HORSE is the acronym used for a tournament in which mixed games of poker play. Mixed games are becoming increasingly popular and the tourney consists of Hold ‘em (H), Omaha Hi-Lo (O), Razz (R), 7 Stud (S) and (E) Stud Eight or better. How these games are rotated in the poker tournament depends on the house rules of the poker room.

Often the rotation is determined by the amount of hands played or a specific time frame and HORSE has become a very popular World Series of Poker event. The rules of each game are the same as if they were being played individually and obviously it pays to be familiar with the rules of all these games. This tournament was first introduced to the WSOP events in 2006. This inaugural game has a $50 000 buy-in which attracted some of the biggest and best poker playing names in the world.

In the inaugural HORSE tournament Chip Reese beat Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson to take this headline making title. Poker playing purist believe that this brought back a good deal of the professional wholesomeness of playing poker.
 
This series of mixed games is also being increasingly played at online poker room and one of the best examples of the game is found at Poker Stars. Poker Stars has evolved into a, incredibly sophisticated poker sit where virtually every form of the game of poker is played, even some of the very obscure brands.

Playing in HORSE tournaments is a very good exercise for any poker player as it stretches their knowledge and skills to the limit as well as expands ability. The player has to make an effort to learn all the rules and strategy of the games involved and if you are a strong enough player to play in real money game, you really should try your hand at these tournaments.

Just remember that if you are weak or have no knowledge of even one of the game played you will be at a huge disadvantage, so you need to up the knowledge ante. If you don’t pay attention all the time, you may even end up playing the wrong game. In other words when everyone else is playing Razz, you may still be playing Omaha Hi-Lo.

Mixed games offer the good poker player a true challenge of skill and strategy and for this reason it brings out the absolute best in a poker player. Most of these tournaments are played on “turbo”, which means the stakes rise every few hands or minutes, depending on the house rules, this speeds up the game. 

While professional poker players excel at this game, it can be difficult for the ordinary player as they are often played for huge cash amounts. However the advent of online poker has changed the game of poker for ever and freeroll HORSE tournaments may even be found if you are lucky.

HORSE  is a limit game when it is played in tournament form and some players prefer no-limit games. But this is just the way the cards are dealt!