The game sets in with the player paying the ‘bring it in’ wager and others follow in clockwise fashion. When the initial betting round is over, all players who have not quitted and folded their hands, are dealt another card with its face up. This time the hand value which is the lowest starts the betting action. The game continues till all players still in hand have received their fifth card. Now, the bet size doubles and play continues. The seventh and final card in a game of Razz is a hole card and to determine who would start the betting action is decided by the previous round of play; so, the player who was the first to bet after the sixth card was dealt would again open betting on being dealt the seventh Razz card. According to most forms of poker games, in Razz too the deal rotates to the left after each hand of play concludes. The player with the lowest 5-card hand during showdown emerges as the winner of the game and the pot.

Interestingly, Razz has another poker variant that is almost similar to its gameplay with a few exception. Played exclusively by European poker players, the London lowball differs from Razz in that straight and flush hands are allowed against the low hand, the play is for ace to six low hand and betting limits of the game are either pot limit or no limit.

The strategy of playing Razz has been a matter of much speculation. While the best possible hand at start of play in a Razz game would be ace, 2 and 3 cards, the commonest strategy is to play only those three cards of 8 or lower value provided they are unpaired. Razz players attempt to avoid getting pairs and need to assess door cards with respect to their hand strength. So if a player’s hand is 3, 4, 5 cards and there are four ‘dead’ door cards of value 3, 4, 4 and 5, he holds a strong hand and is extremely unlikely to get his hole cards paired.

And, by betting you are putting pressure to your opponent. By raising you are making him lose his sleep. On the other hand, if you call, you are showing your weakness. Calling stations are thought to be decrepit players who don’t have any strategies or mind to win the game.

In unique situations, calling can be a formidable weapon too! So, if you underestimate your opponent just because he has called, you are terribly wrong.

To understand this point, let’s take one scenario. Dorothy made a pre-flop bet. A caller took away the money right under her nose. A peeved Dorothy again made a bet. This time she made a post-flop bet. Another caller called and again snatched the money from her.

At this point, the caller is actually playing the shots just like an aggressor. Though Dorothy had bet, she became a defenceless player in the mercy of the caller. So, where do you think the pressure has been given? — To the bettor and not to the caller.

In a nutshell, you need to take the heat off you and put it on to your opponent. This is the pressure tactics you need to remember.

There are also occasions where raising can be more of a trouble than calling. If you raise, and your opponent has a good hand, then there is a possibility that there would be a re-raise. You would then lose the game. Instead of this action, you can call to make your opponent feel vulnerable.

Instead of falling prey to the pressure tactics from your opponents, exert force and stress on them.

Many poker players consider tat playing with wild cards is amateurish. However, if use of wild cards is restricted then instead of being random play without skill, the poker game can become interesting with the cards bringing a twist in the game and chances of skilful gameplay by the experts. In California, 5-card draw poker is usually played with a joker card used as a bug and sometimes deuces fully wild are also introduced. High/low split games of 7-card stud poker also becomes exciting when played with the use of one or two bugs. However, community card poker games like Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold ‘em are not suited for playing with wild cards and hence they are never used. The greatest drawback of wild cards in poker games is that anyone holding several wild cards becomes most favored to win and other players, even with good cards, cannot play to their strength, a situation which takes away skill from the game.

Moreover, wild cards affect the hand frequencies in poker games. So, if 5-crd stud poker game is being played, weak hands occurs more often than strong hands, making no pair the most common occurrence, followed by one pair, two pair and so on. Using of wild cards increases the frequency of formation of strong hands, since anyone with a pair and a wild card would go for the strong three of a kind hand than the two pair, making the strong hand more common than the weak hand.

When a card in a poker game is fully wild, it means that any player holding that card can assign any value or suit to the card as he wants and there are no guidelines regarding this transformation. So, if a person has a hand holding a pair and a wild card, he may use the wild card and turn his hand into a three of a kind. The best possible hand that any player can form with the help of a wild card is five of a kind.

In most casino houses wild cards are considered to be a bug card and are generally assigned the value of an ace. However, if a hand can be completed as a straight or a flush or a straight flush by assigning a different value to the wild card used as bug, then it is done so. So, a player holding a pair of king, joker (bug), 5 and 2 has only an ace kicker, but if his four cards are of the same suit, the bug helps to make it a flush hand. Again if his hand is 7, joker, 5, 4, and 3 then the bug here assumes the value of 6 and makes the hand a straight.