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Why Poker Players Should Learn Mixed Games

How do I become a well-rounded poker player? That’s a common question we hear from players, especially Hold’em players. The answer is simple. Learn mixed games.

The best poker players in the world are proficient at multiple disciplines of poker, and by that, we don’t mean multiple forms of Texas Hold’em. Learning how to play Stud, Omaha, 2-7, and other games will help you become a well-rounded player. Today we will go over some of the reasons you should learn mixed games.

Break Up the Monotony From Texas Hold’em

One of the biggest reasons that poker players start playing poker variants other than Texas Hold’em is boredom. While Texas Hold’em is the most popular form of poker in the world, it can get tedious after a while.

Even if you play a loose style, you are still going to find the game of Hold’em repetitive after a while. Learning mixed games will help to keep poker fresh and give you a change of pace from Hold’em. You will also learn just how fast Hold’em is played compared to other games. Play a few hours of Stud and when you go back to Hold’em, you’ll feel like you’re playing Rush Poker.

Additional Revenue Streams

While Hold’em is the king of poker, it is not the only game out there. Also, Hold’em games are a lot tougher nowadays than they were in 2005. As such, you may want to switch to mixed games as a way to gain additional revenue streams.

It’s true that more people are playing mixed games, but the number of players that play mixed games well is still very low. This is particularly true at lower stakes. If you become proficient at mixed games, you will find plenty of spots to extract profit from players.

Smaller Fields in Tournaments

If you’re tired of playing in tournaments with 5,000, 10,000, or even 25,000 players, then you need to switch to mixed games. Unless you’re playing something like a SCOOP series at PokerStars, most mixed game will have fields of a few hundred as opposed to thousands.

If you play live poker, you will find that mixed game fields are generally between 50 to 200 players. While this doesn’t translate into prize pools equivalent to their Hold’em counterparts, they are easier tournaments to win.

For those with dreams of one day winning a WSOP bracelet, mixed games may be the key as you’re seldom going to have a field of over a few hundred.

You’ll Become a Better Poker Player

Whenever you hear a discussion about the greatest poker players in history, every player mentioned is proficient at mixed games. Even Phil Hellmuth has become proficient in mixed games and has multiple mixed game victories over his career.

Learning different strategies will help you in various ways. First, it will train you to become flexible and adapt to changing conditions in poker. Next, it will help you improve strategy as you will be able to see what concepts work in which games. You’ll find that some concepts in Hold’em will translate to games like NL 2-7 Draw. Adversely, you will see how split game concepts in Stud Hi-Lo work for games such as Omaha Hi-Lo.

Start By Learning One Game at a Time

The best way to become a mixed games player is by learning new disciplines one at a time. Some players make the mistake of trying to learn all of the games of HORSE or 8-Game at the same time. Your best bet is to pick a game, such as Omaha, and become competent at it before moving to the next game.

Personally, I recommend that you start learning Stud games before anything else. Stud games are the core of all mixed games from HORSE to 8-Game. If you master Stud, you will have at least a four-game arsenal to build upon.

Regardless, if you want to become a better poker player, then mixed games are the way to achieve that goal. It will not be a fast transition, but in the end, it will be a rewarding one.

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