Poker Boom is a Hold'em Boom

Both in Europe and the U.S., people are very enthusiastic about the growth of poker that we have been experiencing in the past few years. But this "growth of poker" is more than anything a growth of hold'em. More and more, stud, Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better, and H.O.R.S.E. type of events are taken out of the tournament schedules in favor of hold'em. And even in cash games, both live and online, an increasingly high percentage of the games is limit or no-limit hold'em.

From a business point of view, this may be great. It is easier to organize things, and dealers don't have to learn all kinds of different games. Plus, since it takes much less time for a single hand to be completed in hold'em than in almost any other game, more hands are dealt per hour. And in general, this old adage applies when it comes to the way casinos make their money: the more hands, the more rake.



But also for new players, this development is great. When I started playing for a living about nine years ago, with limit hold'em as my main game, it was common for all tournament weeks to have maybe two no-limit hold'em tournaments, one or two limit hold'em events, and three or four tournaments with stud, high-low games, and so on – all games with which I wasn't yet familiar. Nowadays, almost all tournaments are no-limit and limit hold'em, meaning that if you start out by playing/learning especially no-limit hold'em, you can rest assured that your favorite game will be played on an almost daily basis.



As a poker purist, though, I don't like this development all that much. Games like lowball, draw poker, and seven-card stud have more or less died out; all of these games required a specific set of skills that are not needed – or not to the same degree – in hold'em. Even my favorite game, pot-limit Omaha (once described as the game of the future and seen by lots of European top players as the game in which to make serious money), shows signs that it is not exactly growing anymore. I hope that my own pot-limit Omaha book, and also the one by Bob Ciaffone, will help get the game "back in the saddle," if you will. It is clear that pot-limit Omaha needs an injection – and I hope that these new works will help young players realize that hold'em is not the only beautiful poker game.



As a friend of mine always says: Oranges are not the only fruit. I hope that many players will listen to him – if only so that the current hold'em boom will indeed turn out to be a poker boom.