A New Entrée on the Tournament Menu: 'Mixed Greens'

They may be served with various names – H.O.R.S.E., H.O.S.E., H.O.E., and S.H.O.E. – but no matter what the mix, multigame tournaments are becoming increasingly popular on tournament menus. This year the World Series of Poker's inaugural $2,000 buy-in S.H.O.E. tournament, won by 2000 Player of the Year David Pham, drew 181 entrants. The Tournament of Champions four-game format, won by Brian Saltus, attracted 402 players, and the newly reinvented Four Queens Classic (ably directed by personable host Bonnie Damiano) had 121 entrants in its $100 buy-in S.H.O.E. evening tournament.

Any combination of hold'em (H), Omaha high-low split (O), seven-card stud (S), stud eight-or-better (E), and, occasionally, razz® comprise the usual mix of multigame events. Sometimes, only two games are paired for a tournament, such as half hold'em and half stud (as in the women's championship at the WSOP), or half hold'em and half Omaha high-low (a combo that drew 90 teams at the Queens tag-team evening event). If you like to play a variety of poker games, you can do well in mixed-game events, and for that reason, I have a few suggestions for you regarding half-and-half tournament strategy.

Limit hold'em almost always is one of the games played in half-and-half tournaments, so being a skilled hold'em player gives you an extra edge most of the time. The main exception is half hold'em-half stud events, because stud is a game of equal or greater skill than hold'em and has five betting rounds. Therefore, being proficient in stud is equally as important as being skillful in hold'em. The key difference is that more multiway hands usually are played during the hold'em rounds. These tournaments begin with eight players at a table, which alters your starting position requirements by one full position in hold'em and by two positions as soon as you lose someone. In general, you should limp less and raise more during the hold'em half from the early rounds on. When the table gets down to seven or six players, there will be fewer multiway pots in the hold'em segment, so small pairs and suited connectors will decrease in value while big cards will increase in value. During the stud portion, a lot more ante stealing occurs as the table gets shorter. In fact, in shorthanded seven-card stud tournament play, ante stealing is crucial to maintaining your chip status. You must retain an aggressive posture to keep your opponents off your back, which tends to force them to have some sort of decent hand to play against you when you are going for the steal.

At the final table when play is shorthanded with only two or three players remaining, you will have to do considerably more raising than calling in both hold'em and stud. Just remember that seven-card stud is a game of strong boards, so a high upcard can be intimidating at times. Sometimes, an ace upcard alone can be enough to induce your opponents to fold when you play it aggressively.

In half hold'em-half Omaha split tournaments, the emphasis shifts back to hold'em. Because of the split-pot aspect of Omaha high-low, hands take longer to play and many pots are divided between the high and low hands. These two factors decrease the number of hands that can be played during the Omaha rounds. Chip movement becomes less pronounced and less frequent than in hold'em.

A very solid, selectively aggressive approach to Omaha split is necessary in this type of tournament because the game has four betting rounds, during which you can get quartered or counterfeited and lose a lot of chips. Therefore, be less inclined to take an aggressive preflop approach when you have a medium or short stack; wait until after the flop to do your gambling. Remember that you are not nearly as likely to pick up the blinds by raising in Omaha high-low as you are in other games, because there are so many card combinations that could justify defending the blinds.

Playing a strong hold'em game can set you up very nicely for the Omaha split segment, especially if you have frequently put your hold'em opponents on the defensive. If you have built up a large stack going into the Omaha round, it is especially important to play the selective-aggressive strategy. With a short to medium stack, play more conservatively during Omaha high-low.

Next time I'll provide a few pointers on playing multigame events such as S.H.O.E. Until then, I hope to see you in the winner's circle.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author with T.J. Cloutier of the Championship series of poker books. McEvoy and Cloutier are billed as "Poker's Leading Team of Winning Authors." Their books are available through Card Player.