I've been playing Nolimit Holdem cash games and tourney's for about 2 years with good consistant results. Should I be learning other games like Omaha etc? I read the article Daniel posted about using Omaha strategies in other games, but what's everyone's thoughts on this.

It doesn't hurt, and usually actually helps you think about Hold'Em differently, as well.

For me, Omaha helped me a lot with counting outs a reading the board.

It's good to learn other games for when you're running bad in another, or are just bored.

I'll second that.

If you ever find yourself wondering, "What's the nuts on this board?", you just wait a second and then you can say, "Oh yeah, that." when there's a showdown.

For the love of God(or more importantly, poker), learn different games. Poker is not all about Holdem.
Don't even think about what learning another game could do for your Holdem game. It will improve your general poker thinking and understanding for sure.

But you might find profit and enjoyment in playing other games. Possibly far more profit than you make in Holdem.
This is what I don't get about the current generation of poker players. It's like people are scared of learning and playing another game. It won't hurt you brain too much, and if you start in smaller stakes, then your wallet won't get hurt too much either.

1000% on the money!!! After branching out to other games, I found Stud8 to be my best game, which is strange because I'm still pretty bad at Stud Hi and Razz. This week alone I won a 125 man Stud8 tourney and placed 3rd out of 110 later that week.

I also may have a chance to be part of a home game that spreads multiple games, some I've never even played online. And I'm gonna drive over an hour and a half just to get there!!! It's probably a -EV situation for me, but so what. I'll meet people with intrests similar to mine and my game will continue to improve. Can't hurt, that's for sure.

Yeah - 5 card draw, 3 draws, one eyed jacks and the man with the axe....that's the way to go.


Actually, my best game is lowball...I learned this from years of draw poker and seven card stud where I always had the worst hand at the table...when we reversed the rules I started winning.

i hardly play hold'em anymore. If you learn other games, table selection dictates what you play...so you're always in a juicy game!

OP, this guy used to play mainly holdem and posted on this forum since pretty much the beginning.
He got good(at holdem) and moved up stakes. Now lives in vegas, and is a pro/semi-pro as far as I know.

And here he is saying this - what does that tell you?

Playing only hold em gets very boring for me... I tend to switch between games a lot..

One thing people arn't mentioning is that learning Omaha might hurt your Holdem game short term. Lower limit Omaha (and or h/l) is basically a game of nut peddeling. This caused me to be way too passive when going back to Holdem and not realizing when my 2nd or 3rd pair was actually winning. Keep this in your head though, and you should be fine.

I would say to learn other games though. The game selection tip was good advice. The more games you know, the more selection of juicy games you can sit down at. I generally only play Omaha H/L and Stud H/L during peak hours as the competition is fairly weak. At about 3-4 am when most games are only regulars, I switch back to NL Holdem and those fishy games.

you definately have to learn to adjust from game to game. after a session of 2-7 all my other games are really aggressive, so i take breaks if i switch games.

Seven Stud H/L is my fav game, might not be my best and there ainy many games going on but it is a great game.

ohh and don't forget 13 card razz 2-12 Octuple draw hi lo in out shake it all about with Jacks wild.

Or half-pot limit, double board, 7 card, Omaha Hi/Lo. I actually play that one regularly.

Do you or anyone else know of a good strategy guide online for Stud 8/b? I'm god awful at the game.

Ray Zee's book is good.

Online try this

http://www.doylespokerroom.com/poker/stud_poker.cfm

When I'm card dead, I head for the razz tables. That is all.

aucu and others, regarding stud8/b:
This was my favourite game, but is not profitable enough on the net IMHO. Party and Paradise were good, but those days are long gone. I love the game and its concepts, but t he games are too tight - even if the players are weak-tight, that dents our profitability a lot. It's not like Holdem where you can exploit weak-tights - stud8/b doesn't offer that much profit in aggression. You give back a similar amount in hands where your board sucks etc.

The profit in this game comes from scooping, as T.Brunson says, but also splitting a good multi-way pot with a strong 1-way hand. The problem is not many pots go multi-way, and in those that do, the players will not bet and raise their side of the pot in order to extract more money from the 'piggy-in-the-middle'.

This is the sad result of the weak-tight, nittish approach to the game which has become the norm in online poker, though live in the US might be good...

On the other hand, stud-hi is relatively loose online, which is surprising. That's worth an interest.

I can't play them much for profit as two tables are all I handle, or I'd have to play higher then I'm used too and swings in the BR in Stud High can be huge.

I treat them as a change of pace and fun not so much as a cash cow.

while i agree with you that nut peddeling is profitable and is a easy way to play. the most return in these games is found by maximizing position. lag play has more variance, but it is way more profitable if you know how to play it.

OP: IMO PLO will help your hold em game more than you think possible. it would take a few sessions to learn which hands aren't dominated but you will understand better the absolute imperative of position in a way i could never fully explain here.

Yeah, but it can make you weak tight if you don't adjust back properly. Play the HA games on FullTilt. 10 hands each of PLHE and PLO. People who are good at one tend to be very exploitable in the other.

Wow nice find! I'd been looking for that since I can't get at my copy at the moment. I don't have SS1 though - does anyone know if Chip Reese's stud chapter is online anywhere?

Also, if anyone has any thougts on playing LAG Omaha I'd love to hear them. I Usually play Omaha tight as a rock...

i've looked for reese's chapter online and have never been able to find it.

limit omaha8, PLO, or PLO8? Lag omaha is the same as any other game, use position and your superior skills (often starting w/ inferior hands) to stack off donkeys who get too committed to hands out of position.

ex: i insta fold 3345 UTG, but if someone has raised UTG it's an easy smooth call on the button if the stacks are deep enough. also, if everyone limps, i think it's a pretty standard squeeze if the first limper doesn't have a habit of limp/re-raising.

play full ring low limit O8 tighter than you play any other game.

I was referring to PLO. As far as I'm aware you can't really play loose in O8, but maybe the agression could be stepped up where both players are in marginal positions.

Cheers for the example. I don't think really know enough about PLO to really get the point (I'd have thought 33 is pretty dodgy since a bottom set isn't much of a hand?) but I haven't played for a while so maybe I'll give it a whirl soon and look for spots to pressure.

you can play laggy PLO8 and O8 (again not low limit full ring) well too.

it's all about stacking people. say UTG is super tight but marries aces and pot raises coming in, everyone folds. folding 3345 here is a monstrous mistake. if you flop a wheel you are gonna stack him, if you flop a set on a dry board w/ no ace or king you may stack him. now, if the flop is super dangerous for aces (689 all diamonds) you should be able to tell exactly where he's at in the hand and even someone who marries aces has to be crazy to shove AAKQ all black on low hearts board.

when you miss you miss and go on to the next hand. believe me, i'd rather have 3579 on the button than AAKQds in the SB.

I play LAGgier in PLO than in just about any other game. If it's two or three to the flop, and it checks to me on the button, I'm potting it about 90% of the time. I also raise a ton preflop in the button and CO with any decent hands. Sometimes, I'll attack weak leads on montone boards too, since that usually means a low flush that's scared it might be drawing dead. When you consistently hammer the other players in position, not only are you picking up a lot of pots uncontested, but you're also advertising really well for the times you do end up flopping a really good hand.

As far as playing lots of games, I'll echo the sadness over Party closing. Stud-hi was one of my best games, and I've hardly played it at all since Party closed. I just haven't seen another good 30/60 game anywhere. The game on Stars is way too nitty to be profitable and doesn't even run all the time. Bodog doesn't even spread Stud higher than 5/10 and there's usually nothing actually going over 1/2.

I do enjoy 2-7 TD which I just learned recently, but I still feel like I'm a huge fish in that game at decently high limits. I've got the basic hand selection and stuff (mainly from SS2), but I have no feel for when you can lay down hands after the last draw or when I should be breaking my 87 type hands. It seems like my only really profitable options online right now are PLO and LHE. (Obviously, there are good NLHE games too but that makes me tilty and just last night I swore them off again for a while.)