Which Game to Play?

[TaoTe]

I'm looking to get into some deep study of poker and I want to start by specializing in one area. I see large differences in the types of games. The games I'm considering playing are limit hold'em, NLH, PLO8, and SNGs. I'm looking for a good amount of information from all the game types but specifically looking for the differences between the games, such as variance, the easiest game to profit from, the competition in the higher stakes, which sites are the best, overall what is the "best" game, and any other information that you're willing to share.

I'm looking for a fun, beatable game that has lots of information available to study. I'm not playing for profit but simply to become the best player I can. Right now I'm confused on which game I should play and could use some guidance.

Thanks

[knightmare_37]

If you're interested in learning a lot easily Limit and No Limit Hold 'Em is probably the best to start out with. There's a lot of information readily available (including here!) as well as a slew of books. PLO and PLO8 can be very profitable if you know what you're doing, as a lot of the competition is fairly bad. You'll also have to decide on whether you want to do cash/ring games or sng's/tournaments with whatever you want to do.

[Niediam]

Limit Holdem: Tons of good information available. Varience is very high. Games are hard once you get past the micros.

NL Holdem: Moderate amount of information. Varience is low. Games are easy.

PL08: Almost no information availabe. Varience is low. Games are easy.

SnGs: Low information available. Tranditionally considered low varience but I'm not sure that is still true as the games have became much more difficult. Hard games once you move past the $16 or so buyin level.

Everything I said is assuming you are talking about online play. Some things may be different for B&M play (e.g. limit hold'em games are still soft in casinos)

[Harv72b]

Niediam gave you the basic lowdown, but just to get into it a bit deeper...

LHE - Probably the easiest game to "learn" to the point where you're consistently beating it. You do get more information on each hand than you do in NL or PL games, and what's best is that the typical rookie mistakes of playing too many hands preflop & calling down too often postflop will cost you less money as you learn. However, LHE does have very high variance comparitively speaking, a result of the inability to price drawing hands out of a pot, and as Niediam said, the small stakes & higher online games have gotten much more difficult over the past 6 months or so. Still beatable for a good player, but not as easily.

NLHE - For a skilled player, this offers the lowest variance and highest average profits of any game. The key component of that sentence being "for a skilled player"...for an unskilled player, this game offers the fastest route to bustoville. It is absolutely crucial that if you decide to start out with this game, you adhere to the recommended bankroll guidelines at all times...unless you're made of money or something. The structure of the game gives you many more weapons to use against players of all types and allows you to price out drawing hands on any street. The online games are also a bit more difficult to beat than they were, but are still much easier on average than limit games at comparable stakes. Your learning curve in NL is longer than in LHE, and is also likely to be slower. However, the pot of gold near the end of that curve is going to be much larger.

PLO - Widely considered to give the greatest edge to the better player, the problem being that it can be very difficult for a beginning player to identify where that edge lies during hands. This is a game where you can & will flop the nuts but actually be an underdog to your opponent, and where you can flop a megadraw & think you've got a huge edge only to discover that most of your outs to a win are counterfeited. When you add in hi/lo to the equation, you really have to be a student of the game to figure out where you stand at times. I have zero experience in this game beyond the microstakes, but from what I've seen there and heard about bigger games, it is very much beatable.

SnGs - I think Niediam hit the nail on the head with this one. At the lowest buy-in levels, these games can practically be free money...most of your opponents are godawful at poker, and even many of the better ones are very easily exploitable. The problem is that the rake (in the form of entry fees) is usually disproportionately higher for the cheaper SnGs, and as with any tournament structure, it can only take one bad beat to kill you. Throw a few bad beats in a row together and you could have a serious downswing on your hands. Again, I have no recent experience in SnGs above the $22 level, so I won't try to comment personally on them.

Personally, when you're talking about online games & especially low- & micro-stakes, I think that Stud8 probably offers the softest games available. Many of the players have no clue whatsoever about even starting hand selection, let alone play after 3rd street, and the structure of the game makes it very easy for you to reap huge rewards from your +EV situations. I haven't even looked at the mid-high stakes online games, but I honestly have some difficulty believing that they'd be much more difficult, and nearly impossible to believe that they'd be more difficult than hold'em games at the same stakes. Game availability is an issue, though.

[CasinoR7]

Is it better to learn the high only version of the game first, before learning how to play hi/lo split?

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it better to learn the high only version of the game first, before learning how to play hi/lo split?

[/ QUOTE ]

Likely a lot easier. I learned O8 before I ever tried playing Omaha hi, and as far as Stud goes I basically learned both at the same time while playing HORSE. Stud hi came faster, but Stud8 offers you many more high EV situations (and bigger pots), most of which seemed pretty intuitive for anyone with a poker background & a decent understanding of pot equity/drawing odds.