Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight
I like having a huge library of poker books but that's why most of the NL ones have been barely touched. Why study something I'm not planning on practicing tomorrow?
This is borderline heretical but if you get to choose exclusively NL or exclusively LHE and you choose exclusively LHE, you're making a huge mistake unless you're in a very small subset of situations. If you're capable of learning both games, that's best, but if you can only learn one, you should consider making it NL.
You should be proficient in NL if you care about money because the WR/SD ratios for NL are way higher than for LHE. You should be familiar with 1/2 NL and 2/5 NL because for 90% of live players those games are more available than LHE and for 90% of the remaining 10%, you will sometimes face a scenario where your preferred LHE game isn't available and 1/2-2/5 NL will be your second best option.
I live in one of the few areas where LHE is a non-laughable alternative to NL (the SFBA ladders are much deeper for LHE than NL). And even while I regularly played MSLHE, there was a significant fraction of time (10-20%) I spent at 1/2-1/2/3-2/2/3 NL as a "waiting" game.
Maybe if you spent most of your life living in a LHE paradise, ignoring NL would be okay. But if you have a ten in your hand and a gleam in your eye, you shouldn't.