Middle Stakes HORSE Games on PokerStars
If you have ever gone and checked out the HORSE poker cash games at PokerStars you will notice that the limits that most regularly have full tables is in between the $1/$2 – $2/$4 bracket. What I want to take you through is some of the things that I have picked up on from my extensive time at the Pokerstars HORSE poker tables so you can use it to your advantage.
The first thing that comes to mind when I am playing against these players is that a lot of them are very passive in different variations of the game. Many of them don’t seem to play many of the hands at all when games like RAZZ are played. When they do play though, there is a great opportunity for you to take their cash. When I have come up against these players I bet or raise every street if I have a solid hand without question. They assume that because they have a ‘good’ hand that it is sure to win for some reason.
In games like STUD they will play their hands right to the end even if their cards aren’t coming off for them. With any sort of high pair in their starting hand, I have seen players time and time again continue drawing to it. No matter how much strength you show these players will continue to pay you off. The trick is to observe the table dynamics for a little while before you start to make some serious plays. It will not take you long before you begin to realise which players are simply not comfortable with playing all of the games in rotation. It is pretty obvious to me that a fair amount of players only know Hold ‘em, Omaha and a little bit of STUD. RAZZ has, in my opinion has an astronomical amount of low quality of players. Even though players may be exceptionally bad at RAZZ I have a strong belief that all the money to be made is in the Hi/Lo split variations of STUD and OMAHA.
In Omaha Hi/Lo and STUD Hi/Lo you have a great opportunity to make some of the softest cash available to you online. These mid-stakes HORSE cash games at PokerStars are full of Hold ‘em converts and many of them really have no idea when it comes to Hi/Lo. All too often I come up against players that will call me down on every street with nothing other than two pair or some other marginal hand with a weak draw. When you have a hand that all but seals the nut Lo as well has a monster draw like a nut flush you really can get a great return on your betting.
The concept of hi/lo just seems to be a little bit too much for some of these players. Be careful not to treat them all like novice poker players though, because there are some solid HORSE players on PokerStars. What I am saying though, is to work out which players are consistently donating to the pots and target them. You will be surprised at the amount of players that will continually call down every street in the hope of winning half of the pot. When you notice these players you can scoop some valuable pots when you hit trips or your flush whilst having the nut Lo. Be smart about your play, observe the people playing at the table at play your hands aggressively when you know you have them covered.