculation. It is not a condition for receiving the pot.

Do not reject a hand solely because it cannot finish eight or lower. Its value depends on how it compares with opponents' hands and what continuing costs.

How to find the best hand

Find your lowest five-card selection first, then compare it from its highest card downward. Do not add the card values together or give extra credit for having an ace.

Hand order from 5-4-3-2-A

The best hand is 5-4-3-2-A, followed by 6-4-3-2-A and then 6-5-3-2-A. PokerNews gives this exact order and confirms that suits are irrelevant.

The second hand beats the third because both start with a six, but the next card is a four rather than a five. Straights and flushes do not count, so the sequence in 5-4-3-2-A does not make it worse.

Diagram: best low hands in Razz, from 5-4-3-2-A down to a pair that loses

Teaching diagram: Razz hand order from the source rules. Ace is low, straights and flushes do not count.

A pair loses

Any five cards without a pair beat any five-card hand containing a pair. This comparison rule is stated by PokerSkill, pokerskill.com. For example, 9-8-7-6-5 beats 8-8-4-3-A, because the second hand contains a pair.

Check the selected five cards, not simply whether a rank appears twice among all seven. If you can leave a repeated rank out and select five different ranks, you have an unpaired hand.

Without this check, a pair may look like an improvement, or a duplicate among seven cards may be treated as ruining the hand.

Comparing unpaired hands

Read unpaired hands from highest to lowest, stopping at the first difference. PokerProfessor, pokerprofessor.com, describes this highest-card-first comparison.

Arrange both hands in descending order. Compare the highest cards, then the next cards if those match. Continue only as far as necessary to find a difference.

An ace does not automatically make a hand better than one without an ace. The comparison may be decided by a higher card before you ever reach it.

How a hand is played

A hand begins with the ante and bring-in, continues through betting rounds as cards arrive, and ends with the remaining players comparing their best five cards at showdown. The player required to start the opening action is not necessarily first in later rounds.

Antes and the bring-in

The ante goes into the pot before the deal; the bring-in starts the opening betting action. In Razz, the player with the highest exposed third card must pay the bring-in.

PokerNews identifies the king as the highest-ranking card for this obligation. Having that exposed card is not an advantage toward the low-hand objective.

When considering a call of the bring-in, compare the call price with the pot. Our pot odds calculator supports that price-versus-pot calculation. It does not evaluate a Razz hand or determine which cards will arrive.

First to act with the lowest hand

From the fourth-card round onward, the lowest exposed hand acts first. PokerNews states that this rule continues through subsequent rounds.

The change matters: the opening bring-in is assigned by the highest exposed card, but later action begins with the lowest exposed hand. Do not keep following the bring-in player automatically.

Reassess your hand as cards arrive. A new card may improve your best selection, remain unused, or repeat a rank you already hold. At showdown, the comparison concerns the selected five cards, not just the exposed portion.

Betting limits: $10/$20

In PokerNews' $10/$20 example, the small bet is $10 during the third-card and fourth-card rounds. The big bet is $20 during the fifth-card, sixth-card, and seventh-card rounds.

Round names refer to the number of cards reached, not to that many completed betting rounds. The starting three-card hand corresponds to the third-card round.

The increase changes the cost of continuing. Our explanation of pot odds and implied odds continues this distinction between judging a call from the current pot and allowing for possible future bets.

Starting hands and open cards

The strongest start is A-2-3, but starting strength is only part of the decision. Exposed cards tell you which cards are unavailable and help you reassess your prospects as the hand develops.

What is strongest

A-2-3 is the best starting hand, according to PokerNews. It gives you three different low ranks, although it is not yet a complete five-card hand.

PokerNews also notes that at a full eight-player table experienced players often fold starting hands containing a card higher than an eight. Treat that as a hand-selection guideline, not a rule requiring a fold.

Check for a pair and then examine all the ranks. An ace does not repair every weak start, and three appealing cards do not guarantee a good final hand.

What opponents' open cards tell you

Exposed cards remove known cards from the pool that could come to you. A visible rank you need affects your available improvements differently from a visible high card you do not need.

Counting outs to a low hand follows the same basic method as counting outs to a high hand: identify specific cards that improve your position. Our guide to outs and the rule of 2 and 4 explains that counting approach. The Razz percentages below come from enumeration, not that shortcut.

Do not count every small card as equally helpful. A repeated rank and a new rank affect your ability to select an unpaired low hand differently.

Our calculation: how often an eight-or-lower hand appears

The calculation measures whether a specified set of cards can produce five different ranks no higher than eight. It measures reaching that threshold, not beating another player's hand.

A three-card start: 16.2%

A random three-card start has no pair and contains only ranks from A through 8 in 16.2% of deals. Exact enumeration found 3,584 suitable combinations out of 22,100.

A three-card start is a starting-hand event only. It does not mean that the player already has a complete low hand, and it does not specify the strength of the eventual five-card selection.

Seven cards without information: 18.3%

Seven cards make an eight-or-lower hand in 18.3% of deals, assuming a full deal with no folds and no information about opponents' cards. There were 24,530,944 successful combinations out of 133,784,560.

A successful combination lets you select five different ranks from A through 8. Unused cards can be higher or duplicate other ranks without preventing that selection.

The full-deal assumption matters. In real play, some cards may never reach showdown because players fold; the calculation did not measure that effect. Bets are not counted.

A-2-3 in hand: 48.3%

A-2-3 followed by four random cards produces an eight-or-lower hand 48.3% of the time, assuming a full deal with no folds. Enumeration found 102,280 successful completions out of 211,876.

A-2-7 produced exactly the same count and percentage under those conditions. The equality was checked by full enumeration, not estimated from the similarity of the starting cards.

The equality applies only to crossing the eight-or-lower threshold. It does not establish that the starts have equal strength or produce the same distribution of final hands. The ranks within a completed low hand still determine its position in a comparison.

One visible K from an opponent

Holding A-2-3 while one opponent's K is visible raises the result to 49.7%, or 96,680 successful completions out of 194,580. The increase is 1.4 percentage points.

With no own cards known and one opponent's K visible, the result is 19.8%, with an increase of 1.4 percentage points. Percentages and differences are rounded separately, so subtracting the displayed percentages need not reproduce the displayed difference.

The visible king removes a card that cannot help satisfy the eight-or-lower threshold. This example includes precisely that known card, rather than all the exposed information at a live table.

Summary table

Each row below answers a different question because the known cards differ. Read the conditions before comparing the results.

ToolsGambling calculation summary, 29 Oct 2026

Conditional conclusion

Under these assumptions, knowing your starting cards and seeing an opposing king changes the probability of reaching an eight-or-lower hand. The useful change is a more specific estimate based on available information.

Once your starting cards are known, the random seven-card figure is no longer the most specific comparison available. Use the condition that matches the information being examined, rather than treating every row as interchangeable.

Common mistakes

The main beginner mistakes are valuing a pair, looking for high-hand combinations, and overlooking exposed cards. A consistent checking routine helps separate hand ranking from betting judgment.

Playing a pair

A pair is not an improvement when it must remain in your selected five cards. PokerNews confirms that pairs make a Razz hand undesirably higher.

After each new card, reconsider which five you would keep. Avoid reacting to a duplicate as though you were trying to make a high hand, but do not discard useful unpaired alternatives.

Carrying over Hold'em habits

Do not wait for a flop or seek a straight or flush as an upgrade. Razz uses a different objective and card structure.

Before comparing hands, mentally ignore suits, select your five cards, and sort them from highest to lowest. Then check for a pair and compare ranks. This prevents an attractive-looking sequence from receiving credit it does not deserve.

Ignoring open cards

Ignoring exposed cards means overlooking information about possible improvements. The visible-king calculation illustrates why the remaining card pool matters.

Review that information as new cards appear. Also distinguish what you can see from what remains hidden: an opponent's exposed cards are evidence, not a complete account of their hand.

Limits and what we do not promise

The rules and calculations in this guide help explain hand selection and probability, but they do not provide an automatic betting strategy. Keep the rule for choosing a winner separate from the question of whether continuing is worthwhile.

What does not change the rules

Probability does not change hand order, the bring-in obligation, or who acts first. Rarity does not change who wins.

When checking a disputed comparison, return to the selected five cards. Identify whether either hand contains a pair, then compare unpaired hands from their highest cards downward.

Who this is for

Players learning Razz or moving over from high stud are the audience for this guide. It separates three tasks: reading a low hand, following the action, and interpreting a probability.

Practice explaining a comparison in that order. Name the five cards you select, identify the first deciding difference, and only then discuss what paying to continue might involve.

No promise of profit

The frequencies do not guarantee profit or identify optimal bets. A decision also involves the cost of continuing, opponents' behavior, and possible future action.

Use the calculation for its narrower purpose: understanding how known cards affect the chance of making a particular type of hand.