I’ve been playing low-limit mixed games for years and years and years, enjoying myself thoroughly nearly every time I play. Over those years, I can’t count the times I’ve seen poker players from other games wander by and visibly recoil at what they see on the table.
But mixed games aren’t anything to be afraid of. They are, after all, just poker. In this article I’m going to show you how they are “just poker” so you can feel at least a little bit comfortable when you muster up the courage to leave your Texas Hold’em table and lock up a seat at a mixed game table for the first time.
Before I begin, I want to stress that this article isn’t for high stakes players. I’m not going to dig deep into strategies and show you how to exploit the narrowest edges. Others do that better than I ever could. No, I am going to relate the game that you’re probably the most intimately familiar with, good ol’ Texas Hold ’em (and a little bit of Omaha, too), to several different mixed games. This will help you take what you already know and apply it several variants that you’d likely find in a mix.
Going Over Texas Hold ‘Em
I bet you can recite the order of standard poker hands backward and forward. I bet you can look at a board and your two hole cards and determine how many outs you have with two cards to go and with one card to go. If you’re a no-limit player, I bet you know bet sizing on the flop and turn to maximize your EV. If you’re a limit player, I bet you know how many bets need to be in the pot to make a call profitable with a gutshot and an overcard.
You know that if a third card of a suit hit the board on the turn, your straight draw is devalued. You know if you get raised on the river your second-nut flush is probably no good. You know how to find hidden outs. In short, you know what to do when you get two cards, based on those cards, based on the players, and based on the action.
But what is good when you get four cards? Or five cards? Or even six cards?
What’s Good in a Non-Hold ‘Em Game?
Well, the best poker hand, of course. But what is the best hand in a game?
First of all, let’s talk about split pot games. In Hold ’em, a pot is split when two players have the same hand. That doesn’t happen often. In many mixed games, a significant number of the games are designed to split the pot. In many of those games, the pots are split between the best high (poker) hand and the best low (poker) hand. If you’re playing in one of those games, half your goal is what you’re used to: getting the highest possible poker hand. Let’s use Hold ‘em as an example of this.
Let’s imagine there was a game called Hold ’em/8. It’s like Omaha/8, only played like Hold ’em. You get two cards face down, there’s a flop, turn, and river, with betting, and the best poker hand and the worst poker hand split the pot. To make this easy, it’s a fixed limit game, like most mixed games are.
Now let’s say you’re playing for the high hand. You were dealt a suited ace and two cards of that suit came on the flop. You’re in the pot with three other players. There are four small bets in the pot (minus the rake), and there has been a flop bet and call, so there are six small bets in the pot. You know what you’d do here in a “normal” Hold ’em game: raise!
In a regular Hold ’em game, you’ve got about a 1-in-3 chance to make your nut flush. Your chances are the same in this game BUT, for probably half of the reward. This changes your odds. Because many mixed variants contain split-pot games, the odds that you’re used to in Hold ’em – even in relatively simple situations such as this – aren’t the same. Even needing to make the strategic adjustment, your overall goal of making the correct decisions remains the same.
What About All The Low Hands?
In many mixed games, one of your goals should be to make a low poker hand, typically the lowest possible. This might be the thing that scares Hold ’em players: How do low hands compare to high hands?
Let’s take the simplest comparison, a lowball-style game. In a high poker game, the highest hand is a royal flush. There are 2,598,960 unique possible poker hands, and among them are exactly four possible royal flushes (the nut hand). Hard to get, right?
In a low poker game, the lowest hand is typically A2345. Of course there are exactly four 5-high straight flushes, also known as “wheels”. But there are also 1,020 5-high straights that are not flushes. In a low poker game, all of these are considered the nuts! Instead of four stone-cold nut hands (royal flushes), there are 1,024. That’s 256 times as likely!
Once you understand what the best hands are in each game, and how easy or difficult it is to make those hands, you’ll start to “get” when you should and should not be involved in hands.
Scooooop!
Because many games in a mix are split-pot games, not only is the strategy different when you’re clearly playing for half a pot, your stack also does not grow as much when you win half a pot. This is why an optimal result is to win both halves of a split pot, known as a “scoop.”
How do you scoop? Hand selection! This is exactly like what you do in hold ‘em, so it should feel very familiar to you. But how do you know what hands to select to voluntarily put money in the pot (VPIP)?
Remember that “Hold ‘em/8” example above? As with most limit hold ‘em games, that suited ace is a good starting hand. You especially like to see that ace-broadway suited hand. But does that have a chance to scoop? It’s going to be hard because only your ace will play for a potential low hand. Ace-low suited would have a significantly better chance to scoop because not only do you have a chance for a nut flush, you have two good low cards that are a good starting hand for low.
The idea is the same when you’re getting four or five cards in an Omaha game or a super stud game or a drawmaha game or a triple draw game. If you’re familiar with Omaha/8, that’s why AA2x double suited is such a strong hand: You have a real chance to scoop the entire pot. So the key is figuring out what types of hands have good chances to scoop. And part of the fun – and challenge – of mixed games is that “good” scoop-potential hands are different from game to game.
Mixed Game Types
As a hold ‘em player, you’re used to one type of game: a game with shared (community) cards. Mixed games have that type of game, but they also have stud games, draw games, and hybrid games (that contain multiple game types). Especially at lower limits, mixed game players are often willing to “experiment” with expanding existing poker variants.
Take drawmaha. Please! Basic drawmaha combines two game types, draw and Omaha, and in its basic form, splits the pot between the best 5-card single draw hand and the best Omaha high hand. Drawmaha has spawned lots of variants that almost always affect the single draw hand. So you have drawmaha 2-7, drawmaha A-5, drawmaha 49, drawmaha 0 (zero), and more.
Draw games are almost always some form of triple draw in limit mixed games. Triple draw games are not at all like the draw games you saw in old westerns. Triple draw games are mostly played trying to get the lowest possible poker hand, but some (e.g., Archie) will also split the pot with the highest poker hand.
Stud games require memory. Because stud games feature face-up cards for every player, each card you see in someone else’s hand can affect the odds of getting the card you need, and cards folded and no longer visible are still unavailable. So the ability to remember what cards were folded and whether they would have helped you or would have helped what your opponents are representing is an important skill.
Flop games are included in mixed games, but rarely with just one board. Double board Omaha and 3-2-1 Omaha are just a couple of variants, and because they are Omaha games, sometimes they’re also played as “Big O” where players get five cards, instead of four. When that happens, big hands usually win. Board reading, especially when there are three flops or three full boards, is an important skill.
There are also variants where poker hands don’t matter. Usually this is in 0 (zero), 21, or 49 games. When a game includes 0, 21, or 49, you are literally counting pips on cards. Face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) have zero pips, aces have one pip, deuces have two pips, treys have three pips, etc., and you simply add the pips in your hand. What’s a good hand? Well, as you might have figured out, the nuts in a 0 (zero) game is five face cards, and the nuts in a 49 game is TTTT9. For the former, especially in a triple draw game, a 0, 1 or 2 will usually win, and a 3 or 4 is generally pretty good unless you’re up against serious action. For the latter, hands in the 40s are hard to get, but one of those will almost always be a winner, and high 30s is strong. Card subtraction is a bit more relevant in 49 than in 0. For example, if you have TTT85 (43), the absolute best possible hand remaining is T9999 (46), but that’s very unlikely. Whereas if you have KKKKA, there are still eight unknown face cards.
What? Counting Pips? How is That Poker?
Well, the short answer is: Poker is what we say it is.
Look at it this way: not all that long ago, poker players asked how sharing cards is poker. Poker was “I have my hand, you have your hand, and whichever one is better wins.” There was no thought of community cards.
Poker, like language, evolves. Part of that evolution is manifested through the emergence of new variants in mixed games. Each of those variants just includes a different way to determine what hand is best, that’s all.
Mixed game players like experimenting with alternatives and ideas. Some work, some don’t. That’s OK. Part of the fun of mixed games is that exploration, and in finding new and interesting ways to enjoy the game of poker.
Mixed Games Are Played Fixed Limit
If you’re a NLHE player, this is probably THE most important thing to know, especially if you’ve never sat down at a limit Hold’em (LHE) game waiting for your NLHE seat. NLHE players often get frustrated in LHE games because they are fundamentally not the same. You cannot apply the same pressure in a LHE game as you can in NLHE.
Mixed games, especially low-limit mixed games, are played almost exclusively with fixed limits. Sometimes you’ll see players agree to add a big bet game in the mix, but when that happens, there is typically a betting cap. Larger mixed games will more often include big bet games. That said, the nature of many game variants allows you to call bets – and even raises – cold, with decent strength hands.
Let’s use 2-7 triple draw as an example. Getting dealt three cards 8 and lower, especially if the other two cards are 5 and lower or 4 and lower, is a hand you’d usually want to raise with. If you look down and also see three cards 8 and lower, a cold call is very reasonable. A 3-bet if you have the chance to get heads up is also reasonable. You won’t be ahead, but you won’t be far behind. Cold calling and drawing three with a hand such as 23 or 24, while speculative, is also reasonable. In all those cases, that first draw will be key. If you don’t improve, the odds are fair that the raiser did, and you can probably fold to action. Also, continuation bets are not as common in fixed limit games, so the raiser’s action can give you a clue. If you do improve on that first draw, you could be in pretty good shape for the last two draws.
Players Will Answer Your Questions and Give You Tips
Low-limit mixed games are well-known for their friendly players. While many have been playing mixed games for years and know them pretty well, they’re usually also just as happy to see a newbie sit down at their table as you are seeing a newbie sit down at your NLHE table. Unlike those NLHE games, however, mixed game players are almost always happy and willing to explain game basics, and even share some strategies.
But here’s the thing: You’re still a poker player. For any game variant, in the first hand or two that you see, you will have a bit of data about what is and isn’t good in that game. Just as you know instantly that if you get dealt 39o UTG in a NLHE game, that’s an insta-fold, you’ll surely quickly come to realize that KKJ97 on the button is a fold in 2-7 triple draw. Because you’re a poker player, you will pick up the basics of each game fairly quickly. From there, it’s all about having fun.
And frustration. I once played in a mixed game where I missed, over the course of several hands, 17 consecutive one-card draws in badugi. It happens!
The point of playing mixed games (besides, to make money), especially low-limit mixed games, is to have fun. I have met some of my favorite people, not just favorite poker players, playing low-limit mixed games. Players are welcoming and smiling, and in any room running a low-limit mixed game, that table is always the noisiest and most boisterous in the room.
Mixed Game Resources
Beyond Cardplayer Lifestyle’s Mixed Game Poker Guide, there are plenty of great resources at your disposal if you’d like to study up. For instance, several poker books explain the rules and mixed game strategies, perhaps most notably Dylan Linde‘s Mastering Mixed Games. The BARGE group has a page on their website that explains rules of many, many poker variants. There is a (private) group on Facebook, Mixed Game Poker in Las Vegas, that contains documents with explanations of several games. Plus, some rooms have game placards with brief explanations of gameplay.
But the best resources are the people playing the game, like those of us who regularly attend the Mixed Game Festival. So pull up a chair, stack your chips, and don’t ever, ever be afraid to ask a question if you’re not sure about how a game works or what to look for in a hand. If you’re willing to sit down, the players will welcome you, and not just for your chips. Sure, you’ll make a few mistakes. I guarantee you that every single mixed game player has made them, from not knowing what’s good to not realizing a game has changed and playing entirely the wrong hand for the game.
So don’t be afraid to take a seat and get dealt four, five, or even six cards. You will be most welcome, and win or lose, you will have fun!
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