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Horse Tournaments

You don’t have to be a pro to hold your own at a HORSE tournament (but it would certainly help). You just have to have a good understanding of every game and an even better understanding of where your own strengths and weaknesses lie. With both the games and the players changing with every round, it can be hard to get a good read on your opponents. While you shouldn’t abandon the search for tells altogether, your main focus should definitely be on your own cards. Too many HORSE tournament players get overwhelmed by the changeups and can’t keep pace with the changing games and growing blinds. By keeping your mind on your own hand you’ll be ready to make the moves you need to to continue on in the tournament.

HORSE Poker Multi-Table Strategy

The most important thing you can do as part of your HORSE multi-table strategy is put your money where your skills are. Hopefully you’re especially good at Omaha poker and Hold ‘em, because most of the other players will be, and the growing blinds make these hands especially valuable. Being good at the other games has its benefits too. While many of your opponents will be playing conservatively to survive their off games, you can use their hesitance to bluff and bet your way into some easy pots. Just be sure to reset your mindset and strategy every time the game changes.

In the early rounds when the stakes are low, it’s ok to be aggressive, especially in your forte games. The blinds aren’t forcing you to make iffy decisions yet, and you want to build your stack before hitting the middle of the tournament. In the middle of th tournament, it’s time to switch to a tight-aggressive strategy. Regardless of which game you’re playing, always push hard on a good hand. This will make it hard for your opponents to peg your weaknesses and will likewise land you the chips necessary to hold your own toward the end. Hold ‘em almost always decides the later rounds of HORSE multi-table tournaments, so it’s important that you enter this stage of the game with a large enough stack to choose your own hands.

HORSE Tournament Strategy – Come Prepared

This should go without saying, but for some reason thousands of amateurs continue to throw their money away by playing over their heads. You might get away with being good at just Hold ‘em when you’re playing small stakes HORSE cash games, but at a large HORSE tournament you’d better be skilled at all five games if you want to end in the money.

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Get to Know Your Opponents

The biggest advantage you can give yourself is knowing your fellow players. Pay extra close attention to tight players—they often place the same bets for the same hands. Loose players will ultimately eliminate themselves. Also try to keep track of which players back off their betting in which games. This will tell you where they’re uncomfortable and can help you bluff and bully your way through later rounds.

HORSE Tournament Strategy – Play Up Your Strengths

This tip can be a little tough to pull off. While you want to make the most of your strengths, you also don’t want to give away your weaknesses. If you manage to eke your way through the early rounds, then it’s time to put your pride aside and build your stack any way you can. If you know you’re the best Hold ‘em or Razz player at the table, then don’t be afraid to dominate.

HORSE Tournament Strategy – Watch the Blinds

It’s easy to get caught up in the action and over-confident about your position once you make it to the later rounds. If you’re an exceptional stud player, then chances are you’ll be raking in a fair number of chips during those rounds, but you’ve got to be careful in what is usually a Hold ‘em-dominated playing field, especially because the growing blinds make Hold ‘em and Omaha increasingly more valuable as the tournament progresses. Whether you’re an ace at these games or they happen to be your weakpoint, once you get to the final table you’re going to have to go balls to the wall with your bets if you want to stay in the game.

HORSE Poker Mistake 1 – One-Game Players

HORSE’s new found popularity is drawing crowds from other tables. Hold ‘em players especially seem to be drawn to this new game. It’s fine if your playing skills are a little lopsided and you’ve got some obvious strengths, but you should never sit at a cash HORSE table if you’re not prepared to compete in all five games. With only two community card rounds and three stud variations, Hold ‘em players often find themselves in over their heads, and even stud-only players can take big hits as the Hold ‘em blinds start increasing. While you don’t have to be exceptional at every game, you should at least know which hands are worth betting on. Even if you’re a shark at Hold ‘em, if you’ve never tested your skills at the stud tables then you’ll probably be a fish at HORSE.

HORSE Poker Mistake 2 – Playing Stud like It’s Hold ‘em

The best starting hands for Hold ‘em have some similarities to those for stud. For example, high pairs are always a good sign early in the game. Where the two strategies diverge is in drawing for a straight or flush. In Hold ‘em, you only have to make one bet to see three cards in the flop and know if you should continue chasing a straight. In stud, you’ll be paying for every card you see, which means that you can invest a lot just to find out you’ve got nothing.

HORSE Poker Mistake 3 – Over-Bluffing

If you’re a perceptive player, then you’ll probably catch a lot of tells in HORSE. An aggressive Omaha player whose betting dries up in Razz poker is probably not as confident at stud. Knowing these things about your opponents can give you some valuable opportunities to bluff. But just as with any other poker game, you don’t want to turn yourself into a calling station and get trapped. Instead of automatically bullying any player you suspect is weak, play close attention to all the tells and carefully choose your bluffs.

HORSE Poker Mistake 4 – Being Obvious

As you’re watching your opponents for important clues about their game, you can rest assured that the smart ones are watching you too. Don’t make yourself an easy read. If you fold every hand in the Seven Card round, your opponents are going to peg you as an easy target. Even if you’re not 100% confident about each game, knowing a basic strategy and the top starting hands for each variation should be basis enough to bet consistently throughout the rounds.

Playing Texas Holdem

Texas Hold ‘em is a variation of poker often referred to as a “community card” game. The objective is to make the best possible five-card hand, and you’ll have seven cards with which to do that. Two cards are dealt face down to you at the start of every hand, and then five more are dealt in three additional rounds. In some games, the hand may be won before all the cards are dealt, but that’s something we’ll discuss later. The “community card” part of the game comes from the cards that are dealt to the center of the table. Players can use any combination of these cards and their two facedown cards (also called “hole cards”) to build the best possible hand.

Holdem Rules

1. The game begins with each player receiving two cards face down.
2. After reviewing your cards, you will have the decision to call, bet, or fold. If you are not betting first, you may also have the decision to raise another player’s bet.
3. To ensure that every hand offers a healthy pot, two players will be assigned blinds. The blinds rotate every hand, and the players sitting in the blind positions are required to bet the blind minimum for that hand.
4. After the first round of betting, the dealer will place three additional cards face up in the middle. This is called “the Flop.” The players that have not yet folded will start a new betting round.
5. This is followed by another card being dealt face up to the middle of the table. This card is referred to as “the Turn.”
6. The Turn is followed by another round of betting, and then the fifth and final card—the River—is dealt to the center of the table.
7. Players engage in one last round of betting and then proceed to “the showdown.” At this stage of the game, all players must reveal their hands to determine the winner.

This is your basic breakdown of how a Texas Hold ‘em game works. As you read and play more, you are sure to discover that while the game is easy to play, it is not so easy to win.

HORSE Sit and Go Strategy

Toward the end of the Omaha hi lo round, your competition will be narrowing itself down as the Hold ‘em players start betting too hard too early in an effort to come out on top. Once you’re down to a few players at your table, you can start opening up and sweeping more pots. By the Razz round many players will be feeling less confident. In fact, Razz tends to be something of a warzone in the HORSE tournaments. This is your chance to use your reputation as a tight player to start stealing some blinds. You’re going to need all the chips you can get by the time Hold ‘em rolls around again, so make the most of weak players in the Razz and Stud Poker rounds.

To summarize, your strategy should start tight and then move toward tight-aggressive. As the tournament progresses, the action’s going to get hard and fast. If you’ve played your cards right, by now you’ll have a stack to back your cards and you should start using it if you want to stay in the money. By the end of the tournament, your once tight strategy will be leaning far more toward the aggressive. Remember to continue working the Razz poker and 7 Card Stud poker rounds, and consider switching from low to high in the later Eights or Better rounds.

Toward the end of the tournament, everyone’s in it to win it, and Hold ‘em and Omaha players are really going to be working the blinds. You can’t afford to be tight at this point, and the tables are small enough that moderate hands have gained considerable value. Don’t let your opponents make your choices for you; at this point in the game you’re not playing to stay in it, you’re playing to win it. Remember that in sit and go’s the last man standing tends to be the biggest bully.

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HORSE Cash Game Strategy Tips

Your cash game strategy for HORSE should have many of the same fundamental tactics as any poker cash game strategy, but the easiest way to optimize your profits is obviously to be the best all-around player. That means knowing all five of the components before you sit at a HORSE game. No single playing strategy will cover both community and stud games; both high and low variations. Some supposed “experts” will tell you that being exceptional at one game and passable at others is enough, but if you can’t hold your own in all five then your opponents will quickly learn to target your weakness, making it hard for you to retain even major winnings from one round through the other four.

When you sit at a HORSE cash game for the first time, you can expect the Hold ‘em and Omaha hands to be the most aggressive. Most HORSE players come from a Hold ‘em background. While this will certainly test your own Hold ‘em skills, it also gives you an open opportunity to dominate in the other three games. These skills are slightly less valuable in tournaments where the blinds structure makes Hold ‘em and Omaha more costly, but in cash games dominating the three less common games can give you a significant edge over your Hold ‘em-oriented opponents.

When it comes to actually playing the games, a tight-aggressive strategy is the most effective in all five. When you get good cards, make them pay. Always bet and raise pre-flop in the community card games to eliminate players that are on the fence, and learn the other players’ weaknesses early so you know the optimal times to bully and bluff. Being good at all five games is the best way to protect yourself from players that would do the same to you.

Moreso than in any other game, HORSE gives savvy players a good chance to profit off their unskilled opponents. There are many fish at the HORSE tables. Generally these players are moderately good at Hold ‘em and maybe Omaha, but are hopeless at the Studs and Razz. They’re looking for something new, and think they can grind out some easy money by dominating the community card rounds. Identifying their off games early can create an easy route toward small and even middling pots.

Hide Your Own Weaknesses

Other smart HORSE players have already clued in to our first tip. They’re watching their opponents closely to determine when and how they can steal their chips. Betting consistently is a good way to fake confidence, but betting too consistently can give away your hands. If you’re ahead and you’ve established yourself as a steady player, then now and then it can’t hurt to push with a moderate hand.

Master the Semi-Bluff

Our last two HORSE tips are the perfect lead-in to this one. Once you know which games each of your fellow players dread and have set a serious tone for your own playing style, you can start using that information to your advantage. When you sense a weak player is trying to limp into a better hand, go ahead and bully them. If you’ve been playing your cards right, then they’ll recognize the threat and fold.

Get Good at the Bad Games

With free versions of virtually ever poker variation available at almost all the major poker rooms, there’s no reason why you can’t spare a little time to get good at all five games in HORSE. Being a seasoned Seven Card Stud player can really pay off as these two rounds are often a weakness to strong Hold ‘em-based players. In a tournament, you will be pleasantly surprised by how many pots you can sweep just by dominating the Seven Card rounds.

Tight Is Always Right

With some special tournament exceptions, a tight-aggressive strategy is ideal in virtually all HORSE games. It saves you from diminishing your bankroll in less important rounds and gives you the appearance of being a serious player (while avoiding a calling station designation). Because the game is constantly changing, often your opponents’ playing strategies are too; trying to bully your way through all five rounds is a good way to get yourself trapped by players that have been waiting to make their big bets.

Limit Hold ‘Em: When playing limit hold ‘em in a HORSE context, it is important that you play tight-aggressive in the cash games. Pick your spots and extract maximum coinage from the spots that you pick. In early position, you can play pairs of 9-9 or higher and then any two high cards of jack or higher. As you progressively get to later positions, you can downgrade the high card ranks by one for middle and late position and the pairs by two. Additionally, from late position and with a lot of limpers, feel free to play suited and connected cards.

Limit Omaha: You should always look for cards that work well together like two suited connecting cards or 4 high cards (jack or above). As a player of Omaha in the HORSE poker context, you should only enter the pot with four solid cards in early position and middle position, but you can knock that down to two cards in late position with a large pot being built up. Remember to limit the amount of hands you play in Omaha, due to the fact that after a flop many people will have draws.

Razz: Razz is a tougher nut to crack than hold ‘em or Omaha, but for the most part you should approach Razz in HORSE poker as you would in a Razz cash game. Do not play any hand unless all three cards in that hand are eight or lower and make sure that you raise as much as possible if two of the cards happen to be part of the nut low for that particular game.

Seven-Card Stud: In seven-card stud HORSE poker, you want to play all trips, high pairs, straight flush draws and high straight and flush draws.

Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo: Hi/Lo is basically a combination of the two previous variants and in HORSE poker it is usually the game that people have the most difficulty with. When you play Stud/8 poker (short-form for the full name of the variant) in HORSE, you want to enter the pot with hands that have a good chance to win either the high or the low. This makes cards like lower straight draws goldmines in this game. However, don’t feel hesitant about going after either just the high or just the low, especially if there are a lot of people in the hand.

Changes in forced bets: This is one of the biggest things that you need to constantly be aware of when it comes to HORSE poker. The ‘HO’ part of the HORSE poker rotation requires the use of big blinds and small blinds and of course the ‘RSE’ part of the rotation requires the use of antes and a forced bring-in bet after the cards have already been dealt. In other words, you need to constantly be aware of when the changes in poker variants are going to take place and what those changes mean for you specifically in terms of forced bets.

Changes in position: Just as there are changes in forced bets in HORSE, there are also changes in position. In the ‘HO’ part of the HORSE poker rotation, position is a gigantic deal. This is because there is a button that rotates around the table like clockwork and therefore you know when and where you are going to be in terms of position at all times. However, with the ‘RSE’ part of the rotation, position is not fixed. It can change from game to game and even within the same game on different betting rounds it can be different. Therefore, while position is still important, it plays a diminished role. Understanding the differences between poker variants in terms of position and being aware of where you are at all times is part of being a good HORSE poker player.

Changes in tells: Physical tells from the players might be different in different parts of the HORSE poker rotation if for no other reason than because of their different proficiencies with different games. While it is advisable that you are at least at an intermediate level in all five poker variants, there are going to be people that do not follow that rule. Therefore, a person might be very polished in two or three variants and completely out to lunch on the others. Noticing this, extrapolating it to make judgments on their physical tells and then using those judgments to your advantage is another part of being an excellent HORSE poker cash game player.

HORSE is actually not its own poker variant, but rather is an amalgamation of five other poker variants to form a rather unique way of playing poker. HORSE is an acronym that stands for Hold ‘em, Omaha hi/lo, Razz, Seven-card stud and Seven-card stud hi/lo.

Previous series of articles have already discussed the unique points of the first four poker variants in that five-variant combination, so a lot of the articles from here on in will be focused more on Seven-Card stud hi/lo while at the same time speaking in general terms about the other four variants.

HORSE poker players, because of this dynamic of five different types of poker being played, have to become proficient as all-round poker players. If they are not able to do this, then their HORSE playing days are going to be numbered. A lot of people have the mistaken notion that since you are playing five different types of poker that your weaknesses are covered up.

In fact, the opposite is true; if you are weak in one form of poker and you happen to be playing at a HORSE poker tournament, you are going to find out very quickly that your weaknesses are magnified because of the structure of most HORSE tournaments. It is less pronounced in cash games since you can just take the loss of blinds and fold your way to the next poker variant, but your weaknesses are still going to be exposed.

This, in actuality, is perhaps the single most important point about what makes HORSE poker unique. This melding of five different poker variants, played in quick succession after each other, requires a degree of poker strategy, poker knowledge and in general statistical knowledge that is unprecedented anywhere else within the poker world. The ability of HORSE poker players is so unique in fact that it once prompted the great Doyle Brunson to once jokingly comment that HORSE should replace no limit Hold ‘Em as being the main event at the World Series of Poker.