Specialize in one game or learn all?

[bholdr]

aggreed. i have to redirect some energy to NL as well.

[98romaine]

I have concentrated mostly on HE thus far in my poker career, doesn't seem to be too much out there for getting started in O/8, can you recommend book/website etc. for strategy for a beginning O8 player?

[Jeffage]

I think it's fun to learn new games even though I am primarily a hold em player. If you want to play very large games at some point, knowing many poker forms is essential. For example, at Taj...there is often a 50-100 or 75-150 (and higher stud game) or half and half, but Hold Em often tops out at 20-40 (or 50-100).

Jeff

[Misfire]

[ QUOTE ]
I have concentrated mostly on HE thus far in my poker career, doesn't seem to be too much out there for getting started in O/8, can you recommend book/website etc. for strategy for a beginning O8 player?

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone seems to recommend Ray Zee's book.

[ThaHero]

I have been playing LHE almost exclusively since I started playing a few months ago. I may jump over and start playing NLHE soon, primarily tournaments. In a while I may try to learn other games. I think if you're a beginner it's best to just learn one at a time, unless you don't really care about money(or are just playing for play money) then you are free to play whatever you feel like.

[AKQJ10]

I haven't found Zee's book all that useful. Maybe it's because i'm not yet in position to use the advanced material, and the basics were already covered in other reading.

Tenner and Krieger's O8 book is the best i've seen for beginners. But really, you can go far with just the basics from somewhere like http://www.lowlimitomaha.com (good material, but only rarely updated) or Hellmuth's O8 chapter.

Also the O8 forum on this site is extremely helpful. Treat anything from a post by Buzz as fact and you'll be going far.

[beset7]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd specialize in HE then branch out.

[/ QUOTE ]

If making money is the goal I concur. For me NLHE is by FAR the most profitable game.

But, it also bores me to tears.

As far as Omaha goes: limit O8 games tend to turn into rock gardens around mid-limits but this is not always true (the $75/$150 at Poker Stars for examples seems to be quite loose). POT-LIMIT omaha, otoh, I personally believe is one of the most profitable games for mid-limit online big bet poker. But you have to have a large bankroll and a very high tolerance for variance (i.e. qualities that most new players just simply do not have).

Stud is the best game for learning poker theory. JMO.

Just remember, this forum is geared towards people who are trying to make the most amount of money possible so there is going to be a clear bias towards hold em. If you are more interested in becoming a poker expert and can tolerate slow bankroll growth and a lot of bumps in the road, you should learn them all.

I've gone the multi-game route and a lot of players who just stuck with hold em and started at the same time as me have much bigger rolls. But I"m starting to catch up [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] FINALLY.

[AncientPC]

As long as you know the basic rules and strats all poker games, if you have a strong understand of poker theory you will excel at them all.

Then it's just a matter of preference and which game is the most profitable at give location / time.

[Cooker]

I recommend the Ray Zee book. It is really the only thing I have found that is much good at all for split pot games.