WPT, WSOP, and Stud games

[banditbdl]

I've seen fewer Stud games in my local card club (Canterbury) lately and was wondering if there might be a connection with all the Hold'em on TV the last few months. I know Stud has had way lower numbers than Hold'em for a while, but it seems to have gotten even worse lately. It seems almost all new poker players are headed for Hold'em as the glamour game they can see on TV every week now. As a college student when I tell my poker-playing buddies I prefer Stud over Hold'em they just scrunch their eyes and look at me like I'm crazy. I wonder if there will even be Stud games around anymore at all by the time I'm 40 or even 30.

[FeliciaLee]

People are just truly clueless at times. I was playing a NLHE tourney on Paradise the other day and just joking around. I guess one of the players didnt know I was joking, because he said to me:

"You'd better learn how to play NLHE, Felicia, because they don't have Stud at the WSOP."

I was flabbergasted. Could he really be this clueless, or was he just joking around, too? I kind of felt him out. No, he truly believed that they only have NLHE at the WSOP.

[Fraubump]

it would be nice if some games other than NLHE got shown on tv, but it's understandable that they don't as NLHE is probably the easiest game to understand visually and has the dramatic all-in move. Stud is messy, cards everywhere, and Omaha is too complicated for your average viewer to figure out the hands. Split pot games: forget it.

[Andy B]

Another factor locally is the jackpot. As you are aware, the hold'em jackpot has been very large of late. This has generated a lot of interest in low-limit games. Recently, they have added to the jackpot a couple of times to help maintain that interest. Last night, it was only about $22k, so they may have run out of money to add for the time being. I love stud, but hold'em is probably my fourth-best game, maybe sixth if you cound high-low declare and draw lowball, and I have been absolutely crushing the $6/12 hold'em game of late. For several months, I had been playing a lot less for various reasons, and I cannot believe how good the games are now. Thank you World Poker Tour. If you want to stick to stud, I can certainly respect that, but if you ever want to take any real money out of that room, you'd better learn hold'em. Well, the $20/40 Omaha/8 game is pretty soft, too.

[banditbdl]

Andy you're most definitely right about Canterbury's status. I went out yesterday and played a dead stud game for a little while before moving to a holdem table full of fish. My favorite hand was when a slight maniac made a live stradle, I raised UTG+2 with the Ace and Queen of clubs, player to my left called 3 bets cold, next player reraised, next player says, "I might as well cap it." Another player calls the capped bets cold, the straddler calls, and we eventually end up with 6 players seeing the capped flop. I flopped an ace, but lost when the player to my left called (no raise) with 8-10 offsuit when the board paired eights on the river. I may not have won the hand, but I'll take that action as long as I can get it. Which means its time to resharpen my holdem skills.

P.S. My hi-lo skills (or lack thereof) are simply embarrassing. And lets just say as a college student, my bankroll is slightly less than optimal for a 20-40 game.

[Andy B]

Your mileage may vary, but I am not fond of wild hold'em games. Wild stud games I enjoy, but wild hold'em games are not as profitable as the loose passive variety. Yes, it's wonderful when people are willing to call a cap with T8o and better still when they don't charge you when they hit, but it's hard to steer the money your way, in my experience. I like games where I control the betting.

I don't really have the bankroll for $20/40, either, but I do have a day job and a high degree of risk tolerance.

[banditbdl]

Yeah, a looser passive game would be preferred, but that wild holdem game was still better than most of the stud games recently.

[Mackie]

The Thursday limit hold'em tournies at this time last year were drawing 60-70 players. Last night there were 153. WPT is the best thing to happen for experienced hold'em players in my memory. But does it affect Stud games? I don't think so, as stud players still play stud, but good players who can do both are going to prefer to feed off the new schools of hold'em players for a while.