Razz is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low (lowball poker). It is one of the oldest forms of poker, and has been played since the start of the 20th Century. It emerged around the time people started using the 52-card deck instead of 20 for poker.^[1]

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The object of Razz is to make the lowest possible five-card hand from the seven cards you are dealt. In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against the player for low, and the ace always plays low. Thus, the best possible Razz hand is 5-4-3-2-A, or 5 high, also known as 'the wheel' or 'the bicycle'. Deuce-to-seven Razz is also sometimes played. Razz is featured in the mixed game rotation H.O.R.S.E. as the 'R' in the game's name.

It is then up to the player to use these skills in the toughest test of all: the World Poker Championship. Here, gamers must call, raise, and bet against such names as Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Harman, Scotty Nguyen, Clonie Gowen, and T.J. Cloutier in an effort to win the $10,000 dollar grand prize. The Sit & Go tournament is a single level tournament, where the winner takes the grand prize. The Shootout tournament is built in a pyramid format and contains 3 different rounds. The winners of the 1st round compete against each other on the 2nd round and 2nd round winners compete against each other on the 3rd round – the final!

Play[edit]

• Poker Lotto offers players two games in every hand: a chance to win $2 to $500 instantly in the store and a nightly drawing with prizes ranging from $3 to the grand prize of $100,000.
• Seymour came up short of the $10 million grand prize and the diamond bracelet awarded to the winner, but his impressive run at the table earned him a $59,295 payday. Not bad for a $10,000 buy-in.

Razz is similar to seven-card stud, except the lowest hand wins. Seven cards are dealt to each player, but only the five best cards (generally the five lowest unpaired cards) are used in forming a complete hand.^[2]

Razz is usually played with a maximum of eight players,^[3] with limit betting, meaning that there is a fixed amount that can be bet per player per round. Each player antes and is dealt two cards face down (the hole cards), and one card face up (the 'door card'). The highest door card showing has to 'bring it in' – put in the mandatory first bet, which is usually one third to one half of the regular bet. The player responsible for the bring-in can instead opt to 'complete the bet', i.e. make a whole regular bet. If they opt to make a normal bring-in, the remaining players can either call the bet or 'complete', by raising to a regular bet. From that point the betting continues in regular bet increments.^[2][3]

In a case where two people have a door card of the same rank, the bring in is determined by suit.^[2][3] Spades (♠) is the highest possible suit, followed by hearts (♥), diamonds (♦), and clubs (♣). The K♠ is the worst possible door card in Razz, and a guaranteed bring-in. Play continues clockwise from the bring in, as in normal Stud poker. After the first round of betting, each player still in the hand receives another card face up. Betting begins with the lowest hand showing. Play continues like this until the fifth card, at which point the betting increments double.^[2][3] The seventh card is dealt face down, and action would begin with the same player who opened betting on the 6th card.^[2][3] In hand-dealt games, after each hand the deal rotates to the left, as with most forms of poker; although the dealer doesn't play a strategic role as in blind games.^[3]

Shortage of cards[edit]

It is possible for the dealer to run out of cards before the end of the hand. This can occur when eight players are still in the hand when the seventh cards are to be dealt. Seven cards for eight players would require 56 cards in the deck. Since Razz uses a standard 52 card deck, the hand would be four cards short.

To fix this problem, the dealer does not deal a seventh card to any player. Instead, the dealer deals one final card face up in the center of the table, which becomes a community card. All eight players may use this card as the seventh card in their own hands. This is the only time a community card is ever used in Razz.^[4]

World Series of Poker[edit]

Razz has been an event at the World Series of Poker since 1971, when Jimmy Casella won the first ever WSOP Razz event for a grand prize of $10,000.^[5][6] Razz is the most popular form of lowball poker but in the overall popularity stakes sits firmly behind Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em. In 2004, the WSOP Razz event was televised by ESPN; the tournament was won by professional poker player and multiple bracelet winner T. J. Cloutier.^[3] After the event Razz grew massively in popularity and most of the major online poker rooms added Razz to their spread of games. Full Tilt Poker was the first online site to offer Razz games but soon after the televised tournament, Poker.com, Absolute Poker and finally in 2006 PokerStars added Razz to their selection of games.^[7] Since 1971, Razz has been featured in every World Series of Poker apart from the 1972 series.

London lowball[edit]

London lowball is a game played almost exclusively in Europe. It is almost identical to Razz in play with the following exceptions: straights and flushes count against a player for low, so the best possible hand is 6-4-3-2-A,^[8] and its canonical version is played at pot limit. Some variations of the game are played at no limit, but the name 'London lowball' is typically reserved for the pot-limit version.^[9]

Strategy[edit]

Normally the best starting hand in Razz is A-2-3. A general strategy in a full-ring game is to only play unpaired cards none of them higher than 8s.^[10] Players want to avoid making pairs and should evaluate other door cards in relation to the strength of their hand. For instance, Jane holds 3-4-5 and sees four 'dead' door cards of 3-4-4-5 behind her. This is a strong hand, as the likelihood of pairing her hole cards is now greatly diminished.

Observing the door cards of other players is also very important. A player's hand is much stronger if there are cards of the same denomination already showing (less chance of pairing up on a draw) and weaker if there are make cards visible (i.e. a A-6-7 is a much stronger hand when other players are showing Aces, 6s and 7s than when these players are showing 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s).

Another key strategy in Razz is stealing the antes and bring-in bets. If a player is to the right of the bring-in bettor, and everyone else folds, a raise with a lower exposed card is normally the correct play. For example, if Mary has a 9 showing, and John, the bring-in bettor, has a K showing, Mary should normally raise if everyone else folds.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^'Razz Rules'. somuchpoker.com. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
2. ^ ^abcdePokerstars.com: Razz (7 Card Stud Low)
3. ^ ^abcdefgPoker-Babes.com: How to Play the Game of Razz
4. ^lolPoker.com: Razz poker rules
5. ^'2nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1971 – $ 1,000 Limit Razz'. The Hendon Mob. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
6. ^Razzpokerrules.org - WSOP Razz
7. ^Playlowballpoker.com: Razz Poker
8. ^PlanetPoker.com: Poker Dictionary
9. ^Gambling-Poker.com: Razz Poker - London Lowball Poker
10. ^Poker-Strategy.org: Razz poker

Many people out there dream about winning a million dollar prize in a poker game, but a look at the record of poker tournaments over the years reveals that many players have actually won much bigger prize money from the game.

Has the thought of winning $5 million… $10 million… or even $18 million in one poker tournament ever crossed your mind? The simple truth is that such huge poker wins are actually possible.

The $10,000 Main Event in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been the largest poker tournament for the past 10 years and within these years, some of the biggest poker tournament winners have emerged from this tournament.

Most poker tournaments are held online these days. NewCasinosUK.com has hundreds of brand new casino sites which hold regular tournaments where players can enter and win some serious cash in the process.

When you get online, you’ll realize that the biggest web based poker win ever was in the main event of the 2010 _Online Poker World Championship _(WCOOP). The tournament was hosted by PokerStars and had a buy-in of $5,200. Up to 2,443 players took part in it, and it garnered a prize pool of $12.22 million. At the end of the day, Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks won the first prize of $2.3 million.

It’s good to note that 12 of the 15 biggest poker wins are from the Main Event of the World Series Poker. Below, we’re going to take you through the 5 biggest poker wins of all time, in regards to the prize money for first place.

5. 2014 WSOP Main Event

The 2014 tournament kicked off on the 5th of July and ran till the 14th. However, in November, the final 9 players came back to slug it out for the grand prize. The event involved a field of 6,683 at the beginning, with a pool of $62.8 million. But at the end, the grand prize was won by the Swedish poker player named Martin Jacobson. He went home with a cool $10 million and a bracelet. The second place was taken by Felix Stephensen, and he went home with $5.15 million.

4. 2006 WSOP Main Event

Of course, the main event of the 2006 World Series Poker is reputed as the largest tournament the world of poker has ever witnessed. This is because it had a total number of 8,773 entrants and an amazingly huge pool of up to $82,512,162. The number of players involved necessitated four different starting days. From the four groups, it was stripped down to two, and later to one, before getting to the final table with nine players on august 8.

The championship was won by Jamie Gold on the 10th of August, landing $12 million as the prize money. The second place was taken by Paul Wasicka and he won $6.1 million. From day four, Gold had a good chip lead, taking out 7 opponents out of the 8 at the final table. Before the final game, he was the clear chip leader and to knock out Paul and head home with his tens, he applied the Q-9 and table talk.

The Big 3

The 3 largest events in poker were never part of the WSOP main event – In fact, they are all events by the non-profit organisation known as One Drop Foundation.

The foundation was founded by Guy Laliberté – who’s also the founder of Cirque du Soleil -and their mission is to provide crisis ridden parts of the world with safe drinking water. For every buy-in form in each of the events, $111,111 is donated to the foundation.

The biggest buy-in for the foundation was the $1 million buy-in for the Big One for One Drop yearly NLHE event which is also part of the WSOP. This event offers the world of poker not only the biggest buy-in, but the biggest pay out too. The Big One for One Drop event kicked off in 2012 and the largest of all single poker payouts happened on the debut edition.

3. 2014 Big One for One Drop

Dan Colman has the second largest win ever witnessed in the history of poker. The event garnered a total prize money pool of $37.3 million, and to go home with the $15.3 million first place prize money, Colman had to defeat up to 42 other contestants. Second place was taken by Daniel Negreanu who went home with about $8.29 million and that placed him at the top of the All Time Money List. This tournament made his total live winnings to exceed $36.5 million. This event also turned dramatic in the last hand because of the huge pot that Colman won from Negreanu in the past few hands with A-4.

2. 2018 Big One for One Drop

Number 2 of the highest poker wins of all time is the most recent in the list has a history that excites most enthusiasts.

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The final event had Fedor Holz defeated by Justin Bonomo to win the $10 million first place prize money and add one more bracelet to the one that he has already won in the tournament. With this win, Bonomo was sent to the top of the All Time Money List, knocking Daniel Negreanu from the top spot that had been there since 2014. It placed Bonomo’s all-time live winnings at a whopping $43 million.

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1. 2012 Big One for One Drop

This respected event of the WSOP garnered 48 entries in 2012 with a prize pool of up to $42.67 million. The biggest win went to Antonio Esfandiari, and he went home with the $18.35 million prize money. This stands as the highest single pocket payout in the history of poker tournaments.. One significant thing here is that during the final hand, Esfandiari hit a 7-5 offsuit to defeat Sam Trickett and his Q-6. Antonio was a very excited man after that, as anyone would be taking home almost $20 million!.

Other Poker Tournament Wins To Note

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It’s good to note that there are some non-NLHE tournaments that have garnered huge wins in the past too. The 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event had a win of $2 million grand prize after a long list of controversies.