One Thousand ways to Play

   Deal out Jacks or better
   on a blanket by the stairs          Tom Waits

   One of my poker goals for this year is to start playing Seven Card Stud. It's my plan to play a new version of Poker each year. Last year I played Six-max Fixed Limit Texas Holdem cash games and the year before it was Six-max Pot Limit Omaha cash games. So that's three down, God knows how many more to go. The fact is, there is an enormous number of variations on the game of Poker.
   My father taught me how to play Poker when I was a boy. The game he showed me was Five Card Draw, but he didn't call it that. He called it Poker, and as far as I knew that was it. It was a little later that I began to be aware of a number of variations on that basic game. First up, on American TV shows and movies (especially cowboy movies) they could sometimes be seen to be playing something called Five Card Stud Poker. I had no idea how this was played, but I knew of its existence.
   Then I got hold of a copy of Hoyle's Rules of Games and read up on the game of Poker. That was a bit of am eye-opener. First-up I learned that the basic game of Five Card Draw is played with antes rather than blinds and that the version I learned is called Australian Poker. There are also a number of other variations, including Pass and Out, and Jackpots (also known as Jacks or Better). Then there were the stud games: Five Card, Seven Card, Lowball, High-Low, Mexican Stud, Spit in the Ocean, and many more. On top of that there were a number of  other versions of the game listed, such as Cincinnati, Criss Cross, Three Card, and Put and Take. Of course, all this was a long time ago. My memory is not that good. I cheated by checking my current copy of Hoyle's.
   I was introduced to a new group of games after I met my wife-to-be. She was in the habit of playing a game called Nine Card with her work-mates before work. I learned to play this community card game by playing with her and her friends. Then when we started playing in a regular 'Poker circuit' I learned a clutch of more complicated games. One was similar to Criss Cross and there were others such as Basket and Shopping. These were all multiple card games involving many possible combinations of hands. In other words, they were action games, and were particularly popular with the Pacific Island community.
   This was back in the days when playing poker meant sitting around a table with real people. But that was about to change. They started showing a new game called Texas Holdem on ESPN and it was being played as a tournament; another new development. I started playing Texas Holdem regularly and not long after that I started reading up on poker strategy. That's when I discovered other versions of the game, such as Omaha, Omaha High-Low and Razz. Since then, as a result of reading books and websites, playing online and mixing with other poker players, I've come across a trickle of new game types. I heard about Badugi Poker from a Poker meetup group, Double Holdem from a Poker website and Chinese Poker from a book. I have no doubt that there are many other variants around that I haven't heard of, at least not yet.
   But this is just the beginning. There are a number of other factors that create even greater variety in the number of possible poker games. Any of these games can be played with different limit structures. Typically, they can be played as No Limit, Pot Limit, Spread Limit or Fixed Limit games. Anyone who has played in both Fixed Limit Holdem and No Limit Holdem games knows that there is a big difference in the way that the two games are played. You can even play in games with mixed limits; The Big Game, currently showing on TV here, is played pot limit before the flop and no limit after the flop.
   Of course, another major difference is that between tournaments and cash games. Playing in tournaments requires a player to be much more active, while patience is an important attribute of cash game players. Cash games can also vary according to the number of players at the table. Normally you can find full table games (9 or 10 for Holdem), six-max games (6 players) and heads-up games (2 players). Once again, the character of the game changes significantly with changes in the number of players.
   And once you start looking at tournaments, the variations are even greater. Firstly, there are SitnGo (on demand) Tournaments and regular Tournaments that start at a specified time. Then the numbers can vary from 6 player games all the way up to tournaments that involve thousands of players. Tournaments can also be short-stacked or deep-stacked, slow or fast (Turbos), satellites, have re-buys and/or add-ons, and the payout structure can vary from a small fraction of players being paid to double or nothing games where the top half get paid. All these variations (and the many that I've failed to mention) require adjustments to the way the game is played.
   Being able to play one version of Poker well doesn't mean that you'll be able to win at a different game type, or even at a different limit structure of the same game. Although the basic principals might stay the same, the strategies require constant adjustment from game to game. I figure that trying different game types will help me to become adaptable in my general play and broaden my understanding of the principals of the game. Failing that, it's fun to try different formats, not to mention challenging. And I haven't even mentioned the differences between playing at low buy-in levels and more expensive games, live and online games, or the effect of the rake on games.
   So what this all adds up to is this: if I play one new game type each year, there is little if any likelihood of me ever running out of new games to play.