Rules of Poker · Chapter 70 · 2026 edition
A mixed game deals several kinds of poker at one table. HORSE and 8-Game use a fixed rotation; in Dealer's Choice, a player chooses the game. Each hand follows that game's rules. This chapter covers game changes, button movement, forced bets, stakes, and choosing a game.
A mixed game never blends rules within a hand. When the rotation reaches Razz, the hand is dealt, bet and read as Razz, with its ante and bring-in; when it returns to Hold'em, the blinds come back. Flop and draw games are played with blinds, and stud games with antes and a bring-in.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; BARGE rulebook, Limit.
A stud hand dealt to eight players can run out of cards (The deal and misdeals), so table size matters more in a mix than in one game. PokerListings' guide to mixed-game tournaments suggests stud can be played eight-handed but draw games are best six-handed. pagat.com describes one fix for HORSE with more than seven players: the dealer, and if needed the player to the dealer's right, sit out each stud hand, so that everyone sits out equally over time. Card rooms instead deal one common card face up when the deck can't give everyone their own last card, as Robert's Rules describes.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 8, "Seven-Card Stud" rule 15; PokerListings, How to set up a mixed games poker tournament.
HORSE plays, in this order: Hold'em, Omaha hi-lo (eight or better), Razz, seven-card Stud, and seven-card stud hi-lo, Eight or better; then it starts again at Hold'em. All five are fixed-limit.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; PokerNews, 2023 WSOP $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller.
Three methods are in use:
The practical difference: with the clock, a slow stud round may play fewer hands than a fast Hold'em round; counting hands keeps the games level.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; PokerNews, 2008 WSOP Event 22 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.; PokerNews, 2023 WSOP $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller; PokerNews, 2026 WSOP $1,500 8-Game Mixed.
In HORSE the Hold'em and Omaha hands post blinds and no ante; the three stud games take an ante from everyone and a bring-in from the low or high card (Blinds, antes and bring-ins). The stakes are posted as one limit, for example $4/$8: the blind games use $2/$4 blinds, and the stud games an ante and bring-in set for that limit.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; BARGE rulebook, Limit.
Stud has no button, so a mix needs a rule for where it is when the blinds come back. The TDA's 2026 rules freeze it: after the last Hold'em hand the button moves on as if another Hold'em hand were next, stays there through the stud games, and starts from that seat when Hold'em returns. The TDA also says that during stud, the player moved to balance tables is the one who would have been the big blind in Hold'em. Some rooms instead keep moving the button one seat per hand through the stud round; no published rulebook we found sets that version out.
Example: seat 3 has the button on the last Omaha hand. Under the TDA, the button moves to seat 4 and waits there through the stud games, so seat 4 has the button on the first Hold'em hand.
8-Game (also called the Eight Game Mix) adds three games to HORSE, two of them big-bet. The order is: 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em, Omaha hi-lo, Razz, 7-Card Stud, Stud hi-lo, No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha. pagat.com dates it to 2008 and notes it was a WSOP event by 2010; recent WSOP 8-Game events have been six-handed.
Source: pagat.com, Eight Game Mix; PokerNews, 2024 WSOP $10,000 Eight Game Mixed Championship (6-Handed).
Any list of games played in a set order is a rotation. Common ones are HOSE (HORSE without Razz) and other three- or four-game mixes, and CHORSE, which adds a Hold'em variant (Crazy Pineapple). A home game can write its own list, including a game twice. The rules of 70.4 for when the game changes apply to all of them.
Source: pagat.com, C.H.O.R.S.E.; pagat.com, H.O.S.E. and others.
When a mix holds both big-bet games (no-limit and pot-limit) and limit games, the limit games are usually played at double: their blinds are twice the big-bet blinds, so the limit small bet is twice the big-bet big blind. At $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em, the limit games post $2/$4 blinds and bet $4/$8. PokerListings' mixed-game guide gives the same ratio (100/200 big-bet blinds, 400/800 limits), and WSOP 8-Game levels follow it: at one 2024 level the big-bet games had 1,000/1,500 blinds and the limit games 3,000/6,000 limits. A mix of limit games only, like HORSE, needs no conversion.
Source: PokerListings, How to set up a mixed games poker tournament; PokerNews, 2024 WSOP $10,000 Eight Game Mixed Championship.
In a home game, the dealer chooses: the deal moves clockwise each hand, and whoever deals names the game. In the WSOP's Dealer's Choice events, where a house dealer deals every hand, the choice goes with a separate Dealer's Choice button held by a player, and that player picks.
Source: pagat.com, Dealer's Choice, "The deal"; PokerNews, Your guide to the inaugural WSOP Dealer's Choice event (2014).
pagat.com's home version has a new choice every deal. The exception is a game that takes several deals to finish (for example one played until a pot is won): the deal passes to the left until it ends, and then the player to the left of the one who called it chooses next. That stops anyone keeping the deal, and its position, by calling a long game.
At the WSOP, the chosen game is played for a full orbit, so every player has the button once in it, and then the choice passes to the next player. PokerNews' rules page also mentions games where each choice lasts a set number of hands instead. The one-orbit rule keeps a chooser from picking a game, playing only their best position in it, and switching.
Source: PokerNews, Your guide to the inaugural WSOP Dealer's Choice event (2014); PokerNews, Dealer's Choice rules.
The players agree the list in advance. The WSOP's Dealer's Choice events use a fixed list (16 games in 2014; PokerNews' current list has 20), covering Hold'em, Omaha, stud, single-draw and triple-draw games. Home games are usually looser: pagat.com says almost any variant can be called, often including games that aren't strictly poker, though each group tends to keep a set of favorites. Betting limits for all games are agreed before play.
Source: PokerNews, Dealer's Choice rules; PokerNews, Your guide to the inaugural WSOP Dealer's Choice event (2014); pagat.com, Dealer's Choice, "The games".
The chooser names the game before any card is dealt and explains it clearly, including any special rules or options, so that nobody finds out the rules mid-hand. pagat.com puts this duty on the dealer in home games.
Some games need more cards than one deck holds at a full table. The chooser should pick a game that fits the players at the table. If one is called anyway, there are two fixes: a stud game can deal a common card when the deck runs short (70.2), or players take turns sitting the hand out, as pagat.com describes for the stud games in HORSE.
Source: pagat.com, H.O.R.S.E.; Robert's Rules of Poker v11, Section 8, "Seven-Card Stud" rule 15.
Choosing should take seconds, not minutes. pagat.com asks players to decide in advance what they'll call, so the game doesn't stall while the chooser thinks it over.
If the wrong game is dealt, or the rules turn out to be unclear, the dealer settles it fairly while that's still possible. Once two or more players have bet, pagat.com says the hand can't be thrown in and redealt; it is finished as dealt. The TDA's tournament rules (Tournaments) draw a similar line: once there has been substantial action, a misdeal can no longer be called.
Example: the rotation calls for Omaha hi-lo, but the dealer deals two cards each as for Hold'em. If it's noticed before the action, it's a misdeal; if two players have already bet, the hand is finished as Hold'em and the rotation goes on.
Source: pagat.com, Dealer's Choice, "The deal"; TDA 2026 Rules (Version 1.1), Rules 37-D and 38.
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