Advice for hosting "Horse" tourn or cash game

[fortunesknave]

I host a weekly NL hold'em tournament with a good turn out (12 regulars, 8 semi regulars). I'd say there are 4-5 of us that like to play other games. I was thinking of also hosting a "horse" tournament or cash game once month.

These are my thoughts:
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* we would exclude the Hi/Lo options and play limit: Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud
* If it was a tournament, we would have one limit for each game, and after a complete rotation, raise the limit. Each game would be played for maybe 10 minutes?[/list]
Or should I skip the tournament and just play cash?

Any advice on how to get other players from our regular tournament interested in playing?

Thanks.

[NickMPK]

I would recommend longer levels for each game. It would be really confusing to raise switch games every 10 minutes, which can be like three hands in Omaha. Maybe 20 minutes for each game, and raise the limits between Omaha and Razz, so the flop games have one limit, and the stud games have another?

Also, Limit Omaha High is not a very good game. Very random. But it works if you really don't want to play Hi/Lo.

[Darth Poker]

My usual home game is almost always a NL hold'em cash game, but like you we have been interested in playing others. What we ended up doing was playing a modified HORSE:

- Limit Hold'em
- NL Hold'em
- Limit Razz
- PL Omama hi
- Limit 7-stud hi

again, this is a cash game - but we run it so that if there are 6/more people we switch the game after the button has made one complete round. if there are 5/less people we switch the game after two complete button rounds. blinds are usually .25/.50 - sometimes .10/.20 if we're all broke. buy-in range is 20 to 100 BB's. it works really well, but you just have to make sure all participants clearly understand the basic mechanics of each game. prior to introducing the HORSE game, we decided to play each game by itself for a week so that everyone was clear on gameplay and had at least one full night's experience. hope this helps. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Gorby]

I play in a game, in which we play dealer's choice cash. We have done HORSE style tourneys in the past, they way we run them is to raise after a round of all the games. If you time them, you will run into issues where your playing certain games alot long longer than any other. So if you con the players who only play the "cool" games, they probably wont go broke(even thought you want them to) in between rounds.

[MikeyEdge]

We used to run a HOSE tournament after our weekly Hold'em Tournament. It was a lot of fun. Hold'em, Omaha High, 7 Stud and Omaha Hi-Lo (Eight or Better). No Razz, most people aren't familiar enough with it to play. All games were played NL. Games would changed every 15 minutes. Blinds would double every 30. For 7 stud, the ante would be 1/4 of what a BB would be. And the low card would have to bring in for at least 1/4 the BB. We started with 4,000 in chips. So the blind structured would go something like this:

Hold'em: 25/50
Omaha High: 25/50
7 Stud: 25 ante/25 low card bring in
Omaha HiLo: 50/100
Hold'em: 200/400
Omaha High: 200/400
7 Stud: 200 ante/200 low card bring in
Omaha HiLo: 400/800
Holde'em: 800/1600
etc.

Its been a while, but I think thats how we set it up. And don't worry about the HiLo split being a problem in a tournament. It definetly works itself into the strategy of a tournament very nicely. You may not want to double the blinds if you want it to last longer. We set it up so it wouldn't take too long because it was our second tournament of the night. Enjoy!

[fortunesknave]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's all great and it's really getting me excited to host this.

I have a few follow up questions/comments if any one cares to offer additional feedback:

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The consensus seems to be to play one game for about 15 minutes before switching--is that right?

I wasn't going to do Hi/Lo b/c most of our bunch haven't played regular stud or omaha much, but the feedback suggests that that wasn't a problem in your games. If that's the case, we'd probably play Omaha Hi/Lo but stick with regular Stud.

I like the idea of 15 minute rounds per game, but raising the blinds/bets every 30 minutes.

My biggest concern is that it be as much fun for the others as it will be for me. I want everyone to get his/her money's worth (even if eventually I want that money to come to me [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]). My smallest chip denomination is $.25. Is that too high for a $20 buy in?[/list]
THanks again for the great feedback.

[Lottery Larry]

" I like the idea of 15 minute rounds per game, but raising the blinds/bets every 30 minutes."

You might find that having two circuts of each game type, then raising the limit and changing the game, gives you a better chance at getting a rhythm going (and getting some hands to play). You don't want to change limits in the middle of a round, do you?

"My smallest chip denomination is $.25. Is that too high for a $20 buy in?"

80:1 doesn't seem bad. Save yourself some hassle- have the dealer antes for everyone (one bigger chip) rather than requiring everyone to ante each hand.

Good luck, report back!

[fortunesknave]

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80:1 doesn't seem bad. Save yourself some hassle- have the dealer antes for everyone (one bigger chip) rather than requiring everyone to ante each hand.

Good luck, report back!

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So, on Stud and Razz, only the dealer ante?

I'll report back but I know we won't play till June just because of how busy everyone is the next 2 weeks.

Thanks.

[Lottery Larry]

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So, on Stud and Razz, only the dealer ante?



[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. Example: T20/40 blinds. Rather than have everyone ante T3, have the dealer put in T25 or something as dead money in the pot.
If you're not at the table when you're supposed to deal, the T25 comes out of your stack into the pot.