Beginner's "Gateway" Mixed Game Rotation (1 Viewer)

[power13]

@saleen121212 's thread a few weeks ago on mixed game suggestions got my wheels turning since I have a group of guys I met through another home game in town (that only play hold'em tournaments) who expressed interest in playing in my game. My game is usually dealer's choice (and mostly big bet mixed games though recently draw and stud games have become "acceptable").

Anyway I'm pretty psyched to get some fresh blood into our game but I'm definitely concerned with scaring people off with a game mix that will feel intimidating. So I've been talking to some of the other regular guys in my game, and everyone is down to do a separate night where we play a more defined mix of games that will hopefully ease people in, but also give them exposure to the different concepts and variations that they'll run into in the "big boy" dealers choice game some day. After some thought, this is the preliminary list:

(1) Hold'em
(2) 7 Card Stud
(3) Double-Board Hold'em
(4) A-5 Triple Draw
(5) Crazy Pineapple
(6) Omaha

The thought process was that playing this mix covers a lot of the basic fundamentals of mixed games: stud rules (#2), split pots (#3), 2 boards (#3), lowball rankings needed for hi/lo games (#4), and more than 2 hole cards (#5 & #6). Omaha isn't really there for education, but more because it's such a great game and so many variants build off of it. Hold'em is there for familiarity. I thought about 5 card draw but I feel, much like hold'em, that everyone understands the game mechanics of that, and it's not the most fun game IMO. I also chose to leave badugi out of this because it just felt like too much, and badugi variants don't really get called in our normal game that often.

I figured I'd throw this out to the community for general input. Do you think any other games would be better at helping people get acclimated to more complex/circus-y games? Are there any key concepts you think are missed by this mix? Do you think people who are new to mixed games would find this selection fun? My hope is that people will enjoy themselves enough that they'll want to do this again, and after a few nights of this they would at least be able to quickly understand gameplay of other games that we could explain as combinations/variations of the components that are present in the 6 games we'd been playing.

 

[gdiddy]

Kill the stud games.

 

[Rhodeman77]

Is this a cash game or tournament?

If this is a cash game:
The mix isn’t too crazy in my opinion. What I would be more concerned with are betting limits. Are you playing everything as LIMIT or is it a mix of limit/NL/PL?

I’d suggest going all limit to start or putting caps on how much each person can put in the pot.

Players coming from a background of Hold’em only will get crushed fast in a big bet format.

I’d probably actually go with just a 2 or 3 game mix to start.

Hold’em, crazy pineapple, 7 card stud. The hand strengths are pretty similar. Then as the players get used to those games add 1 game at a time.

Also when you have such a big rotation of games you aren’t going to get to play any of them more than 3-4 times in a typical night. I’d want them to get more hands of each game before adding more games they need to learn.

 

[gdiddy]

I don’t know why everyone is being so cautious. Lower the stakes and play all the games in abby’s Mixed game cards. Mygroup did this. Everything was fine.

 

[churlbut18]

I also agree with getting rid of stud and playing limit vs big bet.

Here is a simple but fun rotation that has worked very well for our group. Each game builds on the previous game and SOHE is king!

Hold’em
Double Board Hold’em
Omaha
Double Board Omaha
SOHE

 

[detroitdad]

I host NL/PL dealers choice nights. Some guys still want to call stud. We play it PL, and we deal 4th/5th street together to cut down on the betting rounds.

 

[detroitdad]

You need at least one hi/lo split pot game in the mix?

 

[power13]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes the plan is to keep this limit. I was avoiding hi/lo in an introductory mix since I felt like it's a lot for new players to absorb. My goal was to introduce the concept of low-ball with A-5 and not compound the complexity of the split pot in the same game out of the gate. The goal is to get to Omaha 8, SOHE, etc. over time! Am I overthinking?

@Rhodeman77 good point on the realistic number of orbits limiting exposure to the games. I'm hoping they will want to kill holdem from the mix pretty quickly

 

[inca911]

Three hand hold em is a good gateway game too. Split preflop into 3 HE hands. Toss one post flop and one post turn. Players have only one hand at showdown, but get to see a lot of action. My progression suggestion:

Red games simply shouldn’t be played, imho.

 

[Coyote]

In my game, we play NL orbits of dealer's choice between TX Hold'em and Cuckoo Hold'em (begins as Crazy Pineapple but after discarding the 3d hole card upon seeing the flop, the two remaining hole cards are obligatory, so it ends up as half Omaha or Greek/Tight Hold'em, in Doyle Brunson's words).
There is also the occasional orbit of PLO, where I basicallly fold and watch stacks change hands.
There's another variant we sometimes play, and we 're still undecided on wether to play it NL or PL, (I tend to rate it as rather harmless in relation to Omaha, so NL would be my vote) with 3 fully useable but no less than 2 hole cards to use, since the board consists of: single card flop + turn + twin card river (not both river cards can be used)

 

[FDLmold]

I would replace stud with stud8. It's a great game up to 8 players.

 

[detroitdad]

Three hand hold em is a good gateway game too. Split preflop into 3 HE hands. Toss one post flop and one post turn. Players have only one hand at showdown, but get to see a lot of action. My progression suggestion:

View attachment 230668
Red games simply shouldn’t be played, imho.

I kind of like stampler. I think 3-2-1 should be on the do not play list.

 

[power13]

I would replace stud with stud8. It's a great game up to 8 players.

I agree stud8 is great, and regular 7CS is definitely not a game I'd ever call in our normal game. But for a player who has only every played holdem, you have to explain the gameplay of stud, split pots, and lowball rankings before you deal the first time. I was hoping that by focusing on games that only have one element at play it might be easier to bring people along the learning curve and get them ready for the best variations. Then when we call stud8 they have some experience with all the game elements already and hopefully it's less confusing.

Maybe as @gdiddy said we should just tell everyone to buckle up and they'll figure it out like the rest of us did. But in the past I do feel like we've lost some new recruits with that approach so I want to err on the side of keeping it simple.