HORSE poker is form of poker that is quickly growing in popularity. As players hone their skills at Texas Hold’em and other popular games, they are looking to add some variety to their play and the mixed game format of HORSE poker is often exactly what many players are looking for. HORSE is actually an acronym for several popular poker games:
H- Limit Hold’em
O - Limit Omaha Eight or Better (Hi/Lo)
R - Razz Poker
S - Limit Seven Card Stud
E - Limit Stud Eight or Better (Hi/Lo)
When you sit down at a HORSE table you will actually just be playing these five common online poker variations. If you want to learn how to play any of these games they are all covered in our poker game rules section. If you already know how to play you can check out our poker strategy section which contains tips and tactics for every poker game played on the internet. I have also publish some tips for online horse racing betting on this web site.
H.O.R.S.E poker is played in major tournaments at the big casinos around the world, including the WSOP. I love playing in H.O.R.S.E tournaments at brick and mortar casinos but I prefer doing my gambling on the Internet in 2014.
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Picking a HORSE table
When it comes to picking a HORSE table, you really just need to find a table with a limit you are comfortable playing. Anytime you sit down to play HORSE, all the games will be in a limit format. So if you sit down at a $5/$10 HORSE table, that means each game you play will be fixed limit at $5 for the small bet and $10 for the large bet. There is pretty clear uniformity on how often the games switch as well. If you were to sit down at just a normal cash ring game to play HORSE, the game would change every time the dealer button makes a complete rotation around the table. So for example, the first game to start would be Texas Hold’em. Once the dealer button rotates around the table and is back to the person it was for the first hand of Hold’em, the game would switch to Omaha Hi Lo. The rotation then continues like this for the duration of the game.
If you were to be playing a HORSE tournament, things would go a little differently. Rather than switching with each rotation of the button, the games switch every time the blind levels increase.
Playing HORSE Poker
The most important thing to consider when first trying out HORSE poker is that you must have a working knowledge of each game, if you do not, you will find yourself doing really well at one point, and then simply giving all your money back as soon as its time for a game that you don’t understand as well.
In terms of actual game mechanics, there is nothing different about HORSE than if you were to simply play these games individually. The main things you will have to consider is your ability to switch gears each time the game changes. You will probably start to figure out how each of your opponents plays, but remember that when the game changes, they might have a completely different strategy, so you really have to be able to adapt in many different kinds of situations to be able to be successful at HORSE.
The best idea for a beginner is definitely to start out at the low levels when first trying HORSE poker, you may even want to just try a cheap tournament to get the feel of the different games. Another suggestion is to simply make sure you have sat down and put in a few hours at each of the different games before you sit down to play them all at one table. In HORSE it is actually much harder to learn each game because you only play it for one round at a time before you have to switch gears and play a different game.