Determining the Poker Game Most Profitable For You

• Author: Tom Kearns
• Filed under: Poker
• Date: Feb 6,2010

Not everyone knows that poker is comprised of a variety of labyrinthine interrelated games. It is not just a game with different names and a few different rules. Even though there is a kinship between the games, the knowledge of the strategies and the experience required to perform well vary significantly.

If you stick to the more familiar versions of the poker game and do pretty well and step out of your comfort zone occasionally, you will discover that the rules have suddenly changed on you and you have no idea how to proceed. The novice soon understands that to play with any consistent chance of coming out ahead, he will have to target one game to specialize in and grow with. How can such a decision be made?

One thing is certain, all poker players want to be winners. All the games are similar in their nature of complexity, making the decision more difficult. Add to this the fact that there is no game that is more profitable than another.

Profitability comes from you, how you combine your goals, strategies, and take advantage of the possibilities that are unique to a particular game. So, decide which one you excel at, at least as far as profitability is concerned, and strive to better yourself in that game. You can stray and play some of the other games on occasion, but only as a sometime thing. You will see your best earnings by adhering to the one or two versions at which you excel, and have done so for some time. Experience is a very valuable component of poker.

The new player will undoubtedly disregard this advice and continue to play only those games whose earning potential seems above average and in the end, they will probably win more due to dumb luck. Go ahead, enjoy the familiarity of the game and you will probably fall into some lucky streaks. You will not, however, gain in strategy and income.

No-limit appears to some players as the one to learn instead of learning limit poker well. The thought behind this is if you bet big, even though occasionally you lose, the higher earnings will offset the losses.

Now if you are after consistent profitability, you must delve more deeply into the question. Gain is a result of managing your cards well in the face of a constantly increasing bank. The size of the bank, though is not determinant of how you manage your cards. Good card management is determined by the rules of the game. Each hand needs particular skills to make that bank grow to its highest profitability before you collect it. As you are now aware, successful strategies differ greatly between the game versions.

This means that if you choose a game only by how profitable it looks to you, you are likely to end up a mediocre player at best, without the potential to improve beyond your opponents, and thus without the potential to win much more than them.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Power Poker and Rakeback at Paradise Poker.