Hey,
Had a very interesting grinding day today. Started off by dropping 1.4k in 1/2 and 2/4 nlhe which was fun. Then I tossed some poker chips and got back to business, turning that around to -$900. I lost 4 flips and was at -$1600 before I could blink. I would have normally been tilting pretty hard but at the same time i was at two $30/$60 razz games and running/playing well. i ended up shipping about $1200 in razz money and later played a sesh of NLHE and eeked out a modest $300 win which boosted my confidence and kept me from deciding to become a razz pro.
The point of this blog i guess is redefine game selection. This can easily apply to tournaments. For instance, the HORSE tourneys on Stars and Tilt are some of the softest $33+ tourneys out there. That goes for the omaha ones as well. Learn all the games and you can make your sched. way more + EV. Learning new games means more tournaments and more money. In cash games, it means you can game select 3-4 different games across 3-4 different sites( more for HE and omaha, less for Razz and Stud.) You should have plenty of good tables when you do this. It is also conducive to becoming a better "poker player". Also if you are looking to play high stakes cash anytime soon, the action is at the FT mixed game tables now. Players like urindanger and durrrr are trying to play mixed games cause all of their NLHE and PLO action is drying up.
The last reason you should play lots of games. Ivey. The man plays everything, hasn't won a HE bracelet, is the best player in the world, etc. etc. I think there is something to be said about Iveys dominance. I know ashton griffen said that he was fustrated because he has played more PLO hands than Ivey, and Ivey seems one or two steps ahead of him. I think it is because Ivey is a "poker player". He knows what turn cards are good to bluff and all that, but also when people are steaming, how they are likely to react to winning/ losing a big pot, etc. This is why he is so good at every form of poker. He builds skills that translate to all of the games.
So please everyone, learn a new game this year. Just don't learn Razz, get your own game.