I'm in my 50s, been playing for nearly four decades now. Like anyone who started in the 80s, we started playing limit...in my case for dimes and quarters which escalated over time (happens to every game)...it was lots of fun, people rarely got "hurt", and games could go on for hours. We played lots of silly games.

Around the year 2000, games started going to NL/PL...pretty much across the board. Many home games are only NLHE.

Personally, I think big bet poker is great for tournaments, but terrible for social games. The bad players almost never win, people go on tilt, get their feelings hurt with table talk (which is virtually ineffective at limit!) and more.

Everytime I suggest a limit game, I get shot down or very few responses. No one wants to learn different games (Badugi, Follow the Queen!), and we're stuck playing the same two or three games offered in casinos...NLHE, PLO, PLO8.

Anyone else share my nostalgia? Or have any suggestions to turn back the clock?

I don't share the nostalgia, since my interest in poker began shortly before the Moneymaker WSOP poker boom, and my entire pool is made up of virtually 100% NLHE players.

I am interested in other games, and since nobody plays them, nobody would have as much of an advantage. Would be a nice atmosphere IF there was enough interest from the group to try other games.

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I love most of the games, but I am much more partial to stud and its variants, O8, draw poker, etc. I am not a big fan of badugi and variats, or 2-7 or A-5 and variants.

"Hard times befallen the limit poker survivors."

I suggest trying spread limit as a middle ground between fixed limit and big bet poker.

I host a $0.25/$0.50 spread limit mixed game (fixed rotation, holdem, Omaha high-low and pickle AKA super holdem high/low) once a week. Ends at ten sharp since it is on a week day. The spread is higher for hold'em and lower for the other games.

I also host a once a quarter dealer's choice game - $1 dead bet from the dealer followed by $1-$5 spread limit. We play all sorts of stuff from barely spicy to truly crazy.

The variance is huge relative to the skill edge, meaning anyone can win even if they don't know how to play a game. It is a good way to get people interested in something new. One mistake doesn't wipe out your whole stack.

Bottom line, it is fun and different. For sure the biggest big bet hold'em players avoid these games, but I can always get a full table for these spread limit games. And they run 50+ nights a year. I can't get a dozen big stakes big bet hold'em games a year.

I like NLH as a rule , and play it a lot. At our home game we play a number of variants of it as part of our rotation. We end each orbit with a rotating dealers choice hand. I usually pick PLO cause I like it too. However I avoid PLO at casinos cause the tables are usually full of sharks and buttheads , no fun, soul crushing games for recs and beginners.

I'm with you OP. The game I host is mostly players who only play the once a month we et together, so it's all nlhe. But as I get invited to other games, bigger games, I know I need to learn some new games. Plus badugi is fun!!!

Having options would always be a good thing...I had never played Badugi before a mix event last summer and actually knew only what I had read in Wiki shortly before entering. I knew the other two games though and felt comfortable with giving it a go.

I grew up with five-card draw. Learned stud and its variants during the short time I was online and preferred it to the trained chimp games. Never have been able to play them live outside of tournaments since I never see them on Bravo when I have been in Las Vegas...or if I see it, the stakes are north of 20/40 (financially doable but not what I want to use as toe-dipping stakes) and the list is still lengthy (and you know they won't open a second table).

Good example of the fact interest even in O8 exists is the waitlists at Orleans...and they have discontinued the adding of call-in's according to Bravo.

Yet, despite the fact that SOME have interest, too many of the kiddies don't want to do anything except gamboool...and the stud and limit games get in the way of that action.