Razz Poker: Rules, Hand Rankings & Strategy for Lowball Stud 2026

Razz is Seven-Card Stud played for low. The best possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A (called the “wheel”), straights and flushes do not count against you, and aces are always low. There are no community cards: every player receives seven cards of their own across five betting rounds, and the lowest five-card hand at showdown wins the pot.

If you already know Seven-Card Stud, Razz follows the same dealing and betting rules with one change: the lowest hand wins. If you’ve never played any form of Stud, that’s fine. This guide explains everything from scratch.

Razz is part of the Stud family, where every player receives their own cards rather than sharing a community board. For the high-hand version of the game, see our Seven-Card Stud guide.

Razz Hand Rankings: The A-to-5 Ranking

In standard high-hand poker rankings, the Royal Flush sits at the top. In Razz, the ranking flips: the lowest five-card hand wins. The system is called A-to-5 lowball because Ace counts as 1 (the lowest possible card) and the best hand you can make is 5♠ 4♥ 3♦ 2♣ A♠.

Straights and flushes are completely ignored. That 5♠ 4♥ 3♦ 2♣ A♠ is technically a straight, but in Razz it does not matter: it is simply a “5-low” and the best hand in the game.

Pairs always hurt your hand. Any unpaired hand beats any paired hand, regardless of the cards involved. There is also no qualifier: unlike Omaha Hi-Lo where the low pot requires five cards 8-or-lower, the lowest hand at the Razz table always wins, even if it’s a pair of Kings.

How to Read a Razz Hand

When two players both have unpaired hands, compare the highest card first. If those match, compare the second highest, then the third, and so on until one hand has a lower card. That hand wins.

Example 1: 7♠ 5♥ 4♦ 3♣ A♠ beats 7♦ 6♠ 3♥ 2♣ A♦. Top cards match (both 7). Second card decides: 5 is lower than 6.

Example 2: 8♥ 6♦ 5♠ 4♣ A♠ beats 8♠ 6♥ 5♦ 4♦ 2♠. First four cards are identical. The Ace (= 1) beats the 2 at the fifth position.

If every card matches, the hands are equal and the pot is split. Suits never break ties in Razz.

How a Razz Hand Plays Out

A Razz hand uses fixed-limit betting, meaning all bets and raises are set amounts based on the stakes. Each player receives a total of seven cards across five betting rounds (called “streets”): three dealt face-down and four dealt face-up.

From 4th street onward, the player showing the lowest exposed cards acts first. This means your acting order changes from street to street based on what cards are dealt. For the button-based position system used in Hold’em and Omaha, see our guide to position in poker.

Antes, Bring-In, and the Suit Tiebreaker

Before any cards are dealt, every player posts an ante (a small forced bet, typically 10% to 20% of the small bet). After the antes are in and each player receives their three starting cards (two down, one up), the player showing the highest exposed card must post the bring-in.

The bring-in is a forced bet larger than the ante but smaller than a full bet. The bring-in player can post just the forced amount or “complete” to the full small bet. Action then continues clockwise.

If two players show the same high card, suits break the tie: K♠ > K♥ > K♦ > K♣ (spades highest, clubs lowest). The player with the higher suit pays. That makes K♠ the worst possible door card in Razz: it guarantees you pay the bring-in every time.

Here is how the betting plays out in a typical $10/$20 Razz game:

Razz uses the same bankroll management rules as other fixed-limit games: 300 big bets at your stake.

Starting Hands and Street-by-Street Strategy

Razz rewards patience. Most hands you’re dealt should be folded on 3rd street, and the players who win over time are the ones who enter pots with strong starting cards and pay attention to what’s showing on the board.

Starting Hand Tiers

A Razz starting hand is three cards: two dealt face-down and one face-up (your “door card”). Suits do not affect hand strength. The table below groups starting hands by the highest card in the three.

Your door card matters as much as your hidden cards. A hand with hidden A♠ 2♥ and a K♦ showing is a fold: opponents see the King and read you as weak. A hand with hidden 8♥ 7♦ and a 3♦ showing is playable because the table reads your low door card as strong.

Early Streets: Third and Fourth

On 3rd street, play hands from the top three tiers of the chart and fold everything else. If you hold a premium or strong hand and your door card is the lowest showing, raise to steal the bring-in and antes.

Before you act, scan every door card on the table. If two or more of the low cards you need are already showing in other players’ hands, your hand is weaker than the chart suggests. For example, if you hold A-3-5 but two other players are showing a 2♦ and a 4♠, your chances of catching those cards on later streets drop significantly.

On 4th street, the bet is still the small bet, so mistakes are cheap. If you catch another low card, bet or raise. If you brick (catch a high card or a pair), check and fold to a bet from a player who caught good.

Late Streets: Fifth Through Seventh

5th street is where bets double and the real money goes in: this is the commitment point. If you have four unpaired cards to a 7-low or better, you are committed to seeing the hand through. If you have paired or caught two high cards, fold now and save the big bets.

On 6th street, each player has four face-up cards and hand strength is mostly visible. Bet your made hands (completed lows), check-call with draws that still have one card to come, and fold draws that need to catch perfect on 7th street.

7th street is dealt face-down, so opponents cannot see your final card. Bet for value with strong completed hands. Bluffing on 7th street is rarely profitable because fixed-limit bet sizes give opponents cheap calls: a player getting 8 to 1 or better will not fold often enough to make a bluff work.

Five Common Razz Mistakes

These five mistakes cost Razz players the most money, on top of the common poker mistakes that apply to every format. Most come from applying Hold’em thinking to a game with very different rules.

Frequently Asked Questions