This thread is going to be a journal of my struggles to become a high stakes mixed game player. Over my career as a player, my biggest pitfalls have been lack of focus and consistency. I hope that this thread can help improve both of those. Instead of diving straight into mixed games, I'm going to take it game-by-game. The idea is that if I can beat each game individually, I should be able to excel in a mixed format.

With each game, I'm going to take a two step process of learning. I will first dive into the low-mid stakes and play using both my current knowledge and my intuition as a poker player. When I feel that I've maxed out my progress using intuition and natural ability, I'll begin studying specific aspects and common situations that I find myself in. Eventually, I hope to be able to beat at least 10/20 limit for each game I work on.

The following is a ranking of my current perceived ability in all eight games. This is based on how good I am compared to the average online player. NLHE is probably my strongest game, but nearly every player has a good understanding of NLHE. I have played virtually no Stud or Triple Draw, so those are certainly my worst games:

Stud8
Omaha8
Razz
NLHE
LHE
Omaha
Stud
Triple Draw

Goal: To beat at least 20/40 mixed.
Dream: To regularly beat 100/200 or higher.

For those following my progress, I hope that I can provide some interesting insight into the games.

This thread need to get more love...

This guy possess sick grinding skills, i remember reading about it in the "2/180 graphs+stats thread".

Railed ceegee and saw you play few stud 8 tables, how is it going for you?

Gl with your challenge, def going to subscribe.

thanks

Going good so far playing 3/6 and 5/10 stud8. I'll be able to play a few thousand hands this weekend. I will post my updated progress at the end of the weekend.

hallo, very nice idea that you have there.
do you really wanna go through 1/2$ and 2/4$ PLO (and NLHE), too ?.
for improving my PLO-game playing HU was an tremendous help. might you want to tell us what your your usual games and stakes were, before you decided to study/play 8-game ?sry if ur well known, i play lower and just switched from FT to PS for 8-game cash.
its a pity we have nearly the same best and worst games, but i will follow this for sure.

I don't know what I am going to do with the big bet games.

do you plan to use tracker for each limit-game? i mean, i heard of 4/8$ 8-game players who somehow even manage to track the mix. if it aint a fakeaccount a PS-PRO playing 100/200 and higher said he uses multiple trackers,; he said it here on 2+2, i think.
the reason, that i never liked/used tracker, except for a trial, made me start 8-game finally, and love it and feel great without stats,... but i dont intend to play higher than 2/4$ for the next 16 month.

Although it may seem a bit tedious, I am going to go through a specific progression on each hand I play this weekend so that I make sure I'm not making any silly mistakes. I'll have the following written in notepad in big bold letters under my tables while I am playing.

1. What is the strength of my hand?
2. What type of hand am I representing?
3. What is my opponent representing?

I have found trackers for all the games, but I don't know if/when I will use them. I tried using a HUD for stud8 and it just was overwhelming.

Sounds like a good exercise for the limits you play, especially for hand reading, will you take notes on those who over play or over value certain hands? I'm guessing the player pool for 3/6 stud/stud8 isn't huge?

GL!

kill it doggz.

Stud8: 2/4 - 5/T

This weekend was very interesting. I don't quite have a grasp of stud8 variance, but I know I'm running poorly. It seemed that every pot I contested with a marginal high at showdown got scooped, but I regularly got called down by a pair of 5s or 6s that took the high vs my combo low. The big cliff involves me getting scooped in two monster pots at 5/10 where I was rolled up.

The Good:

- I see other players making errors. I love that Stars does not mix the cards at showdown so I can tell who's starting with garbage and who's just making it on 7th.
- I am playing better today then I was last week: (1) I am more quick to fold 4th when I draw a poor card, (2) I am avoiding draws to the second best hand, (3) I am not recklessly chasing for half the pot.

The Bad:

- I may not be as good at this game as I assumed.

Gl look forward to seeing your progress

i hope your mariginal high-hands come from chasing a lowdraw.
i personally fold hands like a split pair Kings with a 7 or so,
and i nearly never enter a pot with hands like 9A/9 on a 8max table.
but keep in mind that 8-game on PS is only 6 max, maybe you should even start tables and play fewer. i think that would improve your abilitys way faster than playing on a 8 handed table.just think of holdem 9max vs 6max, and the huge gap between ranges.
just my 2 cents.

There isn't a significant difference in ranges between 9 and 6max nlhe, it's just 9 max has 3 extra positions which are nittier then 6max UTG. My range is basically the same in 9m, 6m, and 4m nlhe (except there is significantly more meta game in short tables).

My marginal high hands generally come from low draws and late position steals.

youre right. i could could mention that button-range gets smaller when UTG raises at 9max, and the lower sb/bb 3-bets, but thats pointless if we talk about opening ranges.

are there many capped streets at stud8 in your games, if yes which? (3rd already or more like 5th and on?)

when i read your post about stud8 "good and bad", it gets obv ur a smart player.
i cant wait to see you post about stud hi, where i suck too. im really looking forward to see how an advanced overall player (pro?) handles a game hes new at.

you deserve kinda bit respect for what you do, imo.

gl doggz, pretty sure you're already a hero

What tracker did you find for 2-7? Gl

i <3 8-game

but i never had the discipline to put as much effort into it as you seem to be.

all I can say is, if you stick to your plan, you WILL succeed. just keep that in your mind, and hopefully it will stop you from slacking.

gl OP

the 'free poker db' seems to work for draw, but I haven't actually used it yet.

Thanks for all the supportive messages

Outside of holdem and plo. What game do you think is easiest to pick up?

Personally I am enjoying learning O8 atm, but found 2-7 confusing in a couple of spots.

I am taking each game one at a time, so it will be awhile before I can answer this question.

So, I have the whole weekend free and nothing interesting to do. Looks like that means marathon session time: 40 hour marathon session from now until Sunday @ 4:00pm! I'll be playing on Stars under mMagic_cards if you want to find me. If it doesn't look like I'm playing, it's because I may be taking a short meal break.

Good luck and I will be railing you this weekend. I love, love,love mixed games. 8-game, Triple Stud, and HORSE in that order. Trying to work on becoming a winning player.Are you going to be playing the new Triple Stud as part of the challenge or just taking each stud variant one at a time?

Can't afford the buy-in. so no chat. Sending words of encouragement telepathically.

Played til after 4am last night. The games died so I decided to grab a bit of sleep. It was a very lackluster evening and I think I dropped a hundred or so.

Just playing one at a time.

Very interesting challenge for me as I play mostly mixed games but at lower limit (0,5/1)

GL man hope you do well at the tables :P