Rick and I have been streaming on Twitch on Tuesdays at 7pm PDT. We have been calling our stream Twitch Tuesdays with Rep. The idea for the last 4 weeks was to have an open forum to discuss our 7-Card Stud and Limit Hold’em courses. We’ve been very happy with the results, and have had good questions from the audience which allows us to discuss a lot of different strategies and situations for each game. We were even able to have Ian Johns, our guest instructor for Limit Hold’em, join us for one of the streams.
We’ll come back to the stream discussion in a moment, but for now, one of the topics that has come up as a result of these streams has been how to learn mixed games. This is a topic that I get a lot of questions about. How do you approach learning mixed games?
First off, I think that a lot of people have a bad mindset, or misconception, for mixed games. A poker game that is a mix, is just that, a mix of poker games. People see the Dealer’s Choice event at the WSOP and the list of 20 poker games you can choose from and think they need to play all those games to be a “mixed” player. That isn’t true. You only have to play the games that are in your mix.
So if you are playing HORSE, you are playing one version of what people refer to as “mixed games.” What is HORSE exactly? Well, it is 5 different poker games that are being rotated on a predetermined basis. The most common rotation is to switch games after a predetermined number of hands, although, some places switch games after a specified time period. So every 8 hands, you will switch poker games. Each letter is an abbreviation for a game. First you play Limit Hold’em, then Omaha 8/better, then Razz, then Stud, then Stud 8/better. The most important concept to remember is that at any given time, you are playing exactly 1 game. You aren’t required to be thinking about Stud while you are playing Omaha. It is just Omaha for now. So, in order to learn to play “mixed” games, you just have to learn play the games that are in your mix.
In cash games, the games that are in the mix are negotiated by the players who start the game. Some places have a standard mix. We play 100-200 mix every Friday night in Seattle. The 5 games are always Hold’em, Omaha 8/better, Stud 8/better, PLO and Big O. They used to have a HOE (Hold’em, Omaha/8, Stud/8) three days a week at Parx. Some places change it every time. But whatever the mix is, in order to play you only have to know the games that are played in that mix.
I recommend to people that they learn one new game at a time, eventually learning enough to play the local mix. Then add games that are either interesting to you, or are played places you think you may want to play mixed games in the future.
So back to the Twitch streaming discussion. Because we are happy with how the streams have gone and there are six Tuesdays left until the WSOP starts, Rick and I had an idea. There are also 6 more poker games that we are planning to make courses for here at ThePokerAcademy.com. So, we are going to do 6 more streaming sessions, one for each game. They will still be on Tuesdays at 7pm PDT, starting tonight with No-limit Hold’em. Check it out by going to Twitch.TV/thepokeracademy. We look forward to seeing all of you for the next six Tuesdays!