As mentioned last week, non-hold'em events and mixed game events saw large field increases at this year's World Series of Poker. The knowledge base in many of those games remains woefully underdeveloped, due to the focus on hold'em over the last five years. The field sizes of the non-hold'em WSOP events are correspondingly far smaller than their hold'em counterparts. These "oddball" tournaments, and especially the mixed game tournaments that combine several of these "oddball" games, provide the best opportunity to win a WSOP gold bracelet.
Of course, it's not as easy as just registering for a mixed-game WSOP event, transferring your hold'em tournament knowledge base to the mixed-game tournament, and winning a bracelet. In many of the mixed-game events, hold'em is just one game among many, including flop games, stud games and draw games. As a result, several basic strategy concepts differ.
The first concept to understand is what games will be played, and the order in which they will be played. The games rotate in order of the mixed game's acronym and in a tournament the game changes at the beginning of each level. For example, in a H.O.R.S.E. tournament, players would play the following games: Level 1 - hold'em; Level 2 - omaha hi/lo split; Level 3 - razz; Level 4 - seven-card stud; Level 5 – seven-card stud hi/lo split. At Level 6, the game would switch back to hold'em and the process wouuld repeat itself. Always pay attention when the game switches! It is very easy to miss the switch and to play a hand of seven-card stud as if you're playing razz, resulting in a very costly mistake.
During a tournament in which only a single game is played, players have to consider their stack sizes simply as a function of the limits in play. For example, if a player is midway through a no-limit hold'em tournament with a stack of 10,000, and blinds are 500 and 1,000 but about to go up to 1,000 and 2,000, that player should know that he is about to become dangerously short. A good player will make appropriate adjustments to his opening range based on those facts.
However, in a mixed-game tournament, not only are the limits going to increase at the next level, but the game is going to change as well. If the game is going to change from one of that player's weaker games to one of his stronger games, he might choose to tighten up considerably until the level changes with the hope of exploiting his edge in the next game. Conversely, if the game is changing from one of the player's best games to one in which he feels overmatched by the opponents at his table, he may choose to open up his game even more than he normally would in the hopes of chipping up now while he feels confident about his skill level in the game being played.
It should be clear that the only way such a decision can even be made is if the mixed-game player knows which of the games in the mix is his strongest, and which is his weakest. That knowledge should inform his play during the course of mixed-game play, but also provides an easy road map for self-improvement. I consider razz to be one of my strongest games, behind only limit hold'em. Therefore I believe I have an edge over most of my opponents when playing razz, as most poker players dislike razz immensely and try to avoid playing it. I also know that seven-card stud and seven-card stud hi/lo are two of my weakest games and I will sometimes look for opportunities to focus on one of those games.
Ideally, through practice and experience, you will feel equally comfortable with all of the games being played. If that's the case, another factor you might consider is developing a read of each of your opponent's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the various games in the mix. In a single-game tournament like a no-limit hold'em tournament, you will know fairly quickly which of your opponents are strong players and which are weak players because you can watch them play hand after hand of the same game. In a mixed-game tournament, that knowledge takes longer to develop. After several levels of play, you will only have played a few hands of each different game. In fact, you may not even have played one or more of the games yet. It therefore becomes critically important to pay close attention to every detail of every hand, with the goal of refining your read of how that opponent plays that particular game.
Remember, just because a player plays one game well does not mean he will play all games at a similar level. A player who is a great Omaha player might be a terrible stud player. Someone who plays deuce-to-seven triple draw well may be an utter neophyte when it comes to badugi. An opponent who dazzles you with his hold'em prowess may not know the first thing about razz. Once you know which games are an opponent's strength and which are an opponent's weakness, you can use that information to your advantage to punish that player and pick up extra chips.
For players who are only used to playing one game at a time, playing a mixed game where up to five games are included can seem incredibly daunting. The easiest, quickest and cheapest way to gain some exposure to the intricacies of mixed games is by playing in a low buy-in multi-table tournament on sites such as PokerStars or Full Tilt. In addition to some "oddball" offerings, PokerStars and Full Tilt offer H.O.R.S.E. multi-table tournaments approximately once every three hours. Both sites offer a nightly $1 tournament which is the perfect way to stick a toe in the water and see what mixed-game tournaments are all about.
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