MEMPHIS00 is back!

Let me start by apologizing for my hiatus -- I was helping my brother move into his new apartment. We drove from Philadelphia down to the great state of Texas. We made it to Dallas in just over 24 hours ( had it not been for us getting lost in Memphis trying to get breakfast we would have made the trip in less than one day!) He moved to Austin, which I have recently learned is Mookie's hometown. If you get the chance to make it to the city, let me recommend some places to eat: Plucker's (excellent wings and fried pickles), Guero's (great mexican dining), and Salt Lick (the BEST, let me reiterate, the BEST BBQ I have ever had). Austin is a very cool city, laid back, and the people are genuinely nice. I don't think I heard anyone honk they're horn in the week I was there. LOL.

Now some poker. I've mainly been posting on here about NL Holdem, but this is going to be a Razz post. More specifically, micro-stakes razz cash games and how they have helped out my bankroll.

Let me begin with the starting hands which I employ:

• Any 5 low card hands should be raised
• A play that I really like with these hands is the limp raise. It only works if you are 1 or 2 seats to the left of the bring-in, but it helps to build the pot when you are sure to be ahead.)
  
• Any 6 low card hands should be raised
• Any 7 low card hands should be raised (depending on your table position and other shown cards.)
• Any 8 low card hands should be called.

My first rule: Only go to 4th street with hands that are 3 low cards to an 8.

Second: NEVER play a pair to 4th street. Even if it comes AA2, I do not play this hand for the simple fact that in these low stakes, 60% of the players are going to 4th.

These games are very easy to beat if you practice discipline and patience (much like other games). More often than not these players are calling down their made 8-low hands to the end, so if you are patient, you will get paid of on your monster hands.

Third rule (for BK management in cash games): I always leave the table once I have doubled my buy-in. Some people might call this too conservative, and ya know what, maybe it is. I personally like to protect my money at all times, especially in low-limit ring games where there are too many players, playing too many hands, having too many chances to suck-out on my made hands and win my money. Also, it helps me to play conservatively, because with a big stack in these games, I tend to see to many hands to 4th street with J54 just because I have the money behind me.

This has turned into a rant, and that not what I wanted. I simply wanted to get different points of view on the starting hands in Razz. If you have a brain, know the basics of razz, and employ these starting hand limitations on yourself, you WILL be profitable playing the low-stakes Razz games that FullTilt offers.

There is a blog completely dedicated to Razz and you can check it out here