To play them all or specialize in just a few...

There was a response, and advice, to my post from earlier today and it got me thinking about rather to specialize or diversify. The writer didn't say not to diversify but said to specialize for 6 months on one game before moving on but he also mentioned to primarily focus on PLO and NLHE. Games come and go but poker will always be here and by specializing in just the hottest games around limits your long term growth and ability to adapt however mastering the hot games allows you to earn (hopefully) massive profits short term. To me the downside of only fully grasping just a couple of games (at just one time) is that your game selection and pool of dead money shrinks at certain levels. Obviously you're going to have fish play but they're harder to find as you move up and you're dependent on them short term bc either they'll get better, not play you or just quit the game completely. This is for any game at any level rather it be NLHE, PLO, heads up, full ring, razz, or whatever the game may be, you're solely dependent on the need for a wave of constantly new players to play against bc if you're good and specialize at just a few games, after a while you'll either win everyone's money or there will be no one to play against bc they fear you. One point that I should make is that this argument is based on playing mid to higher stakes which already have a smaller pool of players. If someone is willing to grind out 1/2, 2/4, even maybe up to 10/20 (which I think is starting to push it somewhat) then there will always be enough weaker players to be profitable, as long as those games are popular but here's the thing, everyone else is focusing on just hold'em and plo too so the games are getting harder by the day and you have to be very selective about when and where you play and most players are not willing to step down in stakes and play with the same focus and edge as they would at their normal levels.

Sidenote: Let me point out that the writer's advice, from his experience if he had to do it all over again, is to take 6 months and focus on one game only. The only problem I see is that once you get that far into a game and start building your bankroll you really have little interest in branching out to learn and play other games since you'll have to drop down in stakes to learn the game without risking too much.

On the other hand if you build an even foundation of playing all games at certain levels, understanding them and growing as you move up in stakes it not only allows you to have a more broader game choice but makes you better at every other game you play by understanding more concepts and understanding far more situations. That's not to say that if you start playing PLO and it just click's inside you that you should not move up and be as profitable as possible. Oh and btw, just bc you win doesn't mean that you're playing it right. So many times someone may go on a sick heater and just crush the game and before too long they start losing and don't understand why. Luck got them there, but understanding the game and having skills are far behind them. Anyway back to topic...if a player can learn various forms of poker then he should have an advantage over a specialist when it comes to game selection. Let's say I sit down online or go to a local game or a casino, the first thing I am going to do is look around and see where the juiciest games are at. I am able to pick chose from a multitude of options that will make me more profitable with less risk to my bankroll. As I type this I'm skimming over the games at PokerStars and right now seeing 12 tables of FLHE filled with regulars, the NLHE 2/4 & 3/6 is filled with grinders, the heads up NL tables just have sharks waiting for prey, there's just a few open sits on the PLO tables starting at 1/2 (which has some very nice stacks up there so its very tempting to sit down and play there), the O8 tables are filled with novice players it looks like by just glancing at the names and stats, the razz 1/2 & 5/10 tables are split between solid and poor players, i got a hard on looking at the 5/10 badugi table bc I know that just a couple of those guys are regulars and the others are really making some very bad plays, and on triple draw it looks pretty lame right now. From all of this I can sit down and pick and choose from an 100+ tables.

I should also mention that the absolute biggest factor in whatever a player decides to do is personal preference. Some players may be focused on short term domination and profits, others may be focused on playing a ton of hands and tables and be robots since they know what their roi is and the more hands/tables they play the more they make. Others may not care at all and just want to play cards. Some may just want to learn as much as possible. There really is no wrong answer but if you put a deck of cards in front of me, rather it be heads up, 6 max, a full table, mtt, sng, gin, gin rummy, free cell, solitaire, baseball, 357, I don't care just give me some cards and a game to play I can do it. I just want to play cards. To me when you look at who the great poker players are they all can play any game.

Understand that this wasn't a direct response to wait the writer said but a spin off what concepts that he and myself touched on. So what advice do you have? What are your thoughts?

Let's Play!