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In big cash games in brick-and-mortar casinos, poker players often agree to play a mix of poker games rather than a single game. This reduces the edge that a single-game specialist has, and emphasizes a player's breadth across multiple versions of poker.
Many people feel that HORSE poker and other mixed games are the best judge of a player's true poker ability.
HORSE poker has also gotten a lot of publicity because it was added to the 2006 WSOP as a $50,000 buy-in event - the largest buy-in event at the WSOP.
HORSE is one of many popular mixed game variants. Online poker roomsoffers both "HORSE" and "HOSE", which is just HORSE without the Razz (seven card stud low) round.
In a H.O.R.S.E poker game or tournament event, the kind of poker played in each round varies -- in this case, the five games are:
H: Hold'em
O: Omaha
R: Razz (seven card stud low)
S: Seven-card Stud
E: Eight or better (Seven card stud high/low)
If you are playing a H.O.R.S.E rotation game, the game would change every time the dealer button made a full round. In tournaments, the game changes at the end of each round, or after a set and predetermined amount of time.
All the component games in HORSE poker are played fixed limit - there are no pot-limit or no-limit games. The limits (such as $5-10) are kept throughout the game rotation, and you play $5-10 fixed limit hold'em, $5-10 fixed limit Omaha high-low, etc.
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