Learn Stud Before Playing Hi/Low?

[TomBrooks]

After having played Microlimit Holdem for about a year now, I have started dabbling in some Stud 8. I started reading Sklansky's Hi/Low piece in SS1 and I now have Ray Zee's book and have been reading it. He makes some references to Sklansky's SCSFAP, which renewed a question in my mind I was wondering about anyway...

Would I be better off learning and playing some regular Stud before I got into Hi/Low, or is that background not that important?

[djr]

I would recommend starting out with one, learn it well and then learn the second. But it really doesn't matter if you start with stud/8 or stud.

[beta1607]

keep in mind Sklanskys chapter in SSI is for a totally different game then stud8. Back in the day hi/lo had no qualifier.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

I am speaking as someone who doesn't play higher than 3/6 on-line.

After being successful at Omaha/8, I followed some fish over to Stud/8 and I seem to be reasonably successful mainly because I avoid chasing bad lows or betting/raising against a made low that is freerolling me for high and because I can eek out some extra bets in multi-way pots when I have half the pot sewn up.

I still have yet to find much success at straight stud high (probably because I haven't read any books on the subject), which I first tried after playing stud/8.

So, I think that for low limits, it is possible to play hi/low first. At higher limits, you probably need to know how to play regular stud high because you get occasions when no one has a low, because people usually don't start with hands like (T3)2 rainbow for multiple bets on 3rd or chase with a low-only hand if they brick on 4th.

[TomBrooks]

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keep in mind Sklanskys chapter in SSI is for a totally different game then stud8. Back in the day hi/lo had no qualifier.

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OK, I just learned that from another post I made asking about the differences in the strategies in the two books.

[Quicksilvre]

I don't think it's that necessary to learn stud high first. I learned stud-8 first (and I'm still not very good at stud high) and I think I'm doing okay.

[bigredlemon]

i think thats just because there's more bad players in stud high

[Bartholow]

Learning stud high will help you understand the mind of stud/8 players who WAY overvalue high hands, which is a profitable demographic group to play against. But you'll also beat them plenty by just playing tight, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[PoorLawyer]

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Learning stud high will help you understand the mind of stud/8 players who WAY overvalue high hands, which is a profitable demographic group to play against. But you'll also beat them plenty by just playing tight, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would also think it helps to know stud when playing shorthanded stud/8 as high hands gain value in those situations...

I would recommend mastering stud high first before moving to Stud 8. This is because:

1. Stud 8 is more complex and requires an even better visual memory then Stud high
2. Certain hands in Stud 8 essentially become Stud High hands as two players are heads up with no low possible
3. Stud 8 requires even more patience then Stud High