This is definitely not a tournament for the faint of heart! You may be able to fluke your way into the top three of a Sit & Go, but winning a H.O.R.S.E poker tournament demands skill, a deeper understanding of poker as a whole and nerves of steel.
Are you still sure you want to play? Okay then, don't say I didn't warn you...
What is H.O.R.S.E poker?
A H.O.R.S.E poker tournament is made up of a round of five different styles of poker; Texas Hold'em poker, Omaha High / Low poker, Razz Lowball poker, Seven Card Stud poker and Eight or Better Seven Card Stud poker. Texas Hold'em and Omaha are two games where community cards are used as well as player cards, while Razz, 7 Card Stud and 8 or better 7 Card Stud all rely on cards that are dealt to the players. I'll go through each game in a bit more detail and then we'll look at the key strategies to help you win big.
Give me an 'H'!
Texas Hold'em poker is a pretty fast game so these hands last hardly any time before you're on to the Omaha High / Low round. Each player is dealt two cards (a pocket pair), and then in between rounds of betting three community cards are drawn, followed by a forth and then a fifth. Now comes a final round of betting and each player has seven total cards ( 2 pocket cards and 5 community cards) to make the highest five card hand that they can following the normal poker hand ranking system using at least one of their pocket pair cards. After this round it's into a round of Omaha High / Low poker.
Give me an 'O'!
Along with Texas Hold'em, Omaha is one of the most popular games at online poker rooms. In H.O.R.S.E we play a variant called Omaha High / Low where each pot is split between the player with the highest ranking hand and the player with the lowest ( 8 or lower ). Omaha High / Low is very similar is it's structure of betting rounds and use of five community cards; but the main difference is each player id dealt four cards instead of eight. That sounds like good news until you realise that the winning hand (highest or lowest) must be made up of exactly two of your own cards and exactly three of the five community cards. In Omaha High / Low the King is high and the Ace is low, so you're looking for either a low ranking hand of A-8 or a high ranking hand 9-K.
Give me an 'R'!
Razz is the first of three round of Seven Card Stud each slightly different. In Razz the player with the lowest ranking hand wins (A-8). See below and I'll explain the basic principles of Seven Card Stud poker properly.
Give me an 'S'!
Seven Card stud does now use community cards or draw cards and only uses cards that are dealt to the player, 7 in total with some face up and others face down. This means that players can see half of each others hands, while keeping their face down cards secret. The winner is the one with the highest ranking hand once betting is over and each player turns their cards over.
Give me an 'E'!
Eight or Better is the third variant of Seven Card Stud where just like in Omaha High / Low the pot is split between the player with the highest and the player with the lowest hand. Hand ranking of lowest is A-7 and the highest is 8-K. After this hand it's back for another round of Texas Hold'em.
Strategies for H.O.R.S.E
1. If you already play online poker I'm going to take an educated guess and say you know how to play Texas Hold'em, so the first thing I'd suggest is getting to know Seven Card Stud poker too so that you become proficient enough in the game to win whether its High, Low or a High / Low split game. As three of the five rounds of H.O.R.S.E are Seven Card Stud learning, understanding and playing it well is the first thing you need to do.
2. If you are able to consistently win at Hold'em and Seven Card Stud, begin practising Omaha High / Low which I'm betting you have played at least once. It's a much slower game than Texas Hold'em and is far less forgiving of players making minor mistakes, dictating an exact number of cards to make a hand. Whenever playing a High / Low split game the decision to either build a high or low hand needs to be made very early on, and if possible before the community cards are even dealt. You can edge your bets and aim for the middle, and you might even get lucky, but this won't stand you in good stead in the long run.
3. As the game progresses remember which round of Seven Card Stud you're in, whether it's Low, High or High / Low. Remember what each game represents in the acronym H.O.R.S.E and if you get lost or confused fold the hand and begin the next one with a clear head. Nobody is perfect and at times of stress and excitement it's easy to forget what round you are in.
4. You won't meet many happy-go-lucky gamblers who'll go all-in as soon as they get a pair of 5's, H.O.R.S.E brings together the most skilled poker players you'll meet anywhere all with sound strategies, patience, a healthy bank roll and a lot of experience and intuition. These players can be beaten just like anyone can, but to do this you need a sound strategy for each game and the patience to wait for a good hand to play. Odds in H.O.R.S.E are very different to the usual probability of single style games as the game changes at the end of every round. This means that in a weird kind of way every hand you play will feel like your first until you become a seasoned pro.
5. H.O.R.S.E is not an easy way to make money and is a game for advanced poker players only. Don't enter a high stakes H.O.R.S.E tournament unless you can afford to never see that money again, until you get used to it play for free or very low stakes. H.O.R.S.E is a game of skill not luck.
6. You need to have an understanding of all five poker games but also you need to concentrate on your strengths. If Texas Hold'em is your game then focus on these hands and fold the ones where you're weak at the game. This is a reason you should practise Seven Card Stud because if you are proficient then you'll be proficient at 3 out of 5 hands of each round. You can quite easily fold one or two hands each round and avoid the weaker games to save your focus and bankroll on the games that you'll dominate.
7. In Texas Hold'em poker rounds of H.O.R.S.E watch for players who always call and never fold, playing each hand because it's the one they're the most familiar with. Just because they're familiar with it doesn't mean they're good players, so if they're calling and raising and then folding they're showing you they're desperate to win a hand. Next Texas Hold'em round these are the players to target with aggressive play.
8. In Omaha High / Low poker rounds of H.O.R.S.E watch the players constantly chasing either High or Low hands consistently. Remember that Omaha High / Low is the hardest one to pick up so being proficient in a H.O.R.S.E tournament will bring you among the few high ability players. If players raise as soon as a low card surfaces in the community card it means they're chasing a hand, if they already have three low cards they'd not be so bothered and would keep their call. In the early rounds watch these players and if they're the same ones who keep calling every hand in the Texas Hold'em round they're showing you weaknesses in their strategy and ability. These guys won't last into the later rounds so make it your mission to destroy them and claim their chips before one of the other bigger fish do. The bigger your bank roll in H.O.R.S.E the more you can relax in later rounds and fold the hands that you don't have to play and patiently watch the other players attack each other until only a few are left.
9. If you spot weak players in Seven Card Stud, then chances are they're even worse at Razz and Eight or Higher. Watch the players who call each betting round only to fold at the end when they've been dealt the last card of a weak hand. Stud uses no community cards, and although an easier game in a lot of ways, allows the players to relax and make crucial mistakes because they are not as mentally challenged as they are in rounds of Texas Hold'em and Omaha High / Low. Players who seem confused and inconsistent in Razz and Seven Card Stud rounds can be bullied in Eight or Higher rounds. First of all because the high / low split has made the game even more complicated, and secondly because they'll want to save their chips for the next round of Texas Hold'em.
10. These are the strategies I use in H.O.R.S.E so I hope you find them helpful. Remember you will be going head-to-head with strong poker players but everyone has a weakness. You can throw strong players off your scent by playing timidly in your strongest game, and then when they've taken the bait you can damage them. If players are playing slowly and making their minds up, use this time to decide your own strategy and in your turn play fast. If players are racing around the table, take your time and frustrate them. Set your own rhythm while disrupting the rhythm of others. If you play aggressive in one round of Omaha High / Low fold the next one, play the next one timidly and then switch back to aggressive. By the time it's time for you to switch back to playing aggressively the other players would have forgotten and would have started focusing on something else. Misdirection works wonders when people are already concentrating hard on something else.
11. With anything to get very good you need to practice at least an hour a day. Regular H.O.R.S.E players are good and better than the average player but there are very few great H.O.R.S.E players, with hard work and regular practice you could be one of them! Practicing for hours upon hours with no direction, however, is counter productive. Begin, as always when you're learning a new game, by focusing on free games at low stakes and work your way up slowly as if you are lifting weights and trying to improve your bench press. If you're getting a daily workout you can increase the weight every fortnight, just like you can increase the stakes in poker once you have been consistently dominating the competition at the previous level. High stakes players on free play will generally be about the level of skill as players of low/medium stake cash games.
12. For advanced H.O.R.S.E players or complete maniacs. When I began playing Texas Hold'em years ago for money in Sit & Go's I started playing multiple tournaments at once. Never over four as four screens could fit nicely in the browser window, this way I was rarely bored between bad runs of low cards. Just for kicks after a while when I was practicing in Free Play I'd play two tables of Texas Hold'em and two tables of either 5 Card Draw or Seven Card Stud. I did this for a laugh at first, but quickly realized that it was sharpening my game up rapidly. I never did this on the real tables as I couldn't see how it would be any more profitable than playing four simultaneous games of Texas Hold'em, but loved the challenge none the less. If you stop pushing yourself as far as you can go you slow down and stagnate until something comes along and knocks you on your ass and wakes you up out of your day dream. This training I feel really helped me when years later I played my first H.O.R.S.E tournament as I was used to playing different games at different times. I would never advocate doing something as stupid as playing two or more simultaneous different games for money, but practice with your Free Play account and see how it goes. If nothing else it'll sharpen up your decision making and make it easier for you to adapt to different games.
11. With anything to get very good you need to practice at least an hour a day. Regular H.O.R.S.E players are good and better than the average player but there are very few great H.O.R.S.E players, with hard work and regular practice you could be one of them! Practicing for hours upon hours with no direction, however, is counter productive. Begin, as always when you're learning a new game, by focusing on free games at low stakes and work your way up slowly as if you are lifting weights and trying to improve your bench press. If you're getting a daily workout you can increase the weight every fortnight, just like you can increase the stakes in poker once you have been consistently dominating the competition at the previous level. High stakes players on free play will generally be about the level of skill as players of low/medium stake cash games.
12. For advanced H.O.R.S.E players or complete maniacs. When I began playing Texas Hold'em years ago for money in Sit & Go's I started playing multiple tournaments at once. Never over four as four screens could fit nicely in the browser window, this way I was rarely bored between bad runs of low cards. Just for kicks after a while when I was practicing in Free Play I'd play two tables of Texas Hold'em and two tables of either 5 Card Draw or Seven Card Stud. I did this for a laugh at first, but quickly realized that it was sharpening my game up rapidly. I never did this on the real tables as I couldn't see how it would be any more profitable than playing four simultaneous games of Texas Hold'em, but loved the challenge none the less. If you stop pushing yourself as far as you can go you slow down and stagnate until something comes along and knocks you on your ass and wakes you up out of your day dream. This training I feel really helped me when years later I played my first H.O.R.S.E tournament as I was used to playing different games at different times. I would never advocate doing something as stupid as playing two or more simultaneous different games for money, but practice with your Free Play account and see how it goes. If nothing else it'll sharpen up your decision making and make it easier for you to adapt to different games.
All the best riding The H.O.R.S.E!
