CoolhandThe games · Coolhand Poker
Razz
Seven cards each, four of them face up for the table to see. The lowest five-card hand takes the pool, and aces count low.
18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.
- Players
- 2 to 7
- Family
- Stud
- App
- Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon
How it goes
You're dealt seven cards, a few at a time, and four of them land face up where everyone can see them. Nothing gets swapped. After each new card there's a round of offers: put tokens in the pool, match what someone else put in, or pass. At the end you pick the lowest five cards you can from your seven. Aces count low, and runs and suits are ignored, so all you want is five different small cards. The lowest hand at the reveal takes the pool.
A good hand
A-2-3-4-5 is the best hand and nothing beats it, but don't wait for it. Five different cards under a nine is usually worth playing to the end. Pairs hurt: a hand full of them is a long way from five different ranks. The lower your highest card, the better.
The usual mistake
Ignoring everyone else's face-up cards. Half the information in this game is on the table in plain sight, and reading it costs nothing. The low card you're hoping for may already be in somebody else's hand. If it is, the deck can't give it to you, and every token you put in chasing it is spent on a card that's gone.
Played differently where you are?
Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Razz goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.
The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.