CardRunners presents Dr Razz and his Razz starting hand system in this poker training video. Here is the official teaser from CardRunners:
Doctor Razz is back! This week, Dan re-introduces his famous Starting Hand Power Rating System and discusses the theory and practice behind using it at the table. He then replays some hands from a recent 8/16 session and explains how certain variables can effect your hand ratings.
Here is some of the dialog from the video’s thread at CardRunners:
Q: What is a Bike card?
A: Ah, that’s the lowball lingo for a card that helps you make a “bicycle” or “wheel”, which is the nut low. In razz, this means an A, 2, 3, 4, or 5 (tho in 2-7 lowball it means, well, 2-7). A “blank” is a card that doesn’t help your hand, which in razz or 8/better games means a 9 and up (of course, blanks can sometimes help your hand in razz but that is only a backup plan!) Sorry if that was unclear in the video.
Q: can you comment on the practical side to the bring-in giving you +3 value for hand ranking? So in what situation would playing such a hand be better than folding?
A: Well if the dead cards don’t hurt you so much, defending your bring-in with paint showing can sometimes be viable when it’s rare to find a good spot to play with paint showing when you’re not. For example, if you have (24)Q in the bring-in your power rating is a 10, and if the dead cards help you it could be an 11 or 12. You still wouldn’t want to play against a premium hand with that holding, but if someone opened with an 8 or 9 door card, or with a lower card but from a steal position, then you can consider calling. If the antes are big, or the bring-in itself is big (so that you don’t have to call more than half a SB), then I’d play it. Still, you have to get used to playing with your hand exposed like that in order to make it profitable.
Improve your poker game with CardRunners. CardRunners offers all the tools you need to learn poker, including new videos released daily, strategy forums, pro interviews and more.
