Hello,

Thanks for following my PG&C Thread. My goal is simple although a bit vague; work hard to become a mixed game master. I know everyone is probably thinking "well that's impossible to measure". That's a good point, but I'm not interested in measurements right now.

My plan is to focus on the work hard portion of the goal, and the rest should follow.

You can find my tl;dr background in this HU Hypers PG&C thread I failed at a few years back. Since then I've returned to the non-poker world, got a steady job, and haven't played much at all.

However mixed games were always a sort of side passion of mine and I've been dabbling in them again recently. I think mixed games appeals to my personality; I've always been the type of person who likes to be good at a lot of different things as opposed to an expert in one area.

But times have changed since I last played regularly. As a NLHE player I used to be able to beat the 8 game mix on Stars pretty easily without knowing anything but the basics of PLO and the HORSE rotation (I took a liking to 2-7 pretty early on). That's not good enough anymore and I'm looking to seriously improve my HORSE skills.

I plan on accomplishing that the good old fashioned way; studying & playing.

Plan

1. Study for 1 hour every day
2. Stream mixed games 3 days a week

I already read Ray Zee's High/Low Split Book (highly recommend) and have started his Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players. After that I'm going to get in to some Limit Hold'em literature before rounding it out with whatever's out there for Razz.

I also have a Deuces Cracked subscription; their mixed game content is unmatched in my opinion - however I don't consider watching videos the same as studying. In my opinion videos are a good way to check up on concepts and reinforce strategy but should not be the basis for learning.

As for the second point; I worked out the kinks on twitch today and have figured out how to successfully live stream tables. I don't have the best production quality or even content, but I think trying to teach viewers the games will help me to learn them as well.

I'll start off streaming two nights a week around 6-8 EST and then Sunday afternoons around 3. I like the idea of presenting new games so I'll try to play one or two tables of a specific game and then a table or two of HORSE or 8 game to keep it interesting. You can find my stream at http://www.twitch.tv/mixedpoker if you're interested.

If things go well I'll add in some stretch goals that I've been considering. But I think this is a solid foundation for right now.

So thanks again for following and please leave a comment/suggestion or ask any questions you might have.

Hello sir -

A very worthy goal and I wish you great success with it. Might I suggest also checking out the 2+2 magazine? There are usually a couple of mixed games articles every month, and I myself authored articles on razz in the April and May issues.

Thanks SGspecial, I just perused the 2+2 Magazine and came across some great O8 and Razz content I didn't know existed.

Just got done an hour of reading Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players. This book really reaffirms all those maxims about Stud being a very complex game. Going to need to go through this thing 10 times to get everything out of it.

Planning on streaming some Stud Hi and mix tomorrow afternoon around 6 pm EST.

1/7 Hours
0/3 Streams

Bleh having internet issues so probably won't be able to stream this afternoon, really wanted to watch the 10k 2-7 Lowball WSOP stream too.

Got in another hour of Stud Hi study this morning; continued reading Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players and then summarized what I've gone through thus far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that by this weekend and move on to a new game next week.

2/7 Hours
0/3 Streams

Still working out the internet issues so I'm going to delay the stream goal for now until I can get it fixed.

Last night kept my eyes open long enough to get to the final recap section of the Seven Card Stud book. Decided to change it up today and started Winning in Tough Hold'em Games. Really enjoy the approach they took to this book which is really data-intensive.

Definitely going to have to thoroughly go back through both of these texts and summarize everything at least once.

4/7 Hours

Nearing the end of WITHG now; read that for 40 minutes yesterday then did some summarizing and toying with ranges in Equilab afterwards.

It might seem like I'm skipping all over the place but I think that works best for me as I like to keep it fresh and I plan on going back through all the material again with a fine tooth comb.

Should have internet fixed this afternoon/tomorrow in time for a stream or two.

5/7 Hours

Had a pretty productive weekend all around. I didn't get an hour in on Saturday because I visited my parents but I more than made up for it on Sunday between reading, playing, and reviewing.

Feeling most confident in Stud & Stud8, LHE, and O8 I have a solid understanding but haven't translated that into playing comfortably yet. Next up will probably be Razz.

Internet issues should be all patched up now so I'll try to do a few streams this week. Have to fly out for a wedding this weekend however so I don't expect to be playing at all after Thursday.

7/14 Hours

Spent an hour tonight reviewing Stud Hi hands from yesterday. A lot of the hands played themselves as the table was so loose/passive but I still ran a lot of equities in interesting situations that could have come up.

Ordered Sklansky on Poker which seems to be one of the few pieces of Razz literature available. I'm going to make sure to read the Razz articles in the 2p2 Magazine which are billed as pointing out the errors in Sklanky's work. Hopefully I'll be very comfortable in the three stud games shortly and can move on to focus on the games where I'm probably further behind.

8/14 Hours

Sounds like a plan! I definitely encourage you to read my razz articles from the April and May editions of the magazine, tho neither one references Sklansky on Razz. I did discuss some erroneous points in the book in previous articles, one of which is archived here and available to anyone for free for their own reading pleasure.

The last two days got in a lot of time both playing and reviewing Stud (I'm not counting any extra time - just a bonus), starting to feel like one of my stronger games. Going to review my Stud8 and O8 material tonight. Flying out tomorrow morning for a wedding this weekend so I'll try to read up on Razz on the flights.

10/14 Hours

Awesome, thanks for the help SG!

GL with this!

What stakes are you starting out at?

Didn't see if you noted what sites your playing on. Are you on the US only sites? Post some hands for discussion as well.

Thanks, it varies by game but I'll be playing mainly micros around the .50/1 level for limit & mixed games

I'm in Canada so I play on Stars although Bovada has a surprising of small - midstakes Stud, LHE, and O8

I'll definitely start to include more hands in the near future.

Weekend Update

My flight to the wedding ended up getting significantly delayed on Friday meaning I had plenty of time to read on Friday but Saturday and Sunday there was no free time to be had. I'll have to step up the hours this week to compensate.

I started Sklansky on Poker for the Razz section and definitely picked up a lot I didn't know. Excited to finish that off so I can start building more on the groundwork. Will probably go back to O8 and LHE next as I want to play some live games and those are often spread.

12/21 Hours

Hopefully you didn't pick up some things that you shouldn't know. Overall a good book, but you should read this thread as well.