Excerpt from A Poker Player's Guide to Mixed Games

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One of the obvious differences with mixed game tournaments when compared to a No Limit Hold’em tournament is that multiple games are played in rotation in a mixed game tournament. 

Be alert to game changes during a rotation: if you are not paying attention, you may miss being notified of a game change, and find yourself betting and raising with the worst hand!

In particular, the transition between two different Stud-type games played in succession is very easy to miss, since the hand is dealt out in the same way (e.g. every player receives two hole cards and one upcard). If you are not careful, you may find yourself aggressively betting and raising with a holding of A-7-5-4-2, thinking that the game is Razz, when it fact, the game had just changed to Seven Card Stud! While typically not as disastrous, it is also easy to misread your opponents’ hands or inadvertently fold premium starting hands if you mistakenly believe that you are still in a Seven Card Stud round, when in fact the game had just changed to Stud Hi/Lo.

More generally, familiarize yourself with the game order in advance, and take special notice of any instances where two games that utilize the same number of hole cards are played in sequence; special care is warranted when playing those games back-to-back. The likelihood that you may be caught unaware of a change in game is significantly increased when back-to-back games involve the same number of hole cards, and particularly if the games are of the same general type (e.g. Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo are both community card games employing four hole cards). Although tournament directors will generally avoid structuring the game order in this way, you may occasionally find them being played successively in certain rotations.

Accordingly, as the tournament progresses, it is important to stay alert; in particular, be sure of the game that you are playing when deciding whether or not to enter the pot. 

Do not forget that other adjustments may need to be made, depending on the specific game that you are playing. Keep in mind the following points when rotating through games of similar type:

• In Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw, you only have one draw to improve. This requires a different approach than when playing Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, where you have three draws to improve. This means remembering, among other things, that it is relatively difficult to improve to a strong hand when drawing two cards in Single Draw. While it is much more common to draw two cards on the initial draw in Triple Draw, you should generally avoid drawing two cards in Single Draw with the expectation of making a strong hand. 

• There are multiple drawing opportunities in Badugi, Badeucy, and Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw. In games with multiple drawing rounds, you need to be aware of how many draws remain at any given time; otherwise, for example, you may call with the intention of drawing when in fact there are no more draws to be had. Conversely, you may fold after failing to improve on what you thought was the final draw, when in fact there was one draw remaining and you had sufficient odds to draw. 

• Do not forget that Badeucy, Razzdugi, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Stud Hi/Lo are split-pot variations of Triple Draw, Razz, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud, respectively, and will require some adjustments, particularly with respect to starting hand selection. 

• Remember that the Ace plays as low in all games (covered in this Guide) where a low hand may be eligible to win except Badeucy, Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, and Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw. More specifically, in all “deuce-to-seven” games, the Ace plays as a high card and is undesirable. Note also that in these other lowball games where the Ace plays as a high card instead of a low card, straights and flushes will count against the five-card hand and are important to avoid.

• If you play draw games in a venue in which high-hand draw games (e.g. Five-Card Draw) are also played, do not forget that Badeucy, Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, and Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw are all lowball games. Some players will not realize this immediately, and will show down pairs and the like, thinking that they should be trying to make high hands. These opponents are easy targets until they adapt.

• Recall that different community card games may have different requirements regarding how many hole cards must play to make a hand. For example, in Omaha variants, you must use exactly two hole cards and three community cards to construct a hand, whereas in Pineapple and Hold’em variants, using only one hole card, or “playing the board” to form a hand, are both valid options.

This is an excerpt from A Poker Player's Guide to Mixed Games. It will be featured next week in our SideKick Winter Raffles.