How versatile are you as a pokerplayer?

[Durer]

How versatile are you as a pokerplayer? Myself, I am almost always playing shorthanded NL and sometimes NL MTTs. I have played poker for a year and now i have just finished high school and have time to give poker more hours and also started to play at a couple of poker clubs. I have thought about learning PL omaha and fixed limit hold em and giving MTTs more time.
1. What games do you guys play and in what order did you learn them?
2. Do you, as Doyle say in SS, think that it is that important to give action in other games than your best game so they will be more inclined to play in yours?
3. Have your skills in other poker games made your favorite game better or worse?
4. Is shorthanded NL really the most cash rewarding poker form for a good creative player?
5. Whats the main differance between pot limit and no limit hold-em strategically?

thanks everybody for a great forum/ Durer

[Lalit Khajuria]

1. 90% Of the time short handed NL holdem, that's also the first game I started to play. I have now tried also short handed omaha, but im no good in it.

2. Not true at all in online poker.

3. Holdem skills offcourse helped when I got into omaha, but cant say I would have learned anything from omaha that I could adjust in holdem.

4. Hard to say...

5. Players are forced to play more postflop poker and that offcourse is good news for good players.

[Durer]

the number 2 was meant for the live games i have started playing. Thanks for the reply

[toke]

1. NLHE, PLHE, PLO, Stud High, 5-card stud, Stud 8/b, O8/b, FLHE

2. I don't

3. It has made no difference apart from not getting bored.

4. probably

5. drawing hands are slightly more playable in pot-limit

[fnord_too]

1. I play almost every game. Specifically: LHE, NL/PLHE, PLO, O/8, PLO/8, Stud, Stud/8, tripple draw, tournaments (mainly 2-7 right now, but A-5 some, too).

2. Not at my level, probably at his (though I think Doyle is probably world class even at his worst game, so I don't think he gives up much by playing other peoples games).

3. I don't have a fixed favorite, but I definitely feel like playing one game helps my other games. That is, each game stresses some aspects over others. The fundamental bits of one game are often the nuance of another, so the rare situations in one game often become clearer, making me a better player. For instance, I have been playing a lot of tripple draw lately, which stresses position more than any other game. While position is extremely important in any game, I certainly feel like I have a much better understanding of how to exploit and couter positional advantages in other games due to my TD play. I guess what I am trying to say is that often, for me, a change of perpective greatly improves my understanding.

4. I am not qualified to say, though it certainly seems that at this point in time a lot of poor players are playing NL, and whatever game has the poorest players combined with the ability to exploit poor play is the most profitable.

5. IMO, pot limit stresses post flop play a lot more, and makes some errors worse due to the reduced implied odds. Just the fact that you have to have more bets and raises to get all in is an advantage to better players I think. It means that more streets are likely played in order to get all in, and more information is gathered in the process of getting all in. With deep stacks, it seems like if there is an all in situation from the turn on, likely it is a chop or someone is being a fool. (There just are not a whole lot of turn situations where hands are close, so if there is a bet/raise/reraise on the turn (or river), it should be a battle of the nuts, maybe with redraws, or someone is smoked and getting raped). Frankly, the reason I prefer NL is that I don't consider myself that good at NL/PL, so I think I am giving up more to the better players in PL, while not getting back much edge from the worse ones. Also, NL has more appeal to tourists, I think.