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January 4, 2006
Today, I prefer playing at what are now usually called "mixed games" tables. A typical mixed game might include rounds of hold 'em, 7-card stud, 7-card stud high-low split, Omaha, razz and triple-draw, rotated in a regular pattern. (Sorry, Mr. Jungers, but no 5-card stud that I'm aware of.)
In Las Vegas recently, I have found good mixed games at the pokerparty com rooms at the Bellagio (the $40-$80 limit appeals to me, though it is also spread at much higher limits) and the Wynn Las Vegas($10-$20 limit).
Tournament pokerparty star Steve Hudak plays a little higher than me, but he also prefers mixed games when he's playing for cash rather than tournament titles.
"I think playing all the forms of pokerparty is a true test of pokerparty.com skill," said Hudak, who moved to Las Vegas from Maryland this year to pursue his career as a pokerparty pro. "It gets boring playing one game, like hold 'em, over and over. I like mixing it up with the weird games, too."
Hudak plays mixed games at the Bellagio at the $200-$400 and $400-$800 levels, and said he recently "took a shot" at a $600-$1,200 game.
Pokerparty is everywhere these days thanks to the help of numerous TV friendly tournaments. NBC, ESPN, the Travel Channel and several other networks in the United States alone, have responded to the pokerparty phenomenon with multiple poker-based shows. The sport has taken over the airwaves throughout the world and is propelling the game to the forefront of the sporting landscape.
The world's love of televised pokerparty .com is the basis for the latest addition to the pokerparty industry. Pokerparty TV Guide is the TV pokerparty junkie's latest fix. This comprehensive website provides listings for all of the televised action featured in the United States, England and Sweden and is working on getting content from several other countries as well.
The PokerParty $2,000,000 Guaranteed new site's concept came from founder and chief executive officer, Markus Sonermo, an admitted pokerparty fanatic. "I love pokerparty and I love watching it on TV, but with so many channels to choose from it's hard for me to keep up with so many channels to choose from it's hard for me to keep up with when what show is on. Our service sort of grew out of a self-need to solve this problem - something which we feel it has done brilliantly," Sonermo said in a recent press release.
With more and more pokerparty programming debuting than ever before, the timing is right for this unique site and it should find a big audience of pokerparty fans. It has listings for every hour and day of the week and is sure to satisfy even the most rabid pokerparty enthusiasts.
According to Pokerparty TV Guide's director of marketing, Martin Dabrowski, the site will fulfill the needs of users for the moment but can't promise about the future due to the growing success of combining television and poker party.com. "Maybe in a few years our service won't even be needed anymore. The way pokerparty is growing everyday it wouldn't surprise me if every show on TV will be about pokerparty in one way or another eventually," Dabrowski joked.
For the moment, televised pokerparty has found a new companion that should fit in well with its growing success. The Guide could become the holy grail of pokerparty TV information if people like it half as much as they like pokerparty on television.
In the "Big Game" in the Bellagio's high-limit pokerparty room, the stakes get higher yet -- and mixed games are the order of the day, according to Lyle Berman, a regular participant.
"We play up to 10 different games, depending on who's at the table," said someone, a successful businessman and high-limit pokerparty player.
They do offer a true test of pokerparty skill, but players in the Big Game have a more prosaic reason for sticking with mixed games, Berman said. The Big Game attracts players who have world-class skills in one form of pokerparty, but lesser talents in other forms -- so mixed games serve to level the field.
