The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Everyone who knows me knows just how much I love to play No-Limit hold em. I totally admit to being swept up by the poker craze after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. It was hard to say if the popularity of poker would slow down and perhaps just be another fad much like chess was in the 70s and 80s. But it looks like it isn't going anywhere. In fact, at this year's WSOP, the players still showed up despite the anti-online gambling laws the US government passed.

The problem with everyone playing NLHE is just that...EVERYONE plays it. Thousands of players head to the NLHE tournaments and ignore the other games. Which got the hamster running inside my head.

Every poker player's dreams is to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. But with thousands of players in your tournament, the chances are pretty slim. So I started taking up another game: 7 card stud. And I've had pretty good results.

A couple of weeks ago, I entered a 1240 player stud tournament and managed to win the whole thing. Now, it was just for playchips, and it didn't cost me anything and I didn't win anything from it. But after playing for a solid 6 hours in that one game, I managed to beat a ton of players. And it felt pretty sweet.

The following week, I played a freeroll stud tournament in which about 4,000 or so players entered and I finished exactly in 100th place. I tell ya something, if it was a real tournament I'd have finished in the money and gotten a nice percentage of the payout. And it showed me I was playing pretty consistent stud.

Stud doesn't have as much skill as NLHE. The betting is fixed, so you don't have the worry of calling off all your chips if you aren't 100% if you have the best hand. But, you still try to get into pots with the best of it, you make your best guesses as to what the other players are holding while you look at your three starting cards. And based on what up-cards you can see as the betting starts, you make your best guesses as to your odds of making the flush, straight or trips amongst other hands. It's a faster paced, high-action game that is a lot of fun to play. There are some fundamentals from NLHE you can take with you, especially when it comes to starting hand requirements, but on the whole it is a very different game.

So, while I'm planning to play a NLHE circuit event tournament in Atlantic City this December, I'm hoping there will also be a 7-card stud tournament I can play. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little after my most recent stud results, but I feel I'd have a pretty good shot of placing well if given the opportunity.