What got you started in other forms of poker?

[Quicksilvre]

The "resident expert" thread got me thinking about how I got interested in forms of poker other than Hold'em. To be sure, many (if not most) of the new poker players coming in play HE (often no-limit) exclusively. Two things kept me from that: Hoyle Casino 4, and Play Poker Like the Pros.

I started playing HC4 in the spring of 2003, just before ESPN started showing the WSOP. (I understand that the WPT was on before that, but I didn't start watching it until I got to know the WSOP.) The card room had draw high, draw lowball (single draw A-5), limit Omaha, limit Omaha-8, stud, stud high-low without a qualifier, and limit Hold'em. I played a lot of Hold'em, of course, but I played a lot of everything except draw high. Stud split and Omaha-8 became my favorite games.

PPLTP discusses a ton of different games, so even once I started book learnin' I still wasn't overwhelmed with hold'em. I know, it's not the greatest strategy book, but it did keep my eyes open to games other than HE. Now, I'm interested in just about everything, from HE to Omaha to stud to rotations to triple draw.

I posted all of this to ask a question: how did you get introduced to games other than Hold'em?

[randomstumbl]

I played in a weekly home game with some friends in college. Soon after we started playing, I saw the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The movie starts off with a player losing a fortune in a game of 3 card brag. The movie made it look like a fun game, so I looked up the rules and introduced it into my home game.

From there we added in any games people came across. We ended up hating games like draw and 7 stud because they punished our loose play too much. We added games like black mariah, NL omaha and a game that was pretty similar to guts. I think it's natural for a group of people to get bored playing the same game over and over. I'd even end up playing euchre and cribbage with the same group of guys. It never occured to me to just play hold'em.

Edited to add: We actually started the home game because Maxim had an article about home poker. It had a bunch of different games in it, I think we started out with those as a guideline. I think that was 2001 or 2002.

[Tom Bayes]

There are many reasons I like to play non-holdem games:

1. I learned how to play poker as a child from an older great-uncle of mine. He was pretty good at the classic games (draw, 5-stud) so that's what I learned. I also picked up 7-stud. I honestly never heard of holdem or omaha until about 5 years ago and didn't start playing them online until about 3 years ago.
2. I tend to have a need to be "different" than the crowd in my tastes, whether it's music, movies, sports, or poker. Since the masses love NL holdem, that makes me want to play other games.
3. I think some of the other types of poker, particularly draw high and omaha/8, are better suited for my strengths/weaknesses as a player than holdem.
4. Poker is a hobby rather than a profession. I could make more money in my poker-playing hours if I stuck to 4-tabling soft limit holdem or limit 0/8 games and never dabbled in tournaments and every variation of poker you can shake a stick at. I'd get burned out and probably quit playing if I did that.

[TRBNGR]

To be a great poker player [not that I am one] you need to know more than just hold em. The games will change the generic skills learned will not. Also it helps to avoid burnout like Tom mentioned...

[lighterjobs]

i didn't even start off playing hold'em. i played pot limit stud, omaha hi-lo declare, no limit A-5 single draw, and 727 for a few years before i even had heard of hold'em.

I just like playing all games, and I like being different.

[dibbs]

Grew up playing 5 card draw and PL prial.

Before college there was a semi nightly mix game at this house I was always at that had pretty much every game imaginable in its rotation and introduced me to hold em and stud etc.

[lucas9000]

i started out playing hold em around 2002 or 2003, and in the home game i played in we were usually playing dealer's choice, so other games were being played (though hold em was the staple). for a while i just played hold em, but then i became interested in other games. i moved to stud and limit omaha/8 first, and kept branching out from there. it has come to the point where i really avoid hold em, and i don't think it's the right game for me, for whatever reason. i much more enjoy pl omaha high, stud, triple draw, and kc lowball as i'm now learning it a bit. though i did really well at hold em (mostly nl) before i started picking up other games, since then i've had my best results with pl omaha high. i could probably go the rest of my life without playing hold em and not think twice about it.

[Biggle10]

1. Avoid burnout in HE.
2. I'm only mediocre at HE. (Turns out that I'm a decent draw-player. Who knew?)
3. I enjoy learning new things.

[crabbypatty]

well i guess almost all of the normal reasons have been said and i live most of them. (burnout, learned other games at earlier age, i like the advantage that some games give you as compared to hold'em, omaha excepeted [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img], and hold'em can have much larger swings)
the only other reason, which is one of the biggest for me. if you are having a bad run at one game, you can switch to another!