Horse

[kingsnthahole]

Horse limit

Horse is probably my favorite game of all poker, mainly bc it has 5 different games in it

my strategy for horse is pretty simple...SUPERTIGHT IS RIGHT
and i play omaha very cautiously...haha

limit holdem-top ten hands, AK, AQ, AJ(in position)and always a raise with med pp or better in position...u hit the flop big, ram and jam it...u hit it pr good, ram it and jam until the turn...slow down if all you have is a pair...flush and big straight draws i base off how many people are in the hand...for instance, if im sitting on the button and 4 people are calling down with the flop K Q 2, and i have JT, im gonna call bc if i hit an ace or a 9 im gonna get paid off bigtime...flushes i usually do the same thing, unless i have overs to the board with my flush draw, i will reraise and play the hand fast

limit omaha hl 8 or better, this is a new game for me personally so i tend to play very cautiously, with alot fo hands except double suited big cards with babies...hands like KsAdQs2d, are almost always good raising hands, just be cautious if the flop doesnt hit you at all...which is pretty hard to do...
ERIC-FEEL FREE TO ADD ANY INFO ON LIMIT OMAHAH/L

Razz...possibly one of my favorite types of poker games, because people chase the crap out of 7 lo draws...its so fun to watch them snap call you when your sitting there with a 6 lo and theyre chasin to hit the 7 lo...classic...basically, with razz, i like to see 2-3 cards past the first 3 you start with and analyze everyone elses hands at that point. I never start with anything less than a 3-card 8 lo draw...i reraise with any 6 low draw or better to start to protect my hand...obviously if someone is showing you XX872, and you have (2)(3)A87, you need to reraise them...what better hand than yours could they have at this point, raise/ram jam that asap...razz is alot of playing off someones elses cards more than your own...

stud hi...check out FFcowboys sweet strategy guide for this...
hes very knowledgeable in this...

stud hi/lo 8- again, check out ffcowboys post, as i added my knowledge on hi/lo 8.......any A with 2 babies i generally raise or reraise, especially if there is straight or flush potential...alot of people chase for half the pot in stud hi lo, i go after both...ALWAYS REMEBER THAT...in limit hi/lo games, never chase for half the pot...GO FOR THE WHOLE THING!

[$o$o$ucce$$ful]

HORSE is the ultimate test of poker skill. It has to do with yoru skill of every game, and your not going to be able to just dominate hold em, or just dominate omaha. You have to be able more then a one trick pony.
Here are my ideas on how to play ahead in HORSE.
HLimit Hold Em- "The Chasers Game" LOL. I always hated playing Limit Hold Em and I probably always will. Let say you pick up Aces and raise, well you can only min raise so you are giving odds to everybody else in the pot. Now I am not naive enough to think that everybody else is going to play just because they have odds, but it is more likely to get hands like 89 suited in, the best kind of hands to crack aces.
When you catch top pair in Limit, youd be best to bet them strong. Do not fold to a reraise, but also dont raise yourself in case you are beat. When you have the nuts, do not slowplay them because you wont get the maximum amount of money out of your hand. You have to lead out and bet, if they raise, you reraise, that simple.
O
Limit Omaha H/L- Ok this hand requires you to look at two different perspectives of the game.
The HI-This is the best hi hand like you were playing regular omaha. This is the easy part however I will tell you why Omahah Hi/Lo is difficult.
The Lo- This is the best lo hand the best 5 cards, not paired, under 8. The nut lo is A,2,3,4,5. Which would not only give you the nut lo but would also give you the wheel for the hi hand.
Normally I try not to play only hi hand kind of cards such as KKQJ or AAKQ because Hi hands can NEVER turn into lo hands, however sometimes lo hands turn into the best hi hands. So i always try to play hands like AK23 or A1025 or something along those lines because your plan is to always try and scoop the pot. Scooping the pot means taking both the hi and lo hands.
R
Razz- This is a stud game but it is the best low hand. There are no requirements on a low hand for razz. You could have a J lo or a K lo it doesnt matter.
Razz is all about betting what you think your opponent DOESNT have. For instance you have:
A2down and A2 showing. so you have two pair which is the worst possible start in razz. But if your opponent is showing 34 you know the PROBABILITY is that he does not have an A or a 2 so you can discount those cards. My basis for a starting hand is alway to have 3 cards lower then 9 unpaired in order for me to play in the pot. It is played like stud, round of betting after 3rd street,4th street,5th street,6th street,and 7th street.
Like I said it is ALL about betting not your cards but the showing cards. For instance if you have KK in the hole but A 4 2 showing. But maybe you see Q J 4 showing on your opponents bored. Your best hope is a K low. But your opponent sees 3 low cards showing for you so if you bet he will fold. Its all about your showing cards!
S
Stud- Stud is one of pokers oldest games, and one of the most well known. of course you get dealt 7 cards 4 face up and 3 face down. Now this version of stud is simply just the Hi hand wins. So you are trying to get the best 5 card hand. Stud is all about your showing cards. If you show a pair you have to bet no matter what because if your opponent sees that, they might think you have trips. So its always to bet the best showing hand, because its like in hold em a coin flip, you have to think about it, if the only reason there going to beat you is if they have better hole cards, then so be it. Stud is pretty much self explanatory.
E
Eight or better stud.
This is just like omaha h/l only with the same stud rules. You get dealt 7 cards, 3 down, 4 turned up. Just like in omaha, it is better to play the lo cards that can turn into hi hands then hi hands that will only be able to take half the pot.
I hope this has been some sort of help. Although its not everything you need to KNOW about HORSE.

[thenutzaa1]

The first aspect to consider before sitting down to play in a mixed game cash game is what games you want to play. Mixed-game tournaments are almost always H.O.R.S.E. Apart from one or two unique events at the World Series of Poker, it is almost impossible to find a mixed-game tournament in any other format but H.O.R.S.E. Thus there's not really much choice but to learn to play
Mansion Poker
each of the five games if you want to successfully compete in a mixed game tournament.

Cash games, on the other hand, come in a variety of flavors. Within the last year, I've seen the following games spread at poker rooms around the country: H.O.R.S.E., O.E., B.T.O., B.O.T.E., and H.O.B.S. If you can't easily get to a "brick and mortar" poker room, the online sites also offer mixed games. The most popular is H.O.R.S.E., but other variants such as H.O.S.E. (many players detest razz) and H.O.E. are also spread on the online sites. Thus, with a little bit of searching and some bit of luck, it should be possible to find a cash game that includes only games you're actually interested in learning and playing. That's not always the case, which is why it's good to have a basic background in each of the games you're most likely to encounter, but this is one area where a bit of diligence and patience in game selection can really pay off.

Once you've found your game, the next thing to notice is how often the game changes. In some poker rooms, the game changes at every dealer push. In others, it changes after one orbit, or two orbits, or a set number of hands. A simple question to the dealer when you sit down can save some headache here, because otherwise it may take a bit of time (and some deductive reasoning) to figure it out.

It may be that it's impossible to find a game that has precisely the mix of games you're looking for. You might stumble across a $10-$20 B.O.T.E. game and really enjoy playing Omaha, triple draw, and stud hi/lo, but have absolutely zero experience playing badugi. In such a situation, you could sit down to play the game and conveniently get up for a "smoke break" or a "bathroom break" every time the game switches to badugi. I don't necessarily advocate this course of action -- my personal feeling is that if you sit down to play in a mixed game, you should sit down with the intention of playing every game -- but as far as poker ethics are concerned, skipping one orbit of a game is a minor breach at best. After all, think about how many times people wander away from the table during a typical cash session of straight hold'em or Omaha.

In mixed games where the game only changes at every dealer push, or every two orbits, skipping a whole game is less of an option. It's really hard to justify being consistently away from the table for that length of time, and it's not really fair to your opponents. You might also consider the value of staying at the table and actually playing the unfamiliar or weak game. Reading books is an excellent way to improve your game, but the only way to get to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice. Actual experience playing a game is the best way to improve.

When discussing tournament play last week, one thing I noted was that you should be aware of when the level and game are going to change and what the new limits will be. In a cash game you don't really have to worry about any of that. The limits are never going to change and the only point of being aware of a game change is so that you're playing the right game. However, you should still try to play tighter in games where you know you are weak, simply as a cash preservation method. The irony is that people tend to play looser and more passively in their weaker games, often playing starting hands that they shouldn't be playing and passively playing them through too many streets. This is where a poker anthology such as Super/System 2 can be a great help.

Other than that, mixed-game cash game play isn't too different from playing in a single-game cash game -- with the obvious exception that more than one game is being played. As in a tournament, you should pay particular attention during the non-flop games to how your opponents play. Many people have far less experience playing stud games and draw games than they do with flop games for the simple reason that hold'em, and to a lesser extent Omaha, have dominated the television scene for the last five years. There's also a significantly higher degree of skill required to play draw games and stud games then there is for flop games, especially hold'em, where you only have to keep track of two cards at any one time, and where most of the time no hand is much greater than a 4-to-1 underdog against any other hand before the flop. For both of these reasons, if you develop some proficiency with the non-flop games, you may have a significant edge over your opponents.

That about wraps up the basic considerations for tournament and cash-game play of mixed games. Next week, we'll start to look into some actual situations you may run into when playing in a cash game or tournament, and the merits of taking one line versus another. Always remember that in mixed games, as in any limit form of poker, the key to playing well is extracting one extra bet when you're best, or saving one extra bet when you're beat.