Yesterday I talked about the beginners guide to razz poker. Today I am going to go through a short version of the intermediate guide to razz poker and go through some of the mid-level topics that are important to razz. You should be comfortable and pretty well versed in the rules of the game and experienced with some basic bluffing by now as well as reading players more easily. This guide will go through more intermediate and advanced methods of bluffing.

There are two types of bluffing known as straight bluffs and semi-bluffs. Both of these are generally used only during certain parts of a hand. Straight bluffing is essentially used most effectively at the beginning of the hand after players have been dealt their starting hand. You need to take advantage of the door cards on the table. Straight bluffs actually means that you are bluffing but would surely lose the hand if someone called your bluff. So on a 3 card hand, everyone knows that you do not have a full 5 card hand obviously and this would count as a straight bluff.

Players are supposed to get the impression that you have 2 powerful hole cards with that powerful door card. In fact, you might have K-K-A with the ace showing, which would be a horrible hand, but no one knows about the kinds so ignore all of your hole cards when bluffing. If everyone else has higher door cards, then raise and try bluffing.

Later on, semi-bluffing becomes more effective after you have 5 cards dealt already. More players will be less willing to fold to a bluff after they have committed so much money to the pot after 4 or 5 rounds of betting, so a semi-bluff is much smarter than a straight bluff. In a semi-bluff, you should have at least a decent hand or be chasing a likely good hand. That way if a showdown occurs, you still have a chance of winning. If other players do not call your bluff, then you win the hand anyways without a showdown. Use semi-bluffs on 5th, 6th and 7th street.

There is much more to this intermediate guide when you read the article in the link above so I encourage you to read the full details there. I will write about the final advanced guide tomorrow along with the expert’s article.