Bluffing is actually a pretty big deal in razz because the game has the property of high variance. I will write a little bit about bluffing in razz poker and you can read the full detailed guide in my article about how to bluff when playing razz poker. Players who are involved in a game with high variance will want to knock players out early in the game. The reason is because razz poker deals out 7 cards and you need to make a 5 card hand. Each player’s hand will vary by a lot and it is likely that they will come up with some type of good hand with that many cards being dealt.

Also, there is a strategy that players need to take advantage of when bluffing and that is to steal the pot or take the antes and bring-in bet as well to beef up your own chip stack. Players are more likely to fold when you bluff right after being dealt the starting 3 card hand because there are 5 rounds of betting and the pot usually grows by a lot. That means players are less likely to be committed to wagering this much money unless they have a decent hand.

Also, you do not want chasers to stay in either since high variance properties of razz poker will allow for these chasers to finally catch the hand that they are chasing and end up winning the whole pot, even if they started with a poor hand. So one of the main points of straight bluffing at the beginning of a hand is to knock out these players early by raising. You should have a low and powerful door card showing as well in order to make your bluff more relevant and convincing and other players should have high and weaker door cards.

The goal in any hand of razz is to get the fewest number of competitors on the table, ideally heads up with one other player or just to have them all fold. Your odds are pretty much 50/50 if you knock out everyone except one player. If there are 6 people playing with a good chance of all of them making decent hands, your odds are 1 in 6 of winning. 50/50 is much better odds to play with considering your opponent may have a hand that looks like it might be powerful but it actually isn’t.

Later in the round, you will want to semi-bluff because many players will usually call the bluff after they have invested so much money into the pot so far. Semi-bluffing should be done on 5th street or later on after you have a 5 card hand. Note that on 5th street, the blinds get doubled from what they were on 3rd and 4th street so this is also a time for players to fold before the money starts getting much bigger, so keep this in mind as well.