The letters represent each of the five games played:

• H for Limit Hold ‘em
• O for Omaha High/Low,
• R for Razz
• S for Seven Card Stud
• E for Seven Card Stud Eights or Better.

The tournament begins with Texas Hold ‘em and proceeds at set intervals through the remaining four games. All five stages may take place at different times on the same day or over several days depending on the size of the tournament.

While all of the games in H.O.R.S.E. have draws, the same playing style won’t cover the board when you’re aiming for a high hand in Hold ‘em and a low one in Razz. In fact, this is a common mistake when playing a H.O.R.S.E. tournament—not knowing the games. Before you even pay your buy-in, you should be comfortable with all five games. The internet offers a terrific opportunity to sample such rarities as Razz and to familiarize yourself with the unique betting structure of Limit.

H.O.R.S.E. Strategy

Because this type of tournament requires strong play in five significantly different games, it can be hard to develop a comprehensive strategy to cover all of them. The basic idea though when playing in a H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament is the same as in any other tournament—to win more than you lose. To do this, you will need to approach each game stage independently. The best way to come out on top overall is to focus on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. This usually means playing your best games aggressively and playing your worst games tight and conservative.

Another thing to consider is that most of these games are accelerated (also called “Turbo”) to keep the tournament from dragging on. That means that playing too conservatively won’t cut it for long with blinds going up every few hands (or even every few minutes). For Turbo H.O.R.S.E. tournaments you are often forced to play as if you were already at the final table—betting big and strong on hands that are marginal at best in hopes of building a stack fast. The final round is as always the one that will determine your placing, but remember that to get there you will have to hold your own through four other games first.

Razz Tournaments Tip #1 – Use Your Position

In many other poker games, having the high card is a good thing, but in a Razz tournament turning up the high card is a double-edged sword. The downside is that you’re obligated to make the first bet, but the upside is that it helps you to conceal both good and bad hands while giving you an opportunity to observe your opponents’ bets. Of course the very best betting position to have in a Razz tournament is the last one. Like the bring-in you get a chance to observe your fellow players’ hands, but unlike the bring-in you can bet whatever pleases you. You can often limp through on a weak hand, or try to fold out the field by raising aggressively. The late position becomes especially valuable when you also have the lowest visible hand. You should always bet in this scenario, and if the other players’ bets are weak then you have a good shot at stealing the antes by raising.

Did you know Full Tilt Poker has some of the best Razz Poker action online? They have limits from $0.01 all the way up to $1000. There are also plenty of razz cash games and multi-table tournaments to satisfy your cravings. Check out the Full Tilt Review or Play Now.

Razz Tournaments Tip #2 -Know the Starting Hands

Most poker players have memorized the hierarchy of possible poker combinations, and almost as many know by heart the best starting hands for their favored games. For high-only games, these hands often contain high pairs or suited kickers. For Hi/Lo games these hands should have draws toward flushes and straights. But in Razz, you’re looking for something totally different. In fact, you’re pretty much looking for nothing. The only card that remains valuable in both high and low style games is the Ace. Remember that you absolutely don’t want pairs, regardless of their individual face value.

Razz Tournaments Tip #3  – Bet Wisely

There are potentially as many as five betting rounds in Razz plus an opening ante. That means that hands can become very expensive if more than one player follows through to the showdown. Unlike games like Omaha and Texas Hold ‘em where you get three cards for the price of one, in Razz you’ll pay for every single card. Remember that when you decide you want to see the second round of dealing. If your initial hand is dreary and you’re assigned to the bring-in position, don’t let that puny bet tie you to the hand. If you’re holding JQK after the first deal and one of your opponents is kind enough to raise, then by all means fold.

Razz Tournaments Tip #4 – Fold Wisely

Speaking of folding…While it’s ideal to start off with a hand of A23, even this beautiful hand can get ruined in the long run. Remember that a lot of evidence is on the table. Even if your down card is an Ace, if you’re showing 239J and an opponent is showing 2456 nothing you bet is going to convince them to fold. At this point, it is you that should be folding.

Chasing Low Cards

In Razz, it’s very tempting when you get a good or even mediocre starting hand to wait it out and see if it gets better. Many players will call their way through the rounds even after a couple bad cards. Remember that once you’ve gotten a couple bad cards, the remaining two have to be good if you’re going to salvage your starting hand. That’s not a friendly reminder—it’s a wake up call. If you’ve been playing poker (or really any casino game) long enough, then you know you don’t want to bet your chips on luck, and that’s what you’re doing when you chase low cards. If a quick look around the table shows that your opponents have gotten luckier than you have, and they’re betting to back that luck up, then it’s time for you to stop chasing the ghost and fold.

Underplaying Good Hands

In many cases, you can avoid chasing low cards altogether by protecting the ones you get in your starting hand. If your starting hand yields three cards under five, and the card you’ve got showing is significantly lower than most of your opponents’, then you can consider yourself well-placed. Protect your position NOW. Your low up card should guarantee a later betting position, which gives you a great chance to observe the other players and gauge which ones you might be able to eliminate with a strong bet.

Getting into Raising Wars

Once you’ve made your point about the strength of your hand, you can back off. Other low-carded players hoping to steal the ante might challenge you. Call their raises, re-raise even if your hand is that good, but don’t get into a raising war. Remember that the next card could always be a brick; your opponents’ could be too, so save some of your chips for the next round of betting.

Ignoring the Obvious

It’s good to come to the table with a consistent Razz strategy, but don’t let your analysis of your own hand blind you to what’s right in front of you. Razz gives every player the opportunity to see more than half of their opponents’ hands. The way you use this information can make or break you.

To newbies, this concept may be somewhat confusing. After all, regardless of where you sit you have the same odds of drawing good or bad cards and the same options to bet, raise, call or fold. How then could playing position possibly matter? The truth of course is that to observant players it can matter a lot.

The early position is obviously the least advantageous position. You must start the betting, and all of the other players will be able to observe and analyze your decisions. If you bet aggressively early, you are forced to continue on this way or admit to a weak hand and fold, and unlike the late position you do not know if calling will get you through to the flop. If you are in the early position, unfortunately there’s not much you can do about it, but you should be taking advantage of your opponents when they are in it, the same way they will take advantage of and manipulate you.

The middle position is true to its name in that it offers very little in the way of advantages or disadvantages. While you will be able to see and react to the first players’ decisions, you will also be judged in kind by the players betting after you.

Virtually all seasoned players believe that the best position you can have in a hand is the late position. As the late position player, you get to see everyone else’s bets first. This has two-fold advantages. For one, if you have a average hand you can gauge your ability to get your opponents to fold on a raise, thus stealing the blinds. If you have a strong hand, you can allow other players to bet and pump the pot for you instead of betting yourself and causing them to fold. Alternately, if you have a weak hand, you may be able to limp through to the flop if all other players call. Later in the hand, this also gives you a good idea of where your opponents stand prior to making your own bets and allows you to raise accordingly.

You should take advantage of your late position every time it comes around in the same way you would take advantage of a good starting hand.

Offered in both turbo and non-turbo all Razz sitngos at Full Tilt are played in the fixed limit format, with $1,500 in starting chips.  The blind structure can get a bit fast at the turbo games as fixed limit Razz can take awhile to get through a match, but most aggressive Razz players prefer the turbo sit and go’s as the fast structure allows more tournaments played per hour.

Did you know Full Tilt Poker has some of the best Razz Poker action online? They have limits from $0.01 all the way up to $1000. There are also plenty of razz cash games and multi-table tournaments to satisfy your cravings. Check out the Full Tilt Review or Play Now.

Full Tilt Razz Sitngos

Razz sng’s at Full Tilt fill up and get started in just a minute or two, except at the higher stakes where player volume and game selection is a bit light.  Even so, if you find yourself wanting to play a $200 Razz sng the game will fill soon after you enter.

On occasion it is not uncommon to see some professional players like John Juanda playing multiple Razz sng tables at a time, are you ready to play him at the Razz tables?

Play Razz Poker at Full Tilt Poker Now!

PokerStars.com offers Razz sit and go’s at various buy-in levels. $16 and $27 turbo sit and go’s take just a few minutes to fill, seat 8 players, and pay the top three places. Each Razz sng tournament at PokerStars will start as soon as all 8 seats fill, and all sit and go’s are played in a fixed limit format.

Single Table Razz Tournamments

For Razz sit and go payouts let’s use a $114 entry fee for an example:

8 players enter this Razz sng tournament, each paying $105 to the prizepool and a $9 fee to the house for a total prizepool of $840 to be split amongst the top 3 players.

• 1st place for a $114 Razz sit and go – $420.00
• 2nd place for a $114 Razz sit and go – $252.00
• 3rd place for a $114 Razz sit and go – $168.00

Multi-Table Razz SNG’s

PokerStars is definately the tournament and sng leader of all Razz poker sites. In addition to the single table sit and go tournaments PokerStars also two table multi- sng’s with sixteen players total.

You can play these Razz sit and go’s anytime the seats fill, let’s use a $27 two table Razz sit and go to examine the payout structure and entry fees.

Each player will pay $25 to the prize pool and $2 in a house fee for a total prize pool of $400 being paid to four places as follows:

• 1st Place – $160.00
• 2nd Place – $120.00
• 3rd Place – $80.00
• 4th- $40.00

As you can imagine, these can be quite profitable for players who can win these single table razz tournaments on a regular basis – and especially for players who can play multiple Razz sng’s at the same time.

Ready to play? Visit PokerStars to join a Razz Sit And Go now!

When you’re playing in a large field, it’s important to start playing aggressively immediately. You want to build your stack as quickly as possible, and the low blinds make it easy to play marginal hands through the flop without investing too much. Likewise this strategy immediately identifies the calling stations and the habitual bluffers, information that will prove useful as the tournament progresses.

Your less skilled opponents will either follow your bet—pumping the pot when your hands are strong and you stand a good chance of winning—or fold—surrendering the blinds for a small but quick win. When you get a monster hand early in the tournament, play it for all its worth. These truly good hands are few and far between and while marginal hands are your bread and butter the big hands will make or break your stack and will ultimately decide your position at the final table.

As the blinds get bigger and the players get better, you’ll have to tighten up your play and betting accordingly. This does not mean playing less aggressively, just avoiding losing your stack by playing over-aggressively with players that aren’t afraid to call or raise. You’ll be folding more in the middle of the tournament where the blinds are more significant, but you’ll also be betting more aggressively on good hands. It’s especially important at this stage in the razz tournament to pick your battles.

By the final table, the blinds will be so big that folding everything but the best hands will be out of the question. At this point, there are few enough players that a middling hand is a good one and a better one is unlikely to come along. Don’t let the blinds or chip leaders push you around—it’s better to take a smart risk going all in on a good hand than to throw your stack away on blinds.

What Kind of Bonuses Are There

There are three common types of bonuses you can expect to see: money bonuses, match bonuses, and fixed bonuses. Money promotions are usually used as a sign-on bonus. For signing up and creating a member account, you may get $5-10 of free play. Alternately, some sites will give you free entrance to special tournaments. Match bonuses are the preferred promotion for first deposits. With these bonuses, the site agrees to match your first deposit up to a certain dollar amount. Most sites will match 100% of that first deposit, essentially doubling your money, but a rare few offer a 200% match. Finally, fixed bonuses are like match bonuses but are usually offered for future deposits. With a fixed bonus, you may get a fixed percentage (like 50%) or a fixed dollar amount (like $25) for every future deposit of a certain amount. For long-term players, most sites also offer loyalty programs and special monthly promotions to keep their older members coming back.

Terms and Conditions of Online Poker Bonuses

Virtually all online poker bonuses have terms and conditions. For example, with money bonuses you cannot simply cash out the $10 received for signing up. That money is only good for playing cash games. For match and fixed bonuses, you usually have to play a certain amount of raked hands in cash games or buy into a set number of tournaments before that money will be released. Sometimes the money is released in increments as you earn it and other times you must meet the full requirements of the terms and conditions before you can access or “clear” your bonuses.

Bonus Whoring

New players may find it challenging to clear their first bonuses. In the beginning, you’ll be losing more than you win, so clearing your bonus could take more money than it’s actually worth. But as you get better at the game you’ll get better at clearing bonuses too. Many amateur and professional players take full advantage of bonuses by joining several rooms. When players join and play in a room for the specific purpose of clearing a bonus from it, this is called “bonus whoring.” Obvious bonus whoring can get you banned from poker rooms, but done subtly and in conjunction with regular play it can be a great way to make more for your money.

Fight Fire with Fire

If the game dictates it, then you shouldn’t let another aggressive player prevent you from likewise playing aggressively as long as your betting is always backed by a good hand. If you are at the final table, and especially in a heads up situation, then you should expect your opponents to play aggressively. Don’t let it intimidate you, or you’ll end up losing anyway as the blinds slowly chip away at your stack.

Avoid Playing Overly Aggressive

Many players naturally respond to aggression with more aggression. This is not the same as playing aggressively as a strategy but is instead more of a head-on challenge. The problem with this is that betting on anything and everything can easily backfire, as your overly aggressive opponent will likely find out themselves. Alternately, if your opponent has a bigger stack, then they can outlast you at this little game, making it pointless if not reckless to take them on in this way. Some players even do this intentionally to try to bait their opponents into going all in when they shouldn’t. The only way to protect your chips is to stick to your strategy. With more experience and knowledge of the strategy, you will be better prepared to take on these other aggressive players.

Learn how to Set a Trap

The best part of playing an overly aggressive opponent is that little to nothing fazes them. They’re betting and raising anyway, so why would they let your betting and raising deter them? Ultimately this mindset will be the end of them. Trapping an aggressive player takes very little work, because all it takes is a good hand to steal the pot they’re so eager to build for you. You may have to forfeit a few blinds waiting for a good hand to come along, but if you’re down to a few players, don’t be afraid to make your move on a marginal hand either—you’re going to have to eventually anyway to stay in the game. The best way to finish off an aggressive player is to go all in yourself. They’ll either have to stick to their strategy and call, or break their streak and back off, forfeiting the pot. Either way, it’s a win-win situation.

First, the game starts with the same old characters—a dealer and anywhere from two to eight players. The hands are dealt from a traditional deck of 52-cards but unlike more traditional poker games the point is not to build a high hand but to build a low one. You will be dealt seven cards with which you can build the lowest possible hand of five cards. In Razz, the Ace card always plays as 1 and is the lowest and thus best card you can get. Straights and flushes are not acknowledged in Razz, and having a pair or other combination is in fact a bad thing making the best hand an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5.

As with other seven-card stud poker games, each player will ante and then the first two cards will be dealt face down. These are your “hole cards.” Each player will then be dealt one card face up. This card is referred to as the “door card,” and will determine who is first to bet. The player with the highest door card must “bring it in.” That is, they must make the first bet. This process is similar to blinds in that the “bring it in” bet is obligatory and is traditionally set at 1/3 to ½ of a regular bet but is unlike blinds in that it does not rotate in any order.

After the initial round of betting, a fourth card is dealt face up and is followed by another round of betting (with checks, bets, raises, and folds as per usual poker rules) with all bets adhering to the low limit. The fifth and sixth cards are dealt in the same way and followed again by a round of betting with the only difference being that the bets are raised from the low to the high limit. The seventh and final card is dealt face down. Once the bets are placed, the “showdown” ensues wherein each player reveals their hands in an attempt to take the pot.
And that’s how you play Razz!