HORSE vs THORSE vs 8-Game: which mixed game format should you play?

HORSE is a rotation of five fixed-limit games, one per letter. Each game runs for a set stretch, then the table moves to the next letter.

The order matters. The two flop games come first, then three stud games in a row. Many players find the H-to-O switch easy and the O-to-R switch hard, because Razz changes the dealing structure and flips the goal from a split pot to low only at the same time.

THORSE is HORSE with one game added at the front: the T is 2-7 Triple Draw. The other five letters are unchanged, so the full rotation is Triple Draw, Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Stud 8.

Triple Draw is the only draw game in the lineup. You get no community cards and see none of your opponents' cards, so you play off betting patterns and how many cards each player draws. That makes THORSE a bigger test than HORSE, with three distinct dealing structures (draw, flop, stud) instead of two.

TORSE is THORSE without Hold'em. In Mix Poker the TORSE rotation is 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha 8, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Stud 8.

It exists for players who already play plenty of Hold'em and want their practice time spent on the five games they see less often. If Limit Hold'em is the one game you never need to work on, TORSE gives you more hands of everything else per session.

The table plays one game for a fixed stretch, then moves to the next letter in order, and after the last letter it starts over. In live rooms the stretch is commonly a set number of hands (often one orbit of the dealer button) or a fixed time per game, such as a tournament level. In Mix Poker the rotation switches game every 6 hands.

Two things change at each switch and you need to track both:

• The dealing structure. Flop games deal two or four hole cards and a shared board. Stud games deal seven cards per player, some face up, with no board. Triple Draw deals five hidden cards and three chances to replace them.
• The goal. Hold'em and Seven Card Stud are high only. Razz is low only. Omaha 8 and Stud 8 split the pot between high and low when a low qualifies.

The hard switches are the ones where both change at once. O to R is the classic example: you go from a flop game that splits the pot to a stud game where only the low wins. The two hands below show why the same cards feel so different from one letter to the next.

Example: the same seven cards in Razz and in Seven Card Stud

A♠ 3♦ 5♥ 7♣ 8♠ K♦ 2♣

In Razz this is a seven-low: 7-5-3-2-A, using the ace, two, three, five and seven and throwing away the eight and king. That beats any eight-low and loses only to a better seven-low, a six-low or a wheel. In Seven Card Stud the same seven cards are an ace-high hand with no pair, no straight and no flush. You would usually have folded it on third street.

Example: the same seven cards in Seven Card Stud and in Razz

Q♥ Q♠ Q♦ 9♣ 4♥ 8♦ K♣

In Seven Card Stud this is three queens, a strong hand you bet for value on every street. In Razz, pairs count against you, so the best five distinct ranks are K-Q-9-8-4, a king-low that loses to almost anything.

The same switch catches people the other way in Stud 8, where the first hand above would qualify for low with its 7-5-3-2-A and would rarely win the high half. If you want to go deeper on how the low hands differ between games, see A-5 vs 2-7 vs 8-or-better lows.

Because the rotation puts players in games they know less well, and fixed-limit caps what one unfamiliar spot can cost. Each betting round allows one bet size, so the pot grows gradually and most decisions come down to whether to pay one more bet, not whether to risk the stack. Fixed-limit also suits stud and triple-draw games, which are traditionally played that way, and it keeps a pot from being decided before the game's later streets, where split-pot and stud hands are actually made.

The mechanics (small bet, big bet, cap, which streets use which) are covered in how fixed-limit betting works.

The 8-Game Mix is a rotation that takes the six THORSE games and adds two big-bet games on top. Its lineup is commonly 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Stud 8, No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha. The exact order and lineup vary by room, and some rooms run 8-Game with different games or stakes for the big-bet portion.

The two added games change the character of the mix. No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha let a single hand swing a whole session, so the 8-Game Mix rewards stack management and bluff sizing that the six fixed-limit games never ask for. Larger mixes such as 10-Game and dealer's choice tables go further, adding games like Badugi, Badeucy and No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw.

Mix Poker offers the six THORSE games and the HORSE, TORSE and THORSE rotations. It does not offer the 8-Game Mix, No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha or any other big-bet game. The 8-Game, 10-Game and dealer's choice formats are described here so you know what they are when you see them in a card room or a tournament schedule.

Pick the smallest format that contains a game you cannot yet play well. Single games teach you one structure at a time. HORSE adds the switching. THORSE adds a third dealing structure. The charts below separate what you can play in Mix Poker from the formats covered only for education.

Formats you can play in Mix Poker

Formats covered for education only

Decision pointers

• New to stud games: play Seven Card Stud on its own until the bring-in and street order feel natural, then Razz, then HORSE.
• Comfortable with Hold'em and Omaha, shaky on stud: play HORSE and treat the R, S and E hands as the lesson. The H and O hands are your rest.
• Already play plenty of Hold'em and can handle the other games: choose TORSE so every hand of the session is one of the games you see less often.
• Can play all six without checking the rules: play THORSE. When you can hold your own there, 8-Game (not in Mix Poker) at a live room is mostly the two big-bet games added on top.

When you are ready to sit in a rotation, play HORSE poker online free walks through starting your first match. In the app, open Play, pick an opponent and choose HORSE, TORSE or THORSE under Format, and you can skip the Pro offer and play free.