Hold em Boom Ruining Poker...

[stickman]

I have always felt that too much of one thing is no good. Hold em (ring games and tournaments) is spreading through cardrooms (at the expense of other forms of poker) like a cancer. Every wannabe in the world is coming to a cardroom to play hold em like they see on TV. Little do they realize that they are killing other good games. I had a cardroom manager tell me he could not open a 15-30-45 H/L stud game, because, he had too long a list for 3-6 hold em.
Flame away!

[Redhot_man]

[ QUOTE ]
I have always felt that too much of one thing is no good. Hold em (ring games and tournaments) is spreading through cardrooms (at the expense of other forms of poker) like a cancer. Every wannabe in the world is coming to a cardroom to play hold em like they see on TV. Little do they realize that they are killing other good games. I had a cardroom manager tell me he could not open a 15-30-45 H/L stud game, because, he had too long a list for 3-6 hold em.
Flame away!

[/ QUOTE ]
Find a new casino

[Zele]

On one hand, that sucks. On another, it's the inevitable tide of history. Try finding a 5-card stud game today. Or even a live no-limit HE game. Winning players can't dictate the terms; that's the prerogative of the suckers.

[unome]

"Ruining" is too strong of a word here. "Changing" would be better. You may not like it because it's taking away from your game, but you have several choices. One of which is to find a casino that seems to spread your game or learn to like regular hold 'em and laugh all the way to the bank.

[M2d]

HE has been pretty much the only show in town for a while now. Here, some people come in, find the holdem lists long, and then decide to try another game. some make their way up to mid limits and then dump their cash. some start out there (for some, mid limits is low limit), and dump cash. TV poker as been very good for the bay area.

[AceHigh]

Play online. Somewhere, someone is spreading the type of game and limits you would like to play.

[DonWaade]

I would tend to agree with you on some counts. It makes some of the less common games harder to find. However it is bringing so much proverbial new blood to the game that it will increase awareness (to be utterly politically correct) but more importantly it will bring more money. Another drawback I see is that it will be hard to well round oneself withouth being able to find games. . . .

I am pretty much just a low-mid level hold em player, so naturally I love the insurrgence, but I understand your point. My sympathies

[Mike Gallo]

Stickman,

Where in AC do you play?

had a cardroom manager tell me he could not open a 15-30-45 H/L stud game, because, he had too long a list for 3-6 hold em.

Where do they spread 15-30-45 h/l ?

I do not see this at all.

[stickman]

Tropicana. The 15-30-45 H/L Stud game goes every day of the week. Only place in AC to spread it daily. Great Game!

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Stickman:

This is not the first time this has happened. In 1987 hold 'em and stud became legal in Los Angeles and then the rest of California over the next few years. It had the effect of wiping out the draw games, both high jacks-or-better to open and ace-to-five lowball. I do think that most everyone will agree that this was beneficial to poker in general.

However, based on our book sales, the popularity of the other games is either holding steady or growing slightly. Of course, by the same measure, hold 'em and tournament poker is exploding.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Ed Miller]

While the specific alternative games may change, I think there will always be available alternatives to hold 'em. In the last year, there have been a lot of new hold 'em players. But next year and the year after, many of those players (who do not quit poker entirely) will grow weary of hold 'em (perhaps because they struggle to win) and will explore other games.

I actually expect more action in non-hold 'em games over the next couple of years due to the boom. Just give the rooms a little time to adjust to the new conditions.

BTW, the conditions are still changing very rapidly. For example, lists in Vegas have been just mind-blowingly absurdly long recently. That is new even since I moved here in late October.

[Mike Gallo]

Tropicana. The 15-30-45 H/L Stud game goes every day of the week. Only place in AC to spread it daily. Great Game!

One problem. The Trop does not spread $3-$6 hold em. They spread $2-$4 $4-$8 and $7.50-$15.00.

They do not spread the $15-$30-$45 stud hi low game every day. They do have the $15-$30 hi-low as a staple.

Perhaps you got confused. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[AceHigh]

[ QUOTE ]
I actually expect more action in non-hold 'em games over the next couple of years due to the boom. Just give the rooms a little time to adjust to the new conditions.


[/ QUOTE ]

The card rooms will continue to prefer hold'em to other games for the low limit/raked games. Hold 'Em means more hands = more rake = $$$. So the boom will hurt other low limit games.

[Duke]

I'm basically chiming in with Mason here and adding my own thoughts, though I disagree with the other mid-limit games being helped out by the poker influx in the long term. The bulk of new 7 card stud players, I think, are Hold'em pros who are expanding their horizons, and looking for more free money to pick up.

If you move into the higher limits it's usually easy to find mixed games spreading all sorts of exotic games. Sure you'll have to play games you probably aren't great in, but you'll get to play your Razz and Hi/lo and 2-7 and chinese poker or whatever. Maybe even some padouki.

I guess it's easy for me to just say: OK the fish want to play game X so I'll figure out how to beat game X. Since i'm not a card player for the fun of a certain game, and I'm just looking to make money, I appreciate whatever game I have to learn along the way.

And I hate stud/8, for example, but it's so juicy at times that I play it anyhow. Good card sense goes a long way even if you don't "know" how to beat a new game to you. That was apparent after beating it 70% of the time for 3 months before ever reading a book on it. Now I'm beating it 90% of the time, but that's due to a session for me being a LOT of hands.

I guess I don't understand why people get attached to a certain game and always want to play that. As professionals it's not up to us to dictate the games being spread, just to accomodate those who don't mind losing money.

Like, come on. You already have a job where you choose your own hours, and basically determine your own income level, you get to PLAY all the time, while everyone else is out there either punching a clock or living up to positional responsibilities... you want to be able to play specific games too? I think that's asking for too much out of a career.

Damn it... I played a LIMIT 1 table on party, instead of no limit. That's what I get for trying to work and post at the same time and not paying attention well enough to the sng I entered. I'm happy I know how to play that game too.

~D