Poker Stars Mixed 8-Game Strategy
I have been playing the new mixed 8-game at Poker Stars and definitely recommend it for good players. While there are some drawbacks to the structure, the advantages more than make up for it. The mix of games is great, including an NL game and a PL game in the mix with 6 limit-structured games. This really throws a kink in the works for those who come unprepared. It’s a good solid mix of high games, low games, and high-low split. Sitting down at one of these tables is certainly going to keep you from falling asleep. If you keep your head screwed on it should be very profitable as well.
The drawback would be the 6-max table structure. Serious players and professional grinders generally prefer 8-max tables to reduce the effect of the rake and give more exposure to bad players. Six-max games get played short-handed a lot more so your heads up skills had better be at least decent. If you have never bluff-raised this might not be for you.
However 6-max does attract maniacs in all forms of poker and when one shows up it really helps your bottom line. Another good thing is that only six hands are dealt of each game. This is good because players get caught not knowing that the game changed from Stud to Hi-Lo split etc, especially on hand 1 of 6.
So your first strategy is to do player searches on everyone in the game and see who is multi-tabling (you, of course, should not be multi-tabling while playing this game). Those are the guys who will get tripped up on hand 1 of 6 not realizing the game just changed. Watch those guys for it and milk them for all you can get when this appears to be happening and you have a decent hand.
You also should not play above your bankroll tolerance. Other players will, and this gives you an automatic edge. They will be very leery of large bets and getting pot-committed while playing NL Holdem and PLO. Be prepared to bet and raise max in these two games more than usual as your pot equity goes way up.
It is critical that you play Stud Hi-Lo well. In this game the edge between good and bad players is very large. You want to be on the winning side of that equation, not the losing side! Brush up on this game before playing. I highly recommend Todd Brunson’s section of Supersystem 2. Read it through three times and get some experience in at the low stakes games.
While you have that book handy be sure to read through Daniel Negraneau’s Triple Draw section. This game is rather simple but some players won’t quite understand what’s going on, even if the rest of their games are pretty good. You can slowly bleed them in this game through that leak. In fact that’s what this is all about - you need be good at every game while some of your opponent’s will have weak links that you can expose. It’s a grind, but that’s poker.
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