Starting Strong in Razz

The hands that you start with in Razz poker are very important to how successful you will be. Once you start to open up your range of hands you start playing hands that are very low in expected profit. It is harder to win money with these hands because they are much harder to play because they are much weaker than the hands in a tight strong range. By playing strong hands straight forward you are allowing your opponents to make mistakes against you that playing correct poker will force them to pay for their mistakes.

1. Stay Low – Make sure that you are sticking with only low cards in your starting 3. Aces are low cards, so just like poker where they are high you will like seeing them in your hand. When you start to get to more mediocre hands like A-3-9 you begin to give away a lot of the value that you get from playing only the very top percentage of hands. As long as you can stick to really tight hands you will never be put in a situation in which you have to wonder if your 9 high hand is busted already or not.

2. Be Aggressive – Since you are playing very tight you won’t be playing too many hands. You need to make sure that when you are in a hand you are getting as much value out of it as you can. Make sure that you value bet as often as possible. A lot of players begin to think that playing tricky is the best way to extract value. Bad players expect you to be bluffing more often than not which is why they pay off so well. When you get good hands. When you start to get fishy with your betting pattern you begin to give away a lot about your hand. Make sure that you always bet with good hands and fold with bad hands.

3. Show Strength – Make sure that you are always raising when you are coming into a hand in Razz poker. This goes along with playing aggressive. When you are the aggressor in a hand you have the ability to make your opponent fold where you win the pot without even going to showdown. A great way to show strength is to put money into the pot in the form of a bet or a raise. You have to have a stronger hand to call than you do to raise. Remember that.

4. Find the Fish – You should be able to pin point who the fishes are at the table. When you realize this you need to make sure that you are playing a lot of your hands against these players. These players will be more apt to making mistakes in which you can capitalize on and make a lot of money from. The fish will always be your biggest target in poker. The weaker the player the more you can take advantage of them.