After having participated in this forum for a long time, it appears that most us specialize in playing Holdem. I know that I play Holdem almost exclusively, and if the posts in this forum are any indication, most of us here do the same. Indeed, the vast majority of the posts in this forum are about Holdem strategy and concepts, with only occasional questions about other forms of poker.

Thinking about those circumstances, two questions occurred to me:

1. Is it reasonable for someone to consider himself a serious poker player if he only plays and understands Texas Holdem?

2. Would a player's Holdem skills improve if he tried to learn and master the basic concepts and strategies of other poker games (such as stud, Omaha, Razz, or draw) as well?

What do you guys think?

Friend of mine says that playing Omaha was the best thing ever for his Hold Em game because he sees so many combinations of hands instantly and can get right to the math. This makes sense to me. I'm a strictly holdem guy though so I cant say for sure.

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i mostly play hold em, but i like to play stud and omaha every now and then for variety...i'm not sure if knowledge of stud has helped my hold em game directly, but i find i play better if i play two different games at once as it makes me pay more attention to what i'm doing...esp during a long session, after 5 hours of straight hold em i just get bored and start making automatic decissions without actually thinking....

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I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favour and who then asks: Am I then a cheat? for he wants to perish.

Yeah I have heard that playing other forms of poker, especially Omaha can help your hold em game.

I only play Hold Em, but I've been playing less than a year, so I'm still finding that quite enough to get the hang of on it's own!!

I have tried Omaha, but I don't like it cos every hand it looks like I have something! And I worry that if I play Omaha too much my Hold Em skills (for what they're worth heheh!) will get rusty, when I've spent so long trying to get them better.

I'd like to have a go at other games, but I'm still too new to Hold Em I think.

Also, isn't there an issue that cos Hold Em is the one on telly, that's where all the fish are? Anyone taking up poker for the first time will play Hold Em cos it's on TV. So I would guess the average Omaha player is much better than the average Hold Em player....which also puts me off playing it!!

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1. if you only play holdem, you are a holdem player, not a poker player.

2. Yeah, I think it will help. PLO will make you think more about playing the nuts, and playing marginal hands. Stud will make you think about equity and betting on the come.

1) No, see beavis's post. but if you are starting to branch out, make sure you have read (and understood) ToP, Regardless of the game. This one book alone will help make the ttransistion to any other game easier.

2) Yes, See beavis post

wanna cracker?

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