Learning New Games

Every year I've down-rated myself in my annual New Year's resolutions column for failing to get out there and learn some new games. Well, that may have been true in the past but I'm here to tell you that it's gonna stop – right here, right now. I've found an easy and inexpensive way to garner some solid real-game experience without hurting my bankroll. In fact, it's fail-safe.

The answer was always right in front of me, but it was just one of those things where I simply didn't see the forest for the trees – at least not until I entered, out of boredom as much as anything else, one of the Bike's Mini Series of Poker tournaments. Most readers know by now that I prefer cash games to tournaments, and enter very few as a result. But, there I was. I had the urge to play poker, and I felt like playing that night.

So what if I play mostly limit poker, seldom play Omaha, and rarely enter tournaments. That night's event was pot-limit Omaha, which I've played occasionally in home games and a few times two years ago when I was in Austria. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, an experienced pot-limit Omaha player. But, I got lucky, made a few hands at the right time, and wound up winning the event.

While driving home, I realized I had played a game with which I was very unfamiliar, and would have been quite reluctant to play for serious money in a cash game, particularly against a tough lineup of dedicated pot-limit players. But entering a tournament limited any potential losses to the amount of my buy-in, and for a relatively small amount of money, I was able to book a few hours of experience that I would not otherwise have been able to obtain.

In addition – and this is much more important, in my estimation – tournament play is a bit more pure than a cash game, and therefore better serves the beginning player as a learning device. In tournaments, particularly those with no rebuys, most competitors seem to play a lot closer to the book than they do in cash games. Perhaps it's not true where you live, but in Southern California, where I play, there are some very loose games in which many players raise and reraise simply to hear their chips go clackety-clacking into the pot.

In tournaments, however, where it's one mistake and you're out, these very same players often play a lot more closely to what poker theory suggests as optimal. While one can win more money over the long haul in games full of players who will do your betting and raising for you, you still have to make adjustments and interpolations to book play when confronting them in cash games.

But when you're in a tournament, and you're there to learn as much as you can about a game that you don't play all that often, it somehow seems easier to come to grips with the realities and concepts of a new game if it isn't such a walk on the wild side, and plays a bit closer to the book.

The tournament gave me a feel for the kinds of hands to raise with as well as those that were better off released. The game's texture provided insights into how to manipulate the pot – building it when I wanted to pump it up in preparation for an attack on later betting rounds, as well as keeping it small when that seemed to be the better tactic.

Getting lucky and making the final table afforded me an opportunity to play shorthanded, and when the blinds were large in relation to the players' stack sizes, the pot-limit aspects of the game migrated into what was, for all intents and purposes, a no-limit game. There's no guarantee that you're going to reap this additional reward when you enter a tournament, but it's lagniappe when you do – unexpected, pleasant, and rewarding on a number of different levels.

So, now I've found an easy out. If I want to learn new games, or even feel the need to refresh and reinvigorate myself, all I have to do is sit down and play small tournament games that I don't usually play. This kind of variety can be a terrific asset for any poker player. Not only is a little variety a good thing, it's a chance to stretch your wings and see how well you can handle poker experiences and situations that you almost never find yourself in on a daily basis.

We all grow stale from time to time, and playing the same game day after day, week after week, is no way to break out of a rut. But this is. It's fun and inexpensive, and playing games with which you are unfamiliar in a setting that minimizes or at least controls the potential hit on your bankroll is a way to look at poker from another perspective. Who knows, it may provide you with added insights into your own favorite game.

Gaining skill in a multitude of games is certainly preferable to specializing in one game and playing it to the exclusion of everything else. Your favorite game might not be spread one day, or the game might be so tough that you'll be throwing your money away just by sitting down. But when you can play most games, you have an advantage, and a big one, at that. It's the flexibility to be able to move around and choose the very best games you can find. And a little experience at pot-limit poker will allow you to play with some degree of confidence in locales where limit poker is seldom, if ever, played.

I can guarantee that if you're skulking around London looking for a limit hold'em game, you're gonna be looking for a long time. But if you are willing to sit down and play pot-limit, you'll have a plethora of games at your disposal.

But don't just take my word for it – give it a go. Find a tournament and enter some event that you almost never play, or even one you've never played at all. See whether you enjoy it, and once it's over, sit back and reflect on what you've learned from that experience. My guess is that you'll walk away considering it money well spent.

Visit my website at www.loukrieger.com. My newest book, Poker for Dummies, is available at major bookstores everywhere.