razz short handed/final table tourney
 

Just finished 5th in a razz tourney and felt I may have played too tight for too long. I am interested in hearing people's thoughts about razz short-handed. I usually stick by my guidelines of 3 starting cards under 8 unless everyone folds to me and I can steal.

One more question. After losing a big pot and being short stacked I went card dead and tried to stay patient waiting for an all-in hand. I had $6,000 with antes of 400. I ended up choosing 10 9 2 as the hand and now that I think about it I perhaps a better starting hand for the last gasp would have been something more like q26 or j37. Thoughts?

Re: razz short handed/final table tourney
 

was the 2 your door? was this a steal? if you think you will pick up the pot most of the time then yea, this is the time to go. however, if this table has been going to showdown alot, then you might want to wait...

its alot easier to bounce back from having few chips in stud than hold'em MTTs, because of the antes. I dont mean your $6000 here, but if you antes yourself right down to like <$2000, now when you finally get the 3-wheel and win the pot, theres a big overlay. You might quadruple-up but only have to beat 1 villain. This principle gets amplified the shorter-stacked you are (and 8 handed would be even better, but it still makes big difference 5handed).

So, just to say, its probably okay to ante yourself down a bit further, maybe even all the way to 1 ante(!) if you dont get a good hand. Maybe someone will bust before you, but most important is to WIN your all-in hand. It'll still be a pretty big pot even if you are much shorter stacked than $6000.

For your specific question of is T92 better than Q26 or J37, i dont know, but you'd get an idea from twodimes.net, or ask the stud players in the stud forum about stud hands. you'll find more razz players there, and likely better ones too [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Re: razz short handed/final table tourney
 

The 2 was my door card. 3 out of the other 4 players had paint BUT I reraised a guy who had a 7 showing. At that point there was a ton of stealing going on and I had been blinding off for what seemed like an eternity. I knew he was going to put me all-in so perhaps you are right that I should have waited for a better spot even if that meant I was going to be ground down another $2000/$3000.

The difference between 4th and 5th was $100 or so even moving up a spot was significant. I probably panicked prematurely.

TY for the comments

Re: razz short handed/final table tourney
 

If there are other short stacks, I tend to play very tight (I define a short stack as someone with less than 5 big bets, since they can get all in or very very close to it in one hand without raises).

I would have waited for a spot where you could open the pot, not a reraise. Reraise generally means he'll call and and won't lay down unless you catch great AND he catches terrible. And you aren't in good shape with two bigger cards, you'll have trouble making much better than a super rough nine or the ten low.

And yes, a razz tournament in the late stages basically is played on 3rd and 4th streets. Not many hands go past that stage, and any that do tend to showdown.

Re: razz short handed/final table tourney
 

BTW, there is a lot of Razz talk in the Stud area.

Re: razz short handed/final table tourney
 

I agree. Chasing late in a Razz tourney with the big limits will usually take all of your chips. Once you've put 2 bets in, it's hard to get out.