The highest door card showing has to 'bring it in' – put in the mandatory first bet, which is usually one third to one half of the regular bet. Each player antes and is dealt two cards face down (the hole cards), and one card face up (the 'door card'). Razz is usually played with a maximum of eight players, with limit betting, meaning that there is a fixed amount that can be bet per player per round. Seven cards are dealt to each player, but only the five best cards (generally the five lowest unpaired cards) are used in forming a complete hand. Razz is similar to seven-card stud, except the lowest hand wins. Play One variant of the best possible hand in Razz Razz is featured in the mixed game rotation H.O.R.S.E. Deuce-to-seven Razz is also sometimes played (the best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7). Thus, the best possible Razz hand is 5-4-3-2-A, or 5 high, also known as 'the wheel' or 'the bicycle'.

In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against the player for low, and the ace always plays low. The object of Razz is to make the lowest possible five-card hand from the seven cards you are dealt. It emerged around the time people started using the 52-card deck instead of 20 for poker. It is one of the oldest forms of poker, and has been played since the start of the 20th century. Razz is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low (lowball poker).