H.O.R.S.E.

With the Goose off in Arizona last week I spent a sad amount of time playing on Poker Stars. Some of the time I spent on the classic No Limit tournaments, mostly sit & gos but I played a lot of H.O.R.S.E. as well and learned some interesting things. Each game had something to offer. Prior to this I had played very little Limit Hold Em, a small amount of Omaha, and never played Stud or Razz.

Limit Hold 'Em would actually probably be my best game. I have the patience to wait for good hands, I generally get pretty good reads on my opponents, and I know the percentages. Still, it is such a slow game...it is good for learning patience. I came out of almost every Limit session up a little bit. I waited for good hands in good position and played them aggressively. At one point I had not played a hand in nearly 2 full circuits as I was pretty card dead when I picked up the Rockets under the gun. I raised them and it came back to me with a re-raise. I 3 bet...and everyone called. When I flopped a set I saw no point to slow-playing. The betting was capped on every round and I raked a huge pot. Now, anyone who was paying attention should not have been in that hand without a pretty good straight draw (no flush possible) and there wasn't one. Sure, by folding when 2 and 3 bets came to my blind I was getting ground down a bit...but it is limit. I did not get ground much and was able to maximize my winnings when I got a hand. So the key I learned was patience.

Omaha is a much faster game. Because so many combinations can hit, lots of people play any 4 cards. Using the patience from Limit, I waited for hands that were connected, preferably with a suited Ace. When I flopped, if it was a small draw I folded and if it was to the nuts I called or raised, depending on the game. Because of the nature of Omaha I won some huge pots and lost some huge ones. Then when it switched to Omaha High Low, I only played hands with the potential to win the low. As a result, when I won pots they were typically the whole pot and when I lost I was usually out of the hand early as if no low is possible I got out. Twice I folded straights when I believed an opponent had a flush or full house and once I folded a full house (deuces full of 2s) believing one of the 2 opponents had to have queens over deuces. I was right...and wrong. One guy had that, the other had Aces full. The lesson to be learned from Omaha is pretty simple; you have to be willing to fold when you are beat.

Razz is a different game where you want a bad hand. A/3/4/5/6 is pretty solid. An 8 high is questionable. And all too often you find yourself with a hand that looks good but is beating by subtlety. You and your opponent both roll 7 low hands but he is 7/5/4/3/2 and you are 7/6/3/2/a...and you lose. Subtle differences in hand strength make or break a hand so you start developing a feel for how good your hand needs to be to stay in.

Stud is a game that requires you to pay attention and use your memory. If you are dealt 3 to the flush but see 4 cards of your suit up on other boards there is not much point to playing the hand. Forgetting someone folded one jack and another opponent has a Jack showing renders your buried jacks meaningless. The player who does not pay attention to who has what door cards and other cards showing on their board...and who forgets what was folded...finds them self drawing thin too often. And by following the betting pattern you can often discern what people are representing. So Stud is great for developing memory.

Last but not least, the Hi-lo split versions of the game help with developing a sense for the meaning to percentages and getting a feel for pot odds. When you hit your flush and pull in just 50% of the pot...well, sometimes you barely break even!

So HORSE is great for seeing poker from other angles. It remains to be seen if I will put those lessons to good use.