HORSE Strategy for Dummies

This was not written by me. I just wanted to share it here so that I can find it again.

This is by far the best general strategy to HORSE that I have ever seen.

Razz: Starting hands - 3 to a wheel is great, 3 to a 6 is good, 3 to a 7 is decent, 3 to an 8 is ok but usually not vs a raise. Catch good on fourth and fifth or get out. Catch good on sixth and seventh or stab yourself in the eye because razz sucks. Weaker hands become stronger if you see a lot of your cards on board (i.e. 842 with two 8s two 4s and a 2 dead); stronger hands become weaker when the cards you need are dead (i.e 742 with two 3s, two 5s, and an A dead.)

Stud high - Rolled trips, big pairs, 3 to straightflush are strong; 3 to straight, 3 to flush, 3 high cards, small pairs, especially hidden, are decent. Don't chase with the lower pair unless you have an overcard kicker, and maybe not even then. Don't chase draws with cards dead or if you brick fourth and especially fifth.

Stud 8: Ace is key to any starting hand; you could do fine never playing any hand without an ace other than rolled trips. Play hands that can scoop and/or can lock up one half and freeroll the other; low hands are more likely to turn into freerolls, especially low str8 or flush draws.

Omaha 8: Make the nuts. Best hands preflop are AA w/ a 2 or other wheel card, and A2xx where one of the x's is a wheel card, in both cases you prefer a suited ace. More than in holdem, hand values can drastically change from preflop to flop. High only hands like KQJT are like pp's and suited connectors in holdem; when they flop good they flop real good, good multiway-cheap hands. Postflop, play to scoop, play very aggressively with strong two way draws and/or the nuts one way (usually low) with good chances the other way. Don't draw to the non-nuts. Be cautious with a bare A2 low draw (no backup wheel card) without any high chance. Beware of being quartered with the nut low; don't put in too much action on the river with just the nut low and less than 4 players.

Omaha High - AAxx is good if you can get a lot of money in preflop, otherwise be very cautious with it without redraws, like the nut flush draw. Strong hands on the flop are top set and big wrap and/or flush draws, so good starting hands are hands that can make these hands; big pairs, big and middle run hands (like KQT9, 8765) and suited aces with a three run like A876. Being suited or doublesuited is nice, especially to the ace. Make the nuts, don't draw to the non-nuts, have redraws when you have the nuts, especially a nut straight, especially a nut straight vulnerable to overstraights, like 98 on JT7, which is a lot weaker than 98 on 765.

By LearnedFromTV

thanks for the help, i haven't played much horse before but im learning.

Good summary. One other point on Razz: Pairs and/or trips are very bad. I find that if I've paired any card in the starting hand by fifth - I'm out.

Worst beat I ever took was having a really good wheel at 4, 5 was a King, tried to shake it off, and then I paired starting hand cards on both 6 and 7!!!!

I take that beat at least once most times I play razz.

Hope this doesn't get around too far though - the stud games are normally where I make up ground in HORSE

That's not HORSE! That's RSEO8O