[CarlosChadha]

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Haven't played Razz too much lately, so I'm trying to catch up. My big question is Sixth street. The call there probably induced the bet/call on the river, so another bet went in, but I wonder if there's room for a raise on Six anyway, given the size of the pot, and that I'm probably drawing to 13 outs, even knowing that I'll probably get three-bet. Does the possibility that he has a made Seven make that ridiculous?

I think I have about 25 percent equity here, giving him a rough Eight, and 20 percent if he has a Seven. A three-bet means I'll be putting in a total of 3BB on 6th for a win of 14.6BB, or nearly 5:1. Does anybody do this when drawing with A23, or would it be pure spew?


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You need to review your ideas of what pot equity is and why it is useful, because your thinking is incorrect (read or reread Theory of Poker). From an equity point of view, you NEVER want to put in extra bets when you are getting less than your fair share of equity in the pot. So in a heads up pot, if you know you have less than 50% you want as LITTLE money as possible to go into the pot on that street. The fact that there is already money in the pot is the reason that you can CALL with less than 50% equity, but it is NOT a reason to RAISE. If you only have 25% equity on a street, for every dollar you and your opponent put in, you only get 50 cents (of those bets) back at the end, on average! There are of course other strategic moves that make raising when you know you are not getting your fair share of equity in the pot, like buying a free card or isolating a player, but but you still theoretically are losing money with those bets (you just hope to earn back what you lost w/ betting on the later streets).

So, what that means is that on 6th, raising would definitely be a spew. It also means that on 5th, you are also spewing money with your cap, because ANY rough 8 is a favorite over ANY draw in razz (assuming no other dead cards). I would not even raise once on 5th street because even with the possibility that he has paired the ace, you still have only about 50% equity in the pot. If he has a made 8 (which he does when he 3 bets), your equity is only 45%.

Hope that helps,
Carlos