zinzir
Legend
Silver Level
The current Cardschat Stay at Home Game Series made me ask myself the following question: since I've played only Texas Hold'em (with the exception of a few PLO freerolls on ACR), is it worth learning other poker variants?
Thus far, here is what I came up with:
1. As a recreational player at the beginning stage of understanding Texas Hold'em, learning other poker variants would be a mistake. I don't think I'll be able to play enough hands of Hold'em to ever become a truly advanced player, so why would I want to allocate time and energy to learning and practicing other poker variants? In my opinion, the saying "jack of all trades, master of none" applies very well to this situation.
2. I heard about the idea that poker variants indirectly benefit one's Hold'em skills. To me, that makes sense only if I compare poker variants to things completely unrelated to poker.
For example if I compare reading an article about Razz to reading a fashion magazine, or playing Razz with playing basketball, than yes, reading about Razz and playing Razz would indirectly benefit my Hold'em skills.
But reading about Razz or playing Razz would never, under any circumstances, benefit my Hold'em skills as much as reading or playing Hold'em itself.
In other words, it is a fallacy to say "other poker variants are indirectly helpful to Hold'em", the correct wording actually should be " other variants are detrimental to Hold'em", because if I play other variants instead of Hold'em I replace a full and direct benefit with an indirect, marginal and questionable benefit.
Again, same conclusion here, the time that I can afford allocating to poker has to be spent on Hold'em related activities.
The only two reasons I can think of for someone to experiment with other poker variants are:
1. To look for a replacement, if, for whatever reason, one does not find Hold'em satisfying anymore.
2. For entertainment purposes only, as a break from Hold'em (I personally prefer fishing, swimming, or working out for that purpose)
So I decided to play only the two Hold'em weeks of the Stay at Home Series since it's good practice against the usual CC villains (whom on the forum I like to consider friends
), even without any actual chance to win a prize.
What do you guys think about my rationale, am I missing something here? Am I wrong? Is there anything you can add to the above? Do you play poker variants? Why?
Thus far, here is what I came up with:
1. As a recreational player at the beginning stage of understanding Texas Hold'em, learning other poker variants would be a mistake. I don't think I'll be able to play enough hands of Hold'em to ever become a truly advanced player, so why would I want to allocate time and energy to learning and practicing other poker variants? In my opinion, the saying "jack of all trades, master of none" applies very well to this situation.
2. I heard about the idea that poker variants indirectly benefit one's Hold'em skills. To me, that makes sense only if I compare poker variants to things completely unrelated to poker.
For example if I compare reading an article about Razz to reading a fashion magazine, or playing Razz with playing basketball, than yes, reading about Razz and playing Razz would indirectly benefit my Hold'em skills.
But reading about Razz or playing Razz would never, under any circumstances, benefit my Hold'em skills as much as reading or playing Hold'em itself.
In other words, it is a fallacy to say "other poker variants are indirectly helpful to Hold'em", the correct wording actually should be " other variants are detrimental to Hold'em", because if I play other variants instead of Hold'em I replace a full and direct benefit with an indirect, marginal and questionable benefit.
Again, same conclusion here, the time that I can afford allocating to poker has to be spent on Hold'em related activities.
The only two reasons I can think of for someone to experiment with other poker variants are:
1. To look for a replacement, if, for whatever reason, one does not find Hold'em satisfying anymore.
2. For entertainment purposes only, as a break from Hold'em (I personally prefer fishing, swimming, or working out for that purpose)
So I decided to play only the two Hold'em weeks of the Stay at Home Series since it's good practice against the usual CC villains (whom on the forum I like to consider friends
), even without any actual chance to win a prize. What do you guys think about my rationale, am I missing something here? Am I wrong? Is there anything you can add to the above? Do you play poker variants? Why?
