Copyright 2007 Full
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July 31, 2007
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Poker Lessons)
Poker Lesson: HOW TO WIN A HORSE
TOURNAMENT PART I
Author: Andy Bloch
If you want to win a HORSE tournament, you have
to be good at all five games. You don't have to be the best player
at any one game, but you can't be the worst. If you're really
bad at one of the games, it's going to hurt you. People often
ask me which of the HORSE games I'm best at and I always give
them the same answer it depends upon who I'm playing against.
Whatever my opponent's worst game is, that's my best game.
In a HORSE tournament, it's really important that
you remember to switch gears from one game to the next. It can
be easy to forget if you're not careful, especially in the Stud
portion of the games. When switching from Hold 'em to Omaha, you
get dealt a different number of cards. You automatically know
that's it's a different game because you're holding two more cards
in your hand. That's not so obvious in the Stud games because
all three versions start off the same. The only giveaway that
you're playing Razz as opposed to Stud Hi or Stud Hi/Lo is that
in Razz, the high card is the bring-in instead of the low card.
Otherwise, all of the Stud games have the same basic structure,
so it's really easy for players to forget to switch gears.
In every HORSE tournament, there's invariably going
to be a couple of hands where somebody forgets which game they're
playing. Part of the skill required to win a HORSE tournament
is not making that mistake yourself, and realizing when one of
your opponents has forgotten which game they're playing so you
can take full advantage of the situation. When you remember to
switch gears from one game to the next, you're going to have a
big advantage over opponents who are slower to remember and a
huge advantage over those players who never remember to change
their games.
It is especially important to change gears when
the game switches from Stud to Stud Hi/Lo. A lot of weak players
think they can get away with playing any high hand in Stud Hi/Lo,
and that's a huge mistake. They might not have been dealt a single
quality hand for the entire round of Stud and then, as soon as
the game switches to Stud Hi/Lo, they finally pick up a good high
hand that they decide to play because they're still in the Stud
Hi mindset. Don't let yourself fall into that trap.
A lot of the really good high hands in Stud aren't
playable at all in Stud Hi/Lo, but weak players will often play
them anyway. You might play a hand like J-10-9 in Stud because
of the ante, but it's a terrible hand in Stud Hi/Lo. You're looking
to make a straight, but the odds of that happening aren't very
good. Even if you do make a straight, you'll often have to split
the pot with the low who might be free-rolling you to make a flush.
If you make two pair, it will be vulnerable to a low that makes
a bigger two pair, trips, a straight or a flush. It's the same
with a hand like split 9s. When you're playing Stud Hi/Lo, the
high hand values go way down so you only want to play premium
high hands. That means Aces and perhaps Kings, unless you're in
position and you can get heads-up with a player who's only going
for the low.
A lot of weak players also make mistakes when the
game switches to Hold'em because they fail to get out of the Stud
mindset and into the Hold 'em mindset. There are certain plays
that you make in Hold 'em that you don't make in Stud. For example,
in Stud you're far less likely to defend the bring-in than you
are to defend the big blind in Hold 'em. In Hold 'em I almost
always call in the big blind if there's just one raise, but I
would never call a raise after bringing it in in Stud unless I
had a decent hand, such as a pair or a three-flush, or a three-card
low draw in Stud Hi/Lo.
Your willingness to defend your forced bet should
change from game to game. In Razz you're almost never calling
when you're the bring-in. When the game changes to Stud, you can
start calling a little bit. When it switches to Stud Hi/Lo, you're
going to be calling a lot more because a low up-card is more useful
in Hi/Lo. Then, when it gets to Hold 'em and Omaha, you're nearly
always going to be calling a single raise from the big blind.
As basic as this might appear, simply remembering
which game you're playing and adjusting your play accordingly
is an extremely important concept if you want to succeed in a
HORSE tournament.
For more on tips on how to become a winning HORSE
player, read next week's email where I'll discuss why it's important
to fully understand how the different blind and ante structures
in each affect your game.
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