Why Share Cards?

[shipitfish]

As is often the case when I take a big loss, I am not to inspired to post in my journal today. However, I did have fun at Greg's game last night. I can account for about half of the losses to bad play and half to bad luck. Anyway, I still have last week's entry from Greg's game to write up, which I'll finish later in the week, rather than today as I'd planned. I'll write about my bad session last night in a week or so

However, I do have an unrelated poker thought for today. I've been playing Pot-Limit Omaha (high only) more lately, and while at the table, I of course keep alive in my thoughts the idea that "this is not HE", lest I fall into any HE players' Omaha traps.

Away from the table, I've been thinking a lot about the similarities between the two games, particularly NL HE and PLO. I think these two forms of poker capture the imagination more than other forms of poker. I believe, based on recent experience and years of home game play, that the community card nature of the games is central. This isn't a profound thought, and perhaps it's obvious. Everyone knows that you make your most money in poker when both you and your opponent have very strong holdings, but yours is better -- sometimes only slightly.

Community card games create this situation more than any other form of poker. They generate action, because they are most likely to make two or more big hands at once.

The psychology of when people will give up when things seem to be good for them, and when they will stand and fight when things "aren't too bad" comes out most in community card games. When you add the big-bet nature to it, the decisions become harder, more textured, and more deep. I'm still a fan of stud, and I'm still a fan of limit, too, but NL HE and PLO, really do bring out the most interesting aspects of the game, and of the people playing them. I lost enough for it to hurt last night; it even gave me a few bad dreams. But as long as I have a bankroll that's based off of that initial $250 I gave myself two years ago when I started playing serious poker (i.e., to go beyond $0.5/$1 games), I'm going to play. It's only a game, but there is so much to learn about people and yourself from it.