I’ve been trying to play some higher stakes Razz games recently to feel them out, get some practice, and decide whether it’s worth trying to play the $1500 WSOP Razz event. It hasn’t been going great, but I don’t feel like I’m in over my head. I’ve certainly got some leaks to work out, but in a good game, I don’t think I’m losing much if any equity in the long run.
When I first joined the game, there was just this guy sitting by himself with $400. This was the second hand we played:
Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3
dqdq2000 (Seat 4): $391
urbandb888 (Seat 5): $409
3rd Street – (0.30 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T___completes___calls
urbandb888: 9 K 7___raises
4th Street – (4.30 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T 5___calls
urbandb888: 9 K 7 6___bets
5th Street – (3.15 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T 5 2___raises___folds
urbandb888: 9 K 7 6 4___bets___raises
Total pot: (7.15 BB – $286)
Everything I’ve heard or read about Stud games suggests that open completing as the bring-in is never a good idea. You give away information about your hand and put more money than necessary in the pot before you know anything about what your opponent’s are going to do. Anyway, my opponent open completes with a T in the door. Even though my K is almost certainly behind, all he can see is my 7. There’s no way he can know he’s ahead right now, so I go ahead and raise him.
On fourth and fifth we both catch well. I’ve now got a draw to a 9, which means I’m not in bad shape to catch up even if I can’t get him to dump his T. Then he raises, which makes no sense at all. There is zero chance of him being ahead of the hand I’m representing, which means he can’t really raise for value. Even if he thinks I’m going to be bluffing some percentage of the time, he ought to call down rather than risk getting 3-bet. So when he raised, I thought it most likely he was just trying to slow me down or find out whether I really had a hand. I told him that I did, and he let go.
Full Tilt pro Huck Seed sat in for a few hands, then left. Eventually some other guys joined, and I ended up getting all in against one of them:
Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3, Bring-In $6
snyde_1 (Seat 2): $303
dqdq2000 (Seat 4): $839.50
urbandb888 (Seat 5): $786.50
ChrisWard1000 (Seat 6): $188
3rd Street – (0.60 SB)
snyde_1: xx xx 5___folds
dqdq2000: xx xx 7___brings-in___folds
urbandb888: 7 A 6___completes___calls
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5___raises
4th Street – (4.90 SB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8___calls
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2___bets
5th Street – (3.45 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5___raises___raises
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A___bets___raises___calls $5 (all-in)
6th Street – (9.70 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5 3
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A J___all-in
River – (9.70 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5 3 K
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A J xx___all-in
Total pot: (9.70 BB – $388)
Results:
Total pot $388 Rake $2
ChrisWard1000: [Ad 7h 5s 2h As Jd 4c] – 7,5,4,2,A
At this point, we were four-handed, and thanks to the large ante on Full Tilt (twice the ante in the Stars game), the game was playing pretty fast. People were firing pretty aggressively at pots and calling down light. Still, when I open UTG into three players showing low cards, I’m very likely to have at least three to an 8.
So when Chris 3-bets me on third street, it’s very likely that he has a strong low. In my mind, his hole cards are weighted towards Aces and 2’s. This is corroborated by the fact that I can see two of the 7’s, and I don’t think he would 3-bet me with just three to an 8.
Absent this information, fourth street would usually be a fold. I’ve got nothing but a draw to a rough 8, whereas my opponent could easily have a smooth 5, 6, or 7. Given the assumptions above, however, there’s a better than average chance that the 2 paired him. This led me to take another card off and re-evaluate on the first big bet street.
On fifth, we both catch an Ace. This makes my rough 8, but what does it do for him? Maybe he paired on fourth and maybe he didn’t, but between fourth and fifth, I think it’s very likely that he’s now paired. He doesn’t have much left, so I raise him, we get it in, and he outraces me.
I crunched the numbers later on Two Dimes, and it turns out we were 50/50 when the money went in. In part, this is because he had a 7 in the hole even though there was one dead and one in my hand. Had he had a 6 in the hole instead, I’d have been a 52-48 favorite.
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Ah 8h 7h 6h 5h 244625 48.92 248428 49.69 6947 1.39 0.496
Ac Ad 7d 5d 2d 248428 49.69 244625 48.92 6947 1.39 0.504