In Chinese poker you are dealt 13 cards that must be arranged into three poker hands, two hands of five cards and one hand of three cards. They are called the back hand, the middle hand, and the front hand. The back must be worth more than the middle, and the middle must be worth more than the front.

When everyone is ready the hands will be shown and compared to other corresponding hands. If your hand is better, you win one betting unit for each better hand, and lose one for every hand that is beat. Equal hands result in a tie, and no bets are exchanged.

Depending on how the rules are laid out, you can win more with certain card combinations, called royalties. If a player mis-sets his hand he must pay everyone still in the hand an amount equal to being scooped all three hands.

No, this is not an example of short table poker.

Stealing the blinds at a short table is something you’ll need to do if you hope to make any money. Short table settings are usually dominated by the most aggressive player, and blind stealing is the first aggressive move you can make in a hand. The shorter the table, the lower the chances of your opponents having a premium hand. Raising when you have position will often lead to the blind positions folding and giving them to you.

Some players will defend their blinds with inferior cards and others won’t. Figure out who’s who and try and take advantage every time an opportunity presents itself. Blind stealing works best from the late positions, but if the table is tight and you’ve established a good table presence it can be done successfully from any position. And the bigger the blinds, the more important it is to try and steal them.

A fine example of poker art…

Playing winning poker is not a consistent thing where you win all the time. Poker has its ups and downs for any player; no one wins all the time. Being a winning poker player means that you play a sound consistent game; never tilting off money when things turn sour for awhile. Poker pays in the long run. If you maintain good play the numbers will eventually make you a winner. Winning poker requires skills and experience, new players may win at times, but few know how to play properly.

Besides playing decisions during a hand, winning players know how to select good games to play in, and when they should stop playing. Winning also includes proper bankroll management. You should be playing in games that your bankroll can support, and in tournaments that won’t use up too much of your cash. Otherwise you’ll eventually go broke when you’re losing.

HORSE tournaments are mixed poker variation events. After every rotation of the button, the game switches to a different variation. There are a few different mixed poker tournaments, with HORSE being the one with the most variations played. The games are Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven-card-stud, and Seven-card-stud eight or better.

The best general strategy is to wait for the variations where you feel the strongest, and stay out of the action in ones that you’re still learning to play, unless you have a monster hand. And don’t forget which variation it is, if you forget which one you’re playing it can be very costly.

Playing HORSE will make you a stronger player. There’s lots of action online for HORSE, but unless you’re in Vegas or Atlantic City, they tend to be rare in live casinos.

You should know how to play each variation before trying out one of these tournaments.

Over betting your hand is rarely the right move in poker. Many novice players will use the all-in bet as a defensive move, hoping to get their opponent to fold. This maneuver might be successful a couple of times, but you’ll eventually run into a hand and get busted up. Even betting too much with a hand that you think is in the lead, but not the nut hand, is not recommended. Any action you’ll get on this bet will most likely beat you. That’s where value betting comes into the game.

The only time it’s a good move to over bet a hand is when you’re trying to represent the situations I talked about previously. If you have a big hand, sometimes an over bet can look like a bluff, and if your opponent has something that qualifies as a hand, they may try and make a big call on you.