1000-2000 Razz hand

[Ed Miller]

I sauntered by the 1000-2000 mixed games table this evening and observed the following razz hand. While I am certainly no razz expert, I think there were a couple of mistakes made... which surprised me a little given the stakes and the simplistic reputation that razz has.

Ante is $200 and bring-in is $300. The action on 3rd street:

Q brings it in
A limps
J folds
3 completes
T folds
T folds
7 calls

Bring-in then folds and the A calls.

On fourth street, the action was:

A6 bets
3Q calls
7Q calls

On fifth street:

A6J checks
3Q5 bets
7Q8 calls
A6J folds

On sixth street:

3Q5A bets
7Q84 calls

On the river:

3Q5A bets
7Q84 thinks and calls

3Q5A has a 765 in the hole
7Q84 has an A2K in the hole

[crockpot]

i'm assuming the A had a weak hand or the 6 paired him. either way, his limp is stupid. since this game has a high ante, he definitely ought to raise here and hope to win the pot right away. the 7 also has a clear reraise here even if he thinks there is a good chance he is beat, due somewhat to the high ante.

i sure wouldn't want to be playing a draw to an 87 on fifth, but i'm not familiar enough with the game to tell if his call was correct heads-up, since the pot was fair-sized. if he thinks the A6J will call the bet too, then his call is terrible, unless he thinks the A6J is drawing to a nine.

don't forget that the highest stakes offered by a house usually have more fish than the second and third-highest, because the clueless high rollers seek them out. (just look at the $200 tourneys on party.)

[Andy B]

I've never played razz in my life, and the extent of my experience playing anything higher than $30/60 was a brief shot at $75/150 stud at Foxwoods in August. I'm assuming that the guy with the Trey in the door started with (76)3, in which case I find the third-street completion somewhat dubious. If he had a Five in the hole, then his fifth street bet is, umm, optimistic. It seems to me that the folks who caught Queens on fourth street had easy laydowns at that juncture. At least they knew that they had one card that they probably wouldn't pair....The guy with A6J must have had a Six in the hole; nothing else makes sense. Given that the other guys aren't going anywhere, checking and folding on fifth makes sense, although I'm stubborn and probably wouldn't find this play. I think you can make a case for betting the hand, hoping you catch good and can buy it on sixth. Even if you can't buy it on sixth, you will have picked up a draw. I would think that 7Q84 should probably fold on sixth street. There is a very real possibility that he's drawing dead, and he can't improve to anything that he can raise with.

[dogsballs]

At first I thought the call by Q874 on 6th was obviously poor, thinking it's an obvious fold, but it's not really. He should actually have raised (even though he would have been in trouble). I'm not that good at realising things straight away...lucky I don't play big razz /images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

I don't find the hand that extraordinary, because this basically became a very short-handed game, with only 3 low cards on 3rd.

jmho,
dogs