Up for a little H.O.R.S.E.?

If there’s one thing poker players love, it’s variety. At least speaking for myself and those I’ve become friendly with playing in casinos and home games, switching it up and playing different games with different rules keeps things interesting and energized.

In the world of tournament play, there’s no better way to accomplish this than with a little game of H.O.R.S.E. If you’re not familiar with this, it ain’t basketball, but instead a rotation of five well-known poker games at certain, predetermined time intervals.

The games are Hold ‘em, Omaha hold ‘em, Razz, Seven-card stud and seven-card stud, Eights or better – typically in that order. How the rotation works changes for different casinos or online tournaments – some do it by a set time, others by rotations around the table. There can also be variations for the blinds, either they progressively continue to go up regardless of what game you’re on, or, as I’ve seen in some home games and Full Tilt Poker, they reset each time a new game comes up, so each game starts with the same blind instead of the blinds for the fifth game being significantly higher than those for the first.

The only strategy to offer is know your own game, and be able to identify and admit your weaknesses and strengths. Let’s face it, unless you’re one of the professionals, you’re not going to be the best player at any given table at each of the five rotating games. What you need to do is play smart and aggressive during your strong games, and pull back when playing a weaker game. Maximize your wins and minimize your losses sounds easy enough, but you must break from your pattern every so often to keep others from detecting where you’re weakest or most timid. If they do, if they smell blood in the water, you can bet they’ll make you pay for playing small, eating up your blinds and backing off when you do make a move in your stronger hands. That can cause a backfire, a steady loss on your weak game(s) and only a small gain, if anything, during your stronger games.

HORSE has, for a few years now, become more popular among players, and even make it’s way into a small, $5K tournament at the World Series of Poker in 2006. It can also be found at a few of the top-name gambling sites online. If you want to give it a try to see if it’s for you, I’d recommend the online scene at a small buy-in.