Hi all - I will be in town during the $1,500 HORSE WSOP event and was planning on playing it as long as I'm available. In the hopes of not being totally dead money, is there any suggestions in how to get better/more comfortable in any of the games, other than below? Feel like any assistance in the three stud games is probably my biggest hole to plug.

- There is a casino a couple hour drive from me that runs a HORSE game once a week - I don't think I've played it since 2016 or 2017 but will have to drive down to have a session or two there.
- Rewatch pokergo events of last year's HORSE and 8 game etc.
- Pokerstars Play Money (Lol I know - feel like it would be a good way to actually get hands in? I live in US so no availability to real money Pokerstars.).

Any other suggestions would be appreciated - books, training materials etc

The 2+2 books on stud and stud8/Omaha8 are both worth your time.

yeah i think the aforementioned books will have a lot of good material for anyone starting out in those games

PS play money isn't gonna do much for you other than seeing how the blinds go around and hands are dealt.

however, what i do think can be of value (if you're gonna do it anyway) is to just play the games anyway and then use propokertools to familiarize yourself with the equities of the actual hands you played and what you saw on showdown. there will be a big difference in throwing random hands into a simulator and seeing what's what vs throwing in the actual hands you've played (even if they're not real monies), as you'll be a lot more likely to have them register and stick with you moving forward.

additionally, it'll help you figure out what seem to be small differences in cards and how they play out in various scenarios: like A234 rainbow pre in o8 vs 4 other players vs A23K rainbow, or you get to see what the difference is with 224 vs 234 in s8, etc (which is typically what i do when i'm investigating spots)

right now the website simulator is down but you can download the program and use one of the currently free registration keys to get it going.

gl!

Thanks - found both these books and will read this spring!

Yeah I mean I mostly agree. Thinking it will be helpful for me to at least get reps in, get an understanding of how often I get dealt a premium hand vs a "good" hand etc.

Also interested in how far i can widen hand selection in putting on pressure with a chip lead approaching the bubble, vs how much i need to tighten up approaching the bubble as a short stack. All tournament ideas i mostly have an idea of in NL Holdem, and to just get an idea of how that extrapolates out to limit & different games. again though, play money world probably not the best place to get a reliable response from villians

I had thought this as well - I found an equity calculator for the ORSE games which I feel like will be valuable for me to just type in situations and get an idea of the %'s, and then see how that changes if X is a dead card vs Y is a dead card etc

Thank you!

I do not have the experience of previous posters but here is what I would do.

Forget about the local tournament HORSE because the blind structure is way different - they are like hyper turbos.

Play PokerStars tournament once a week - to see what game(s) you need to work on and then work on them
there are books on all the 5 of the games, but maybe you are bleeding in RAZZ and winning in Holdem


look at the WSOP structure sheet with blinds/antes to determine how many hands you should play
and how low your stack BB can get before you get excited to push all-in on one hand

Thank you, appreciate this response!

2024 WSOP structures haven't been released yet but I've taken a look at the 2023 structure (guessing it will be the exact same - the 2024 sheet references the same starting stack at 40/60 minute levels) - and also found the PokerNews reporting from the 2023 event so have an idea of kinda how many people are getting eliminated in each level, how big pots/stacks are at each stage etc

Honestly don't worry at all about structures. Just get better at playing. This is the number one thing I can say about beating the $1500 HORSE (and I've come in 2nd twice): when anyone other than an actual very good player tells you a story, believe them. If they do a lot of checking, they are weak; if they do a lot of betting, they are strong.

any chance you can tell us what it means when those very good players do the betting or checking

In stud games they're more likely to be betting what appears to be a scary board, even if their hole cards aren't very good.

Appreciate the responses - I certainly want to focus on this. Have been watching some old WSOP and pokergo HORSE content, and found a small local game that runs horse once a month so planning to check that out a couple times as well before June.

Can you share any available free registration keys for PPT? Thanks.

just head to the PPT site and there is a reg key right there on the front page!

If you haven't played much split pot limit games, I'd be looking to improve there.

Playing one way hands in Stud 8 (think split medium pairs, or 237) and chasing 2d best draws multi way in O8 are some of the bigger leaks.

In Razz, the rank of your upcard matters a lot; having a slightly weaker hand with a baby showing is better than having a slightly stronger hand with an 8+. This game is very board dependent.

Also, remember the stud games have an extra street of betting; when you get short this can have a significant impact on which hands you will go with.

It’s very basic but Mastering Mix Games isn’t terrible if you are a true beginner