5 Things Hold'em Players Can Learn From Other Games

In this article we are going to look at five things hold’em players can learn from the other games out there. There is far more than five things to be learned of course, but hopefully the information below will nudge you towards following suit and trying some of these games out for yourself.

Texas Hold’em is a difficult game and the responsibility rests with you as a dedicated poker player to increase your knowledge on an ongoing basis. You must keep up with your opponents because if you are not studying and getting better it’s a safe bet that they are. As you look for that edge it is not only in poker books or Texas Hold’em videos that you will find helpful tips and tricks to help you beat your opposition. You can also develop different parts of your game by learning and mastering the other poker disciplines.

Each poker game helps you sharpen your skills in many different areas. Learning other games will transform you into a more complete player and help solidify your overall understanding of poker. You will be more comfortable in tough spots having gained vital knowledge and experience from spending a little time away from Texas Hold’em.

1. Sharpen your basic skills with Draw Poker

I am a huge fan of Draw Poker, mainly Pot Limit and No Limit Draw and never shirk from an opportunity to promote the game. I find that when I play draw, this offers me a basic test of my poker skills but it tightens up my game thanks to the clarity of what occurs in a draw poker hand.

For example, one of the key mistakes you will see in draw is players overplaying two pair. Player after player busts with two pair. Observing these mistakes over and over will teach you not to overplay hands.

Draw poker is not the most complex game but it is difficult to master. It offers the new player a great place to begin your journey towards poker mastery without overwhelming you with information overload. Once you have learned some of the basics, you can apply the principles when you return to texas hold’em or you can move on and try one of the more complex poker games.

2. Improve Your Poker Math with Seven Card Stud

Learning the nuances of Seven card stud sharpens you up in a variety of areas as your grasp of poker math will undergo a vigorious and thorough examination. Can you count the number of outs in any given situation and accurately calculate odds as the hand progresses? Can you do this while risking chips during seven rounds of betting in a limit format? You will be unable use bet sizing to put opponents to a tough decision so it is the cards that dictate the hand.

With each player having four up cards out of a maximum of seven cards dealt, by the time you are making decisions on the river you will need to have calculated how many of each suit has been dealt, you will need to calculate what cards may remains in the deck and whether this makes it an error or a good decision to continue in the hand.

With more irrefutable information available to you in terms of being able to see the various up cards on display throughout the hand, you will constantly be counting and calculating. Every hand, if played correctly, is an intensive math journey. Sharpening your poker math by learning Stud poker will come in very useful when you play Texas Hold’em and encounter situations where you need to think.

3. A crash course in poker hands from Omaha

Omaha is a great game to play when you want to tune up your Texas Hold’em game. Omaha is similar to hold’em but instead of being dealt two hole cards, you are dealt four. You only use two of the four hole cards to make your best five card hand but you are making more complex decisions. I am no expert at Omaha but I have played it enough to know that when you first start playing you feel completely lost by the sheer complexity of it, but it is worth the work.

The odds to draw to a hand in omaha are different than hold’em. In omaha the hands are driven forward by the best draws and it is usually correct to draw to a really strong hand. It is rare to see pocket aces fail to improve throughout the hand and scoop the pot.

By learning Omaha you will learn how to play with strong hands and you will learn to read your opponents when their holding range will be far wider than it would be in Hold’em. You will learn to control tilt because opponents will catch cards that beat you as they are drawing to strong hands too. But once the fog begins to lift you will gain a great deal of confidence and belief in yourself and confidence is always a transferable asset for any poker player.

4. Learn how to play drawing hands with Razz

Razz offers you an intensive course in drawing to hands without you having to worry about straights, flushes, full houses or royal flushes. Razz is a low card game where your goal is to get five low cards that are not paired. The absolute nut hand in Razz is A,2,3,4,5. Hold’em players will know this hand as “the wheel” but in razz this is not a straight, merely the five lowest cards in the deck.

Your focus in Razz is solely on calculating the strength of your opponents visible hand, their likelihood of drawing to a better low hand than yours and how many cards you could be dealt that completes your low hand. The stud betting element means you are tested on an ongoing basis by facing a choice of whether to bet or fold as the hand progresses.

The poker decisions less experienced players struggle with are when we have to calculate odds to decide whether we are getting a good price to call. Razz intensely focuses on these elements of poker within the context of playing drawing hands. It conveniently removes other distractions such as straights, full houses or royal flushes.

5. Test Your Patience and Fundamentals with Limit Hold’em

We all love big pots and the drama of building a big stack quickly. Limit Hold’em is a more considered and technical variation of poker. Yes, it is perhaps not as exciting as no limit but a good limit hold’em player always has a fantastic grasp of the fundamentals of poker , which is why you need to learn the game.

A bad no limit player can paper over the gaps in their game with good bet sizing and use of position or the good old all-in move when they are unsure. A bad Limit Hold’em player simply will not survive. In Limit Hold’em you will gain a refresher in hand selection, in reading your opponents and you will have to be able to justify each bet on every street. Every Texas Hold’em skill is refined when you play limit hold’em and as limit players will tell you, only a good player can play limit hold’em properly.

Have a go at these different games as there is something to learn from all of them. Your poker game will thank you for it.