History
History of H.O.R.S.E. Poker
H.O.R.S.E. is a relatively new form of poker in which five types of poker are played in a rotating cycle at the table. It’s considered the most challenging form of poker because it requires an intimate knowledge of five completely different poker games:
H - Texas Holdem
O - Omaha Eight or Better
R - Razz
S - Seven Card Stud
E - Seven Card Stud Eight or Better
For the longest time, HORSE poker was played only in ultra high stakes cash games by the best players in the world. It’s definitely not a beginner-friendly form of poker so low limit HORSE games were rarely (if ever) held anywhere.
Not only do you need to be proficient at five different types of poker to succeed in HORSE, but you need to be on your toes all the time. The games change at a pretty quick pace and it’s easy to make strategic mistakes.
One thing that catches many prospective HORSE players off guard is the fact that you can’t just get buy being good at a couple games and just knowing the rules of the others. If there’s a single weak spot in any of your games, you won’t be able to make up for it in your strong games.
The advent of online poker made HORSE poker information more accessible to millions of poker players around the world. Interest in the different forms of poker grew and lots of average poker players became versed in multiple poker formats. Poker sites saw the popularity and added mixed games like H.O.R.S.E. at all stakes.
The addition of HORSE poker at most poker sites only served to make the game that much more popular. Players noticed those HORSE poker tables in their game lists and eventually more and more people started giving it a try.
By 2006, H.O.R.S.E. poker had become so popular that it was included in the World Series of Poker. With a $50,000 buyin, the WSOP HORSE poker event became the most exclusive poker tournament in the world and was considered the proving ground for the absolute best poker players in the world.
If you take a look at the top finishers in any of the WSOP HORSE tournaments since then, you’ll see that it really does sort the flukes from the real poker prodigies. Names like Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius and many more fill the list of high placing finishers every year.
Chip Reese won the first ever WSOP HORSE event and took home nearly $1,800,000 for doing so. His skills were already widely touted as being some of the best in the history of the game and this finish only helped solidify his position in the poker world.
As the popularity of H.O.R.S.E. poker grows, you can expect to see more future great players make their names at the HORSE tables. New players are switching over to HORSE poker every day. If you’re able to become proficient at the game, there’s a lot of money to be made out there.