H.O.R.S.E.L.

[NYCNative]

I am looking at organizing a H.O.R.S.E.L. game with my NLHE-addicted friends to expand their horizons and all of our skills at different games.

I have a few questions about this since I know the concept of it but have never played it...

1) I see there are H.O.R.S.E.L. Tournaments - how do those work in regards to blinds?

2) Does working in games that are NL and PL work or does that make it more difficult?

3) What works better when it comes to changing the games - a timer or rotations?

4) What are the ideal antes/blinds for all of the games if we want to have a max of $40-5 on the table at the start?

Thanks for your help!

[Biggle10]

Its my understanding that if you want a mixed game tournament everything is fixed limit.

[John Bedtelyon]

Yes, everything is played fix limit, you don't generally mix NL or PL into the bunch. I like switching every round, after ten hands, and going through the games like this.

Work the bring ins and antes to match blinds,

JMB

[Biggle10]

By the way I'm an idiot and I don't know what the L stands for? Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Eight or better, Lowball??

[John Bedtelyon]

Yes, I believe the L is for lowball, and the O is for Omaha eights or better, not omaha.

JMB

[gilbert]

what does the L stand for?

[Larry David]

For cash games, the game is generally seated with 8 players to a maximum and the two players to the left of the blinds sit out each 2-7 TD hand. The games change every 8 hands and if you are going from a blind game to an ante game, whoever would get the button on the 9th hand of the blind game tucks it in his stack until the 8 ante games are played.

For tournaments, the game is generally changed every blind level.

[NYCNative]

I didn't even know TD was in the rotation... I thought it was:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre> Hold 'Em
Omaha 8/b
Razz
Stud
Stud Eight/b
KC Lowball</pre><hr />So say we do a $50 Max Buy-in. What would be the best ante/blind levels to play each game with?

[Quicksilvre]

Well, if you're going to have a $50 buy-in cash game, then I suppose $1-$2 is a good bet for limits. For O8, Hold'em, and TD, you would use the typical blinds ($.50-$1). For the stud games, you can either have everyone ante $.25 or have the button rotate around during the stud rounds and have the dealer ante $2. Either way, I'd set the bring-in at $.50 and use the usual first-to-act rules for stud.

Normally, I would recommend using the dealer ante in the stud rounds, but since you're going to have quarters out anyway for the SBs in the blind games, I would ante as usual.

[Larry David]

We do a 2:3:10 Ante:Bring-in:Complete in a 10-20 game which I think is pretty optimal for cash games.