Most Important Skills for Each Game

[colpres]

I have frequently wondered if a person's particular set of skills should be taken into account when you decide which game to play. Few of the books I've read address this issue.
What do you think? For example, I would think that with Stud 8/b, being able to remember the cards you've seen as well as doing odds calculations on the fly (since so much of the deck is exposed)is critical, while with Hold'em you see a grand total of 5 cards by the turn. If this is true, what skills do you think are most important for each of these variants:
Hold'em
Omaha
Stud

[jojobinks]

malmuth did an essay about this in poker essays 2. here's what he lists for low-limit hold 'em (credit to amazon.com for their "search in book" feature)

1. hand selection
2. check raise
3. reading hands
4. buying a free card
5. semi bluffing
6. raising
7. reading tells
8. bluffing
9. varying your play
10. game selection
11. slowplay
12. projecting the proper image.

with a comment that #12 is put last b/c at low-levels, players make decisions based on their own cards, not your image.

i could go on, bet let's talk about this one first. i like #1 and #2. is #3 rated too highly? i think, in my (admittedly small) experience, i put free card buying ahead of reading hands, which is pretty tough to do with the loose players at 1-2 (where i play). and why is raising relegated to #6? semi-bluffing doesn't often work, b/c it's hard to get a fold with the relatively large pots. over my time, i've semi-bluffed less, and treated raises with draws as pot builders, as opposed to opportunities to pick up the pot.

discuss?

[Aragorn]

At low levels, I would say hand selection and discipline are critical, since you mainly need to worry about laying down the best hand at the end.

As you move up, being able to read your opponents becomes increasingly important. It's not just tells, but also knowing their patterns. Do they bluff? Under what circustances? What kinds of hands to they raise with? etc.

[pokerswami]

I haven't read MM's Poker Essays books, so I don't know how much it's mentioned, but I would add one big skill to the list of 12 above.

Ability to evaluate and continuously re-evaluate the game

This could be considered part of 10. game selection, but I think it is a separate skill.

A large amount of decision making in poker play is based on the nature of the game at the time of play. Games have tendencies that are continually changing and moods and shifts and personality just as individuals do. This affects significantly all the 12 skills mentioned in the list from your post.

It's different from game selection. A player may be able to profitably select from several different personality games. However, it will only be profitable long term if he accurately evaluates the nature of the game and adjusts when it changes.