Tightening and loosening up in H.O.R.S.E

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 18 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

One of the great things about playing mixed games is that they give a player who may well be considerably weaker than another player at a specific game (say limit hold'em) an edge if they are a just a slightly better player at the other games.

The first major implication of this is that you should not start playing mixed games if you do not feel at least competent at all the games played, however even you know a specific game is not your forte, it should not stop you playing mixed games if they appear to be good - it simply changes how you should be playing them.

When playing games that you feel weaker at you should immediately tighten up your ranges considerably. This is simply because the tighter that you play, the less choices you will have to make, which means any edge your opponents have in a game over you become much less obvious. Although playing overly tight in a game is a big leak against good players if only playing that game in isolation, in mixed games you could still well have an edge over the players due to the fact that one game only makes up a slim percentage of the total number of hands you will play over a session.

As an example of this, I was recently playing $10/$20 H.O.R.S.E in a game that had one of the best stud hi/lo players I have ever been up against. This player was regularly making advanced plays that I did not understand and was generally just abusing all comers at this game. Had I been playing simply stud hi/lo I would have left this game pretty quickly, but it soon became obvious that this player was quite inept at both hold'em, Omaha hi/lo (this one in particular I was struck by - usually good hi/lo players are good at all hi/lo games) and razz.

As a result, despite being by far and away the best player at stud hi/lo, the game at the table actually started to become built around this one player. Any money they made at stud hi/lo they soon lost with interest in the other rotations. The good players at the table also took advantage of this fact quite easily, simply by tightening up in stud hi/lo (thus denying the player anything but the antes or to go up against a very strong starting hand), and loosening up in the weaker games, taking constant advantage of the basic mistakes this player was making.

Always remember that any mixed game has to be thought of in the context of the strength of the players across all games - not just one or two. If you think you are rubbish at razz don't let that stop you from sitting down if you think that you are good enough at the other games to take advantage of a weak field.

Conversely, just because you see someone playing who you know is a great player at one of the games does not mean you should not sit - at least for a while. It may well be that the superb hold'em player you know is one of the worst stud players out there - and this will quickly give you a sizable edge over them in any H.O.R.S.E game.

Related Mixed Games Entries

An Introduction to Razz - Chris Edwards
The Simplicity of Razz - Marcus Bateman
Fancy Yourself as a Stud - Matthew Pitt
Hi/lo Split Games - Don't Forget the High - Marcus Bateman
The importance of not giving free cards in Omaha eight or better - Marcus Bateman
The importance of the up cards in seven card stud - Marcus Bateman