Razz Rules

The object of the game is to win the pot, either by holding the lowest five-card hand at showdown or by making a bet that no other player calls.

The game is played with a standard 52-card deck with no jokers.

Each player receives seven cards: three face down and four face up. A player's hand is the lowest five-card combination from those seven cards.

There is no qualifier. Some hand always wins at showdown, however high it is, and the pot is never split between high and low.

Between two and eight players may take part. The deal, the streets and the running-out-of-cards procedure are the same as in Seven Card Stud.

Aces are always low and rank below twos. Kings are the highest cards.

Straights and flushes do not count. A hand of 5♥4♥3♥2♥A♥ is simply a five-low, the best possible hand.

Hands are compared by their highest card first. The hand with the lower highest card wins. If those are equal, the next-highest cards are compared, and so on down to the lowest card.

2.3(a) The best hand is 5-4-3-2-A, called a wheel or bicycle.

2.3(b) The next best is 6-4-3-2-A, then 6-5-3-2-A, then 6-5-4-2-A.

2.3(c) A hand is named by its highest card or cards, as in "a seven low" or "an eight-six".

Pairs count against you. Any hand with five different ranks beats any hand containing a pair. A hand with one pair beats a hand with two pairs, and so on up the ordinary ranking of paired hands.

When two hands contain the same kind of pair, the lower pair wins. If the pairs are equal, the remaining cards are compared, highest first.

Because each player has seven cards, a player makes a hand with five different ranks unless three or more of their cards duplicate ranks. Paired hands at showdown are therefore uncommon but not rare.

Before the deal, every player posts an ante. Antes are dead money and do not count toward a player's bet.

After third street is dealt, the player whose door card is the highest in rank must make the bring-in. Aces are low, so a king is the highest possible door card and an ace can never bring in unless every door card is an ace.

If two or more players tie for the highest door card, the tie is broken by suit, and the player with the highest suit brings in. Suits rank, from lowest to highest: clubs ♣, diamonds ♦, hearts ♥, spades ♠.

The player required to bring in may bring in for the set amount or complete to the full small bet.

The bring-in is the only point in Razz at which suits decide anything, apart from the allocation of an odd chip in a split pot (5.4).

A typical structure is ante 25, bring-in 50, small bet 200 and big bet 400.

On third street the bring-in acts first, and each player after them may fold, call the bring-in, or complete to the small bet. After a completion, raises are in increments of the small bet.

From fourth street onwards, the player whose board shows the lowest hand, ranked by the rules in Article 2, acts first and may check or bet. A board containing a pair ranks as worse than any unpaired board.

If two boards are equally low, the player nearest the dealer's left, clockwise, acts first. Suits are not used.

Bets and raises are in increments of the small bet on third and fourth street and of the big bet on fifth, sixth and seventh street. There is no open-pair option on fourth street.

The number of raises per round is capped as the venue specifies, typically a bet and three or four raises. Many venues lift the cap when only two players remain in the hand.

A player who folds must turn their upcards face down. If there are not enough cards for every player on seventh street, a single common card is dealt face up in the centre, as in Seven Card Stud.

If more than one player remains after the seventh-street betting, the hands are shown to decide the winner. Each player's hand is the lowest five cards of their seven.

If there was a bet on seventh street, the last player to bet or raise shows first. If there was no bet, the player with the lowest hand showing on board shows first. Others then show in clockwise order or may concede.

The cards speak. Hands are read from the cards shown, whatever a player declares. A player who announces the wrong hand does not lose a pot their cards actually win.

If two or more hands are identical in rank, the pot is split equally. When a pot cannot be split evenly, the odd chip is awarded by suit. Venues differ on the method: some give it to the player with the lowest card by suit, in keeping with a low game, and others to the highest card by suit, as in other stud games.

A player who is all in may win only as much from each opponent as they put in themselves. Further bets form a side pot.

Razz follows the misdeal and irregularity procedures of Seven Card Stud. In particular, a hole card exposed by the dealer on the deal is replaced by dealing the player's third card face down, and two exposed hole cards to the same player cause a misdeal.

If the wrong player is told to bring in, the error is corrected if the next player has not yet acted. Players should take particular care in Razz, where the bring-in is the reverse of what players of other stud games expect.

A hand is dead if it is folded, if it contains the wrong number of cards at showdown, or if it touches the discards and cannot be clearly identified.