Should you specialize or become a well-rounded poker player?

One question I get asked a lot is whether or not a person should learn a new game, or just stick to what they know. The answer has a lot to do the person and what the reason(s) is for asking the question in the first place, so hopefully I can outline the different factors you should consider before settling on your final decision.

For the most part I feel it’s better to be well-rounded -and I’ll list my reasons below-but there is one particular scenario where I think it’s important to focus on a single game before adding more poker variants to your plate: When you are a new or losing player.

The most common reason I hear is that the person is frustrated with the suckouts, luck, and Donkeys that play xxx form of poker. Unfortunately, this really has nothing to do with the game they are playing, or learning a new game, since every form of poker has its fair share of bad-beats and bad players. The more likely conclusion is that it’s a strategic flaw, or inexperience, in your poker game that is causing the frustration-because constantly losing money makes any game boring/annoying/infuriating. So if you are a new or inexperienced poker player it definitely makes sense to specialize in a single poker variant -Other than home games, I played Limit Texas Holdem for over two years before trying another form of poker.

Now let me move on to legitimate reasons on why I believe it’s better to be well-rounded in poker than to specialize in a particular form of poker:

• Debunking the: It’s better to be great at one thing than ok at many argument

This is a pretty powerful argument in favor of specialization, and I would say this is particularly true for new/inexperienced poker players, but not so much for experienced, winning players. The reason I say this is because most poker games tend to have overlapping principles, and the ability to make the small technical adjustments between Holdem and Stud becomes moot once a player is a solid, winning, player. I’ve yet to meet a consistent winning player who cannot quickly pick up another form of poker.

• Knowing more games gives you more choices

Knowing how to play more poker games allows you to greatly increase your game selection possibilities. This is especially true if your first game -your specialization-is something other than No Limit Holdem. Imagine if you spot the juiciest game of all time, but it’s an Omaha 8 game, and you don’t even know how to calculate what qualifies for low. If you’re an expert Limit Holdem player just knowing the rudimentary concepts of Omaha 8 will make you a winning player in a soft game: This is why I think it’s extremely +EV to learn as many forms of poker as you can.

• Alleviates boredom and burnout

Burnout is a real consideration for poker players, and has affected many top players over the years: Huck Seed, Mike “Timex” McDonald, and Peter Eastgate are just a few examples of poker players who have hit the wall at one point or another. One way to guard against becoming a poker burnout is to constantly challenge and test yourself; such as attempting to master the different forms of poker.