Best HORSE Poker Sites

The Best Poker Sites Offering HORSE

It’s no longer only road-weathered rounders who partake in the game now; players of all stripes are flocking to the HORSE poker sites in droves. And we all know the timeless mantra: where the players go, the money follows. HORSE may turn out to be the next Holdem, or it may not. Nobody knows. But for now, it makes sense to learn about HORSE poker – at least if you like money.

Let’s find out what HORSE poker is, how to play the game, and how to beat the stable of opponents online. Then, we’ll compare the most popular HORSE poker sites online.

What is HORSE Poker?

HORSE poker is a mixed game. Meaning, a game of HORSE is actually a game of five different types of poker. These types are:

• Limit Holdem
• Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
• Razz
• Seven-card Stud
• Seven-card Stud Hi/Lo (Eight-or-Better)

How is it possible to play more than one type of poker in a single game? Well, you don’t play them all at once! The action is revolving.

Each individual game is played for a specific period of time, and then the games shift: Holdem for 8 hands, then Omaha for 8 hands, then Razz, and so on. In the case of tournaments, most HORSE poker sites switch subgames as blind levels increase.

That the poker types in HORSE are so varied makes for a strategically complicated game. Maybe that’s why so many pros, Daniel Negreanu among them, consider HORSE to be the ultimate test of poker mastery.

It’s a game of switching gears and exploiting your opponents’ weaknesses. Sometimes these weaknesses will be subtle, like calling too often on 5th street in Razz. And sometimes these weaknesses will be obvious, like not knowing the rules of the game.

HORSE Poker Rules

 To begin with, you’ll need a cursory understanding of each subgame in HORSE. The rules for each game are the same at all HORSE poker sites. Here’s a quick overview:

• Holdem: Each player gets two hole cards. These are private. There are three streets worth of community cards: 3 cards on the flop, 1 on the turn, and 1 on the river. Your objective is to make the best high 5-card poker hand using any combination of hole cards and community cards.
• Omaha Hi/Lo: Each player gets four hole cards. All private. There are three streets worth of community cards, in the same order and quantity as in Holdem. Your objective is to make the best high 5-card poker hand OR the best low 5-card poker hand. Another catch: you must use EXACTLY TWO cards from your hole cards and EXACTLY THREE cards from the community deck.
• Seven-card Stud. The object of stud is to make the best high 5-card poker hand at the table using only the cards you’re dealt. There are five streets in a round of Stud: 3 cards on 3rd street, one card on 4th street, one card on 5th street, one card on 6th street, and one card on 7th street.
• Razz: The rules of Razz are the same as for Stud, except that your objective is different. Rather than aiming to make the best high 5-card poker hand, you’re aiming to make the best low 5-card poker hand.

HORSE is great because if you know how to play the subgames, you know how to play the game. The only nuances you’ll need to learn are technical. Here’s a rundown of the game flow at HORSE poker sites:

• All betting is fixed limit.
• At a cash game table, the subgame switches every X number of hands played. For example, some HORSE poker sites switch games every 10 hands. So you’d play 10 hands of Holdem, then 10 hands of Omaha Hi/Lo, and so on.
• In a HORSE tournament, the subgame switches after a set amount of time. Generally, the game will switch as the blind levels increase. However each HORSE poker site sets its own time limits – they may vary, depending on where you play.

3 Tips to Beat the HORSE Poker Sites

Once you’ve got the basics down, you’ll want to put some thought into HORSE poker strategy. Here are three of the most important things you’ll need to know to get started.

• Know the games, don’t sit them out. Lots of HORSE strategy writing advocates simply sitting out for your weakest games, or at least trying to avoid playing them. This is a terrible idea that will lead to your bleeding chips.

Let’s face it: everyone’s strongest game these days is Holdem. If everyone took the advice to sit out, nobody would ever play any of the non-Holdem rounds in HORSE poker. There’s no profit in that!

So what you want to do is get competent at Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud, Razz, and Stud Hi/Lo. That way, you’ll be able to build your stack during those rounds while everyone else spews away.

• Consider the blinds. If you’re playing a HORSE poker tournament, this is especially important. If you don’t know how to handle the blind shifts between subgames, you’ll end up fizzling out by accident.

In the Stud rounds, your effective blinds are minimal. Often, you won’t even have to post a bring-in – you can just fold and wait for a great hand. However in the Holdem round, you always face a gigantic big blind. If you want to play your cards, it’s going to cost you.

The effect of this is that players who don’t build stacks during the Stud rounds often find themselves with short stacks in the Holdem rounds. As any pro will tell you, you do NOT want to be short-stacked while playing Holdem. This is another good reason to ignore the “sit out for your weakest games” advice.

• Keep meticulous notes about your opponents. These notes can be physical or mental – doesn’t matter. They just need to exist somewhere.

Keep track of the obvious mistakes your opponents make. For example, if you see an opponent going in with a king face-up in Razz, make a note: this guy is terrible at Razz. Then, exploit the heck out of his lack of Razz skill!