I’ve been playing RAZZ. Felicia keeps telling me that ‘real men’ don’t play RAZZ. I suspect she set up a web cam in my john. Actually, I get what she means. It isn’t very macho. It is the antithesis of NL play and doesn’t lend itself to serious betting technique. But it did provide me with this YM! dig:
K: Been playing a bunch of RAZZ.
F: Really? Real men don’t play RAZZ!!!
K: Well, I’m trying to get in touch with my feminine side; ever remember having one of those?
F: LOL
BTW, Felicia is dragging poor, hubby Glenn off on another cruise
Razz can be such a frustrating hand. I recently watched the 2004 WSOP event I believe with TJ Cloutier, Dutch Boyd, and Howard Lederer the final three, and Lederer was visibly upset during the last bit of play. He wasn’t tilting of course, but he was frustrated by the pain involved of the game. Having Boyd donk around and win with K high when Lederer kept pairing up didn’t help matters.
It take a lot to get me in a bad mood, but Razz will do it. A bad mood is part of Razz.
–Howard Lederer
I don’t have the stomach to play Razz in a ring game. Not yet anyway. But it’s been a very profitable rotation for me in HORSE tourneys. Part of that is undoubtedly the rising stakes. Winning Razz hands on 4th St.? Amazing!
I like the Lederer quote. I have to admit that the only time I’ve tapped the glass in a good year was recently on the RAZZ table.
On the deal, you are looking at 42% of the cards you will see. When you play one or two of the three with a brick, you are giving the rocks a big leg up. It is then frustrating as hell to watch the donk make the 4 for 4 perfects he needs while you make two pair with the A23 you started with.
I play the cheapest seat possible. I see people who are playing high stakes RAZZ. That takes massive cajones. The default buyin at FT’s .25/.50 is $5. I can typically play on that longer than most players last in a tournament.
Frankly, I’m not sure why I play it. But, it seems to be my poker drug of choice at the moment. The old one was OH and the pot limit version of that makes the RAZZ limit play seem tame. The only way I found to play PLO and stay sane was short stack technique.
Poker news just interviewed Linda Johnson (RAZZ WSOP Bracelet) about RAZZ and I find I’m not as far off base as I was worried I might be.
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/1/other-games-linda-johnson-razz.htm