A razz tournament on Ladbrokes, September 2012. At least we were playing razz; the other bloke was playing stud!
Four of the six screengrabs here are from the daily €5.00 + €.50 Pot Limit Razz Limited Rebuy tournament on Ladbrokes. I have a terrific record in this tournament, and this is one reason. Well, sort of.
Razz is a low game: flushes and straights don’t count, ace is low, and the lowest hand wins. Some players enter razz tournaments thinking they are playing a regular form of poker, probably 7 card stud or a version thereof, which is the only reason I can think of for a guy raising with a set of jacks.
Although this sort of thing is mildly amusing – except for the player concerned – there is a serious message here. Always be aware of what game you are actually playing. Mixed games are now fairly common, and it is easy to lose track: are you playing stud, stud hi lo, or razz?
Mixed games aside, if you are playing Omaha when everyone else is playing Omaha hi lo, you may well lose a lot of money, and if you are playing cowboys and injuns when other people are loading their guns with real bullets instead of blanks, you will find yourself in very deep water indeed.
All the grabs apart from the first one are in chronological order. The first is from a tournament played in September 2012, as far as I can remember.
[The above article was originally published as a blog September 28, 2012 with 2 screengrabs. Two of those here are also used in It’s Razztastic!]
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