“This should be the sickest bloggament to day, double stack RAZZ!! I cannot wait to see pictures of the beats on Wednesday morning!” – cracknaces This was the quote used to remind everyone to come out participate in the event.
a) If by “sickest” he meant, I will freely attack and attempt to insult you as a thanks for coming out to support my event every week, then it was pretty “sick.”
b) If by “sickest” he meant, I’ll call you what I think you are, and that’s, “the easiest $12 going to everyone here," it was pretty sick then too.
c) Maybe “sickest” was supposed to mean, we all know it’ll happen, but don’t do it to me and I’ll leave you alone.
Whatever it was supposed to mean, there actually was something that was pretty “sick.” But in reality, it’s not worth my/your time to discuss/read. For whatever reason, Poker in general, but much more intensely Razz, has the ability to bring out the worst in competitive people. I’ve been there and I’ve done that. Not proud of it, but I learned from it and have moved on in life.
I call Razz, “upside down stud.” I’ve never gone out looking for a Razz game as such, but several times it finds me and I sit down and play. As part of my beloved H.O.R.S.E., I try and take advantage in the 'R' because of the lack of knowledge there can be on the game, in the case of my opponents.
There really is only one solid strategy in Razz, but I choose to split my personal strategy into two parts.
1) Since you have a glimpse at other players hands, I take pride in my ability to read the board. When the hand is dealt, I look at all the face up cards to get a feel for who’s going to, (or should) fold, and who will, (or should) play. I also try to keep a count of live and dead cards during the hand. This helps later in the hand, when I try putting my opponent on a hand and estimating my own outs.
2) Getting chips in the pot. Then by 5th. street, I make a judgement and decide if I either have the best hand, or am drawing to the best hand.
The first part is the good solid fundamental strategy. The getting chips in the pot part, is my personal preference and not so much a generally accepted practice in the game. (That’s why I split it out) I do it a lot when I like my starting holdings. I really like to do it when several of my better hands have been shown, and I have a decent board showing again. Also, players will reach a little further because of the number of cards in their hand and possibilities for outs. Without tracking those outs acutely, you may be drawing quite thin. Sometimes in the stud games, drawing to a loaded deck is the best way to take down large pots. If you can put your opponent on a 7 or 8 high hand and feel really good about your read, drawing to a deck full of 3’s and 6’s with (A-2)-4-5-J seems reasonable to me. In particular, because you are probably still going to be good if you are hit with one of your opponents 7’s, or maybe even the 8.
This is how I play the game. Right or wrong, it’s what I do. I ask no opinions, I ask no forgiveness and I offer no apologies. Maybe I play like an idiot, could be. But it’s been working for me in Stud games for 30 years. I figure if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
In last night’s game, I made final table just in time to bust out 9th. I made a brutal play at the end continuing with a bluff and a pretty decent hand showing to the other player. I know so much better than this, but I committed to it and couldn’t pull the reins back on my play. (a personal weakness I need to work on when tired) At least Chad was right about something last night. At 12:15am. this morning after a 12 hour work day and eating dinner at the computer so I could participate in his event for an additional 2 ¾ hrs, my $12 was pretty easy picken’s.
My sincerest thanks for dropping by….
