If you
want to
become a
complete
poker
player,
you need
to learn
how to
play all
the
variations
of the
game.
You
should
do this
because
it’s no
good
being
the
world’s
best
Hold ’em
player
when the
biggest
sucker
in town
only
wants to
play
Seven-Card
Stud.
Ideally,
you want
to be
able to
play
whatever
game
looks to
be the
most
profitable
on any
given
day.
When I
first
started
playing
poker,
Five-Card
Stud and
Five-Card
Draw
were two
of the
most
popular
games,
but now
they’re
both
almost
completely
dead.
They got
replaced
by
Seven-Card
Stud,
which
has also
decreased
in
popularity.
For a
while
No-Limit
Hold ’em
looked
like it
might be
dying
out
because
in the
high-stakes
cash
games
the
tightest
players
always
won, but
it
proved
to be
the
perfect
game for
television
so now
it’s the
most
popular
game.
Because
of how
prevalent
Hold ’em
has
become,
I would
advise
beginning
poker
players
to start
out by
learning
its many
variations,
including
Limit,
No-Limit,
cash
games,
and
tournaments.
After
Hold
’em, you
should
learn
how to
play
Omaha,
particularly
Pot-Limit.
Limit
Omaha
doesn’t
work
very
well
because
deciding
whether
or not
to call
a bet on
the
river
when a
third
flush
card
hits and
you make
a
Queen-high
flush
isn’t a
very big
decision
if you
only
have to
call one
bet and
there
are
twelve
in the
pot. But
if
you’re
playing
Pot-Limit
and your
opponent
bets the
size of
the pot
on the
river,
whether
you
should
call
with
your
Queen-high
flush or
not
becomes
a much
more
difficult
decision.
In
general,
Pot-Limit
games
require
a bit
more
skill
than
No-Limit
games.
Because
you
don’t
have the
all-in
move to
fall
back on,
you have
to be
equally
capable
of
playing
before
the flop
and
after
the
flop.
Next you
should
learn
the
Hi/Lo
games,
particularly
Stud
Hi/Lo
and
Omaha
Hi/Lo.
Another
good
game is
2-7
Triple
Draw, a
tremendous
action
game
that’s
catching
on very
quickly.
Like the
best
card
games,
it has a
lot of
mathematical
elements
to it,
but
there’s
also a
lot of
card
reading
and
bluffing
involved.
In 2-7,
a
drawing
hand
with one
card to
come is
almost
always
an
underdog
to a
hand
that
stands
pat, so
if you
have a 9
and you
can
force
your
opponent
to break
his 9
you’ve
gained a
big
advantage.
Beginning
poker
players
are
lucky
nowadays
because
they can
learn
and
practice
all
these
games
online.
When I
was
starting
out,
most
poker
games
were
private
games
and you
had to
pay your
dues
just to
get
invited
to play.
If you
were a
winning
player
and you
wanted
to get
invited
back,
you
needed
to show
up on
time, be
nice to
the
suckers,
and you
couldn’t
quit
when you
were
winning
a little
bit.
Even
then,
there
might
not be a
place at
the
table
for you
the
following
week.
Contrast
that
with
today’s
world
where
you can
play on
your
computer
at home
any time
you
want.
Playing
online
offers
an
unprecedented
level of
convenience.
Let’s
say
you’re
about to
go the
movies
and your
girlfriend’s
just
gotten
out of
the
shower
but
she’s
taking
forever
to dry
her
hair.
You can
actually
play an
entire
Sit & Go
while
you’re
waiting
for her.
Sit &
Gos can
be very
profitable.
They’re
also an
ideal
way to
test out
new
strategies.
By
studying
your
hand
history
afterwards,
you can
see what
worked
and what
didn’t.
You can
make
notes
about
how you
fared
with a
big
stack
and how
you did
with a
short
stack,
and you
can
develop
new
ideas to
try out
in the
future.
I still
enjoy
playing
live
because
one of
my
skills
is the
ability
to read
people,
but
there
are
little
tricks
you can
pick up
that
will
help you
gather
information
about
your
opponents
when
you’re
playing
online.
If
you’re
playing
at a
single
table
and one
of your
opponents
is
multi-tabling,
you can
bring up
all the
tables
he’s
sitting
at and
watch
how he
plays.
If he
suffers
a bad
beat on
another
table,
it could
affect
the way
he plays
a hand
at your
table,
and you
can take
advantage
of it.
For
beginning
players,
online
poker
offers a
convenient
way of
gaining
a ton of
experience
in a
very
short
period
of time.
If you
choose
to go
this
route, I
suggest
you take
the time
to learn
all the
games
available
to you
so
you’ll
never
have to
pass up
an
opportunity
to play
against
a big
sucker
just
because
he wants
to play
a game
you’re
unfamiliar
with.
