Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 05 April 2009 / Leave a comment

Poker is a constantly evolving game, and in order to be able to stay consistently profitable a player has to think about how the game will change in the future.

Certain games shift dramatically in popularity, and understanding how and what games will become popular is crucial in working on your game.

....weak players regularly have winning sessions, which keeps them believing that they are good - when in reality over the year they will be going broke just as if they were playing in no limit hold'em games.

A great example of this is the current status of no limit hold'em. Although still extremely popular at the low stakes, at the higher limits these games are steadily drying up. This is simply because of the nature of no limit hold'em - it is perhaps the most extreme variant of poker in terms of how quickly a bad player will lose money. As a result of this, fish soon start avoiding the games, as they basically never win, which clearly does not appeal to even the worse player.

Compare this to a game like pot limit Omaha, which is currently extremely popular at the higher limits. Although a good Omaha player arguably has an even greater edge over fish than they would in no limit hold'em, it takes a great many more hands for this edge to be realised, due to the high variance of the game. Because of this, weak players regularly have winning sessions, which keeps them believing that they are good - when in reality over the year they will be going broke just as if they were playing in no limit hold'em games.

Mixed games also provide a great game to keep bad players in. Due to the extensive rotation in either H.O.R.S.E or eight game, only a very few players has a huge edge over any other at all the games. Although the fish might be a terrible hold'em and Omaha player, they may well play a fairly decent tight stud game, and by having these rotations you keep these players in for the games that they are really bad at. Limit games are also much less psychologically taxing for bad players, as no one mistake ever costs them their stack - a feature that allows the losses to be more gradual and easy to accept for bad players.

It will not be long before the heads up no limit hold'em specialist is about as redundant as the five card draw specialists of the sixties or the seven card stud players of the seventies and eighties in my opinion. The very best players understand the nature of all the games, and try and master all of them to be able to sit in the very best games that exist not only on the day, but also over the years. It is no coincidence that the very biggest cash game in the world is usually eight game, where a player has to be good at all rotations to be able to survive.

By becoming proficient in as many games as possible you greatly increase your chances of being able to win money in the long term - who knows, one day we might see you in Bobby's room if you master them all.

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