Playing All Games

[Jimbo]

How many of you play as many different types of poker games you can find?

I have played all the well know standard variations with many distinct rules and strategies, Everywhere from Lowball at Gardenia during the old days to the rock garden mid limit games in Vegas.

Most of my life I played pretty high P/L and N/L private games. A few with game limitaions but very many with anything goes as long as the houseman and players say they understand the rules. This has included Stud 8 or better with preflop buys and shuck two or none on the end, 7/27 and 2/22, guts poker, burning cross, Omaha with 5 in your hand, Omaha8 with 5 in your hand as well as padooki (learned this game in Nam) and many others too numerous and crazy to mention.

I feel this led to my success in the sit n goes I play online as well as the ring games in the various disciplines. Although they are much more structured and become crapshoots in the latter stages (The sit n goes that is).

Anyone else here feel that their exposure to oddball games have helped them with their more standard play today?

[benkahuna]

I've played almost everything online up to 3-6 limit and 5-10 nl he. And I've played pineapple, razz, triple draw (both types) and 5 card draw.
I've even played pot limit and no limit 5 card and 7 card stud on prima.

I think it's mainly understanding poker theory that helps me play all games. Having played most games I mainly just think about the other game in the current game like "if this were omaha I'd totally be folding here" or "if this were no limit, I'd bet the pot here."

Learning omaha helped me read the board a little better in holdem and there are probably some other benefits to playing different games, but I can't really say what they are. Oh yeah, starting in omaha hi lo helped me learn omaha as well.

[diebitter]

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I've played almost everything online up to 3-6 limit and 5-10 nl he. And I've played pineapple, razz, triple draw (both types) and 5 card draw.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where did you play Razz?

[AaronBrown]

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Everywhere from Lowball at Gardenia during the old days to the rock garden mid limit games in Vegas.

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This is just a pet peeve of mine, it's not the flower, it's Gardena. I hear the place mispronounced more often than said correctly.

I like to play a lot of different games, but I watch, think and read a lot before I sit down at a new (to me) variation. In my opinion, Hold'em and seven card stud hi-lo are the best-played in general, anyone can learn decent play from a number of different books or programs. Omaha and five card draw lowball are next. At other games the average level of play is worse. I'm talking about the cardplay, not the poker. In other words, people don't know the relative values of hands as precisely, the probabilities of improvement, or what situations are good to raise or avoid. Also with the less common games, people get used to playing with a small group of opponents, and are less prepared to deal with novel ones.

[varoadstter]

Yep, I'll happilly jump on a stud game or even Crazy Pineapple when they spread it online. I'm not near a cardroom so I don't get to go that route much and the times I am near one I'm trying to make $$$ so I hit the holdem games. Once upon a time we played dealer's choice at my home game but now everyone is into NLHE tournies. I am a big fan of SHOE, HORSE, etc. tournies. That's a great way to get an edge on most other players as many are almost completely ignorant of games other than holdem and possibly omaha. I'm certain you'd absolutely love a HORSE tourney.

[Pyromaniac]

full tilt has razz tables

[Jimbo]

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I'm certain you'd absolutely love a HORSE tourney.

[/ QUOTE ] Right you are. Anywhere online to play these? I know, not likely at all. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Python49]

I only play hold'em because that's hard enough to get really good at on its own. Messing around with other games only slows down the learning process in hold'em, which in turn slows down my progression in stakes... which ofcourse results in less money. That's my take on it anyway. But i do however play other games for fun in live games with friends... just not seriously.

[benkahuna]

At Full Tilt. And I hated it. The luck factor in that game is quite the extreme. I think you must need 1000 times the bring in to play that game to win given the variance. Joey Hawthorne's chapter on it Super System was quite good.