Hold'em player - wanting to learn a new poker game

[Moyer]

I usually play limit hold'em, and am starting to play some no limit. But I'm interested in other games.

I know very little about omaha & 7-card stud. I'm wondering which game is the easiest to learn & which game has the bigger edge for a good player? Also, which versions of these games are most popular?

I'll probably start out playing some small stakes online and some live games while I'm waiting for a good hold'em seat to open. It really sucks waiting for an hour to play hold'em when I know there are a bunch of suckers at the omaha table I could play with right away. Seems like it's usually a bunch of older people playing stud, not sure if that's good or bad.

[Iceman]

Omaha-8 is easy to learn, and is very profitable against bad players. That said, it's rarely played live above the 5-10 limit, and while it does exist online at 3-6 and higher those games are rarely profitable even for an expert player. If you plan on staying at low-limits it's a good choice, but if you want to move up eventually you should probably choose something else.

Stud is a difficult game to learn to play well, but an expert stud player can have a significant edge in almost any game - loose, tight, passive, aggressive. While there are a lot fewer strong stud players than strong holdem players, there aren't as many total fish at the stud tables since most new poker players are flocking to holdem games.

In B&M play, limit Omaha-8 and limit high-only stud are the most popular versions of those games by far. Online, there's also a lot of pot-limit Omaha high, pot-limit Omaha-8, and limit stud-8. Pot-limit Omaha high is the most popular game in much of Europe.

[Big O]

[ QUOTE ]
Omaha-8 is easy to learn, and is very profitable against bad players.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is very true, But I say O8B is not easy to learn, hence a lot of bad players. That said, I feel Hellmuth's book on O8B and PLO are very good reads for this. Good luck and keep the limits low until you learn the game very well.

[Nottom]

I belive it has been said that 7-stud Hi/Lo has one of the biggest edges for a good player.

[Iceman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Omaha-8 is easy to learn, and is very profitable against bad players.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is very true, But I say O8B is not easy to learn, hence a lot of bad players. That said, I feel Hellmuth's book on O8B and PLO are very good reads for this. Good luck and keep the limits low until you learn the game very well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the winning strategy for loose low-limit Omaha-8 games is very easy to learn. If you have some idea of hand selection, and know the basics of postflop play, that's enough to beat a loose-passive game for a large amount. Being able to beat a tight or shorthanded game requires much more skill, but for a beginner playing low-limits there's no reason to ever play in tight or shorthanded games when there are so many good games around.

[Smasharoo]

Beating a low limit Omaha 8 game has a ton to do with hand selection, which is easy to learn. It's probably the easiest game to teach someone who's never seen a deck of cards to play well enough to beat low limit games.

[Leo Bello]

Do you want to seriously learn a new game. If so the best would be dive into it. I mean stop playing Holdem for awhile and dedicate yourself so as not to mix concepts and so on.
But if you only want something to relax and so on you can easily play at low-limits in online sites and with only basic reading you will have fun and make some money both Omaha and 7-Stud.

[PokerNoober]

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[dogmeat]

Aside from the obvious - that we don't want you to spam this site with links to your site, but if you ARE going to do it, at least wait until your site is up, boob.

Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[lunchmeat]

Omaha 8: O8 games are typically very soft, even online (which is a big difference from hold ‘em). It is also a relatively easy game to learn how to play well. Nevertheless, IMO there are better games to learn than O8. Games typically go slowly, which means fewer hands dealt per hour (both live and online), which means your EV is lowered. O8 also sucks shorthanded at low-limits because most pots are split and the rake is big (meaning that much of your earn is drained away in rake.) It isn’t as bad at a full table because of the multi-way pots, but when all the pots are head up and then end up getting split between two players the only long-term winner is the house at low limits. Also, many people find O8 to be the most boring poker variation because strategy frequently becomes automatic. O8 used to be called “the game of the future,” which I find ironic because I’ve never seen anyone under the age of 50 playing it.

7 Stud: I’m learning stud right now and to me the game is really interesting. In many respects, stud requires different skill sets than hold ‘em (like keeping track of the cards that are out, and frequently jockeying to get the pot heads-up). There are far more opportunities to make advanced plays than at O8. A big bonus for me is that where I live stud is actually more popular than hold ‘em, so there are always games going, most of them pretty soft. The downside I see to stud is that it is almost completely dead online. I think this has to do with the fact that to play stud well you must pay attention, and most internet players would rather multi-table or surf the internet between hands instead of paying attention to a single game. Also, many online sites have wacky ante structures that require either super tight play or super loose/aggressive play. Low-limit casino stud is usually played spread limit, which IMO also detracts from the game.

Big Bet Games: If I didn’t live on the East coast I’d be learning PLO and NLHE right now instead of stud. With capped buy-ins, these really are the games of the future. The people who are drawn to poker from TV want to play No Limit. I haven’t learned to play the big bet games well yet, but there seems to be a lot of new fish playing these games.