Question for 5/10 & up veterans: Do you play other games than NLHE?

[IHateCats]

I've been playing NLHE & PLHE online for approximately 2 years now and have done very well at it but I find that sheer boredom is becoming one of my larger leaks and I'm looking for ways to combat that. Unlike a lot of successful players at the 10/20 level and up, I'm under no illusions that I'm god's gift to poker, my strengths are a relatively solid game, good attention to my opponents tendencies, a long attention span (even though I do get bored, I suspect I'm better at maintaining focus than average), very disciplined about game selection and I very, very rarely tilt. This is not my job, it's just a hobby if a profitable one, I'm 5.8 BB/100 for my last 20k hands at 10/20 games on Party, Stars and Pokerroom, mostly ring games with 8+ people and that win rate has been pretty much par for the course as I've moved up the food chain. I have no desire to move up again to 25/50+ and get scalped by Spirit Rock, TheSea, etc. I'm looking to branch out poker wise and I'm considering 3 main options and I’d appreciate comments by other successful mid/high NLHE players who’ve tried similar things or have opinions.

#1. Work on my short handed game, focus exclusively on 6 handed or less. A lot more marginal decisions, a lot more action & meta game considerations and I'd definitely have to improve my LAG gears which are ok now but not my biggest strength.

#2. Tournaments. I know there is a ton of dead money in these but I've always been somewhat disdainful of the tournaments in general because the relatively short stacks makes for very simple post flop play but I'm sure there are quite a bit of subtleties about tournament play that I don't know about and the fixed duration would seem to be a plus from the boredom perspective.

#3 Pot limit Omaha. I've always had a hankering about this game and the traffic on the major sites is now pretty considerable at this game.

Pure limit holdem isn't an option, I've tried it before and it just bores me to tears and I mostly play poker for fun, I do just fine at my day job. I’d appreciate comments by other successful mid/high NLHE players who’ve tried similar things or have opinions.


Thanks,
IHateCats

[captZEEbo1]

Why not all 3? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Poker is teh fun!

My advice though is, to play lower stakes than you're accustomed to for ALL these. Example: play $33 tournaments and lower, $200 PL omaha or less, but for s/h nl cash, you can play probably $600nl or $1000nl since it's fairly similar. Once you think you have a feel for the tournys and the PL omaha, then you can move up. I'm assuming maximum profit isn't your main concern here (since you have another job), so as long as it doesn't hurt your ego to dip down in stakes, I'd do it. I still play $.5/1 2-7 TD, despite playing the ocassional 50/100 nl.

[yvesaint]

Play rebuy tournaments. Stars has really good rebuy tournaments, especially the $10 25k guaranteed. You get deeper stacks, and the top prizes are always really nice.

[IHateCats]

Now there's an idea, deep stacks that most tournament players aren't used to handling & compulsive gambling types who can't control their compulsion to rebuy, sounds promising.

[IHateCats]

I'm fully aware that being a competent NLHE cash game player doesn't mean much when switching to PLO, I'd probably start at the 100PL or 200PL games after perusing the PLO forums first.

NLHE short handed, I'd likely drop to the 200-400NL and start playing HU. The variance swings will take some getting used to with HU.

[okayplayer]

I like to play HU (3/6NL) for a change of pace. My HU and 3 handed game has improved alot. Though it does get annoying sometimes when someone will sit down just to win a pot or the blinds and leave.

[r3vbr]

IHateCats... my winrate is similar to yours, and if you play the same ammount of hours I play, I know what you make a month. and i think you should consider yourself a very good player as i also do. why all the modesty when you are probably the best out of 1000 players online.

[r3vbr]

Oh, my sugestion is: stick to NL holdem. core competences always.

[IHateCats]

I'm aware that being a solid long term winning player at 10/20 NL puts me at a very high percentile in the overall poker player community but I'm modest about my skills because I'm aware that there are still many substantially better players than I am. For example, I'm terribly impressed by one individual on the Party 10/20 who has averaged over 13BB for 20k hands on those tables in the last month which is a crushingly high winrate for a full table for that # of hands, I have no idea if he's a 2+2 poster, not that it matters. I've seen far too many otherwise good players let their ego tell them they are ready to challenge the 25/50 and up and frequently get crushed. If I can continue to improve, i'll move up when I get beyond a 8BB average for 15k hands. That being said, basically what I'm usually doing now is grinding and I need to add some variety to keep poker fun, I'm not going to stop playing NLHE cash games.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
I still play $.5/1 2-7 TD, despite playing the ocassional 50/100 nl.

[/ QUOTE ]

The $2/4 2-7 TD game is just as soft as the $.5/1 game, you should move up.