SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun

The next World Series of Poker Academy instructional camp, an intensive seminar designed to improve the poker skills of its participants, will focus on "mixed game" tournaments.

Campers will study the finer points of the forms of poker that make up "HORSE" - limit Texas hold 'em (the H in the acronym), Omaha high-low split 8 or better (the O), razz (R), 7-card stud (S) and stud 8 or better (E as in eight).

That should not deter players who are hooked on no-limit Texas hold 'em, the undisputed champion of the modern-day tournament scene and the game featured in most big-money televised tournaments.

Academy instructor Howard Lederer maintains that skills learned in those "other" poker games transfer smoothly to no-limit hold 'em.

In 7-card stud, for example, the concept of "buying a free card," or making a bet that encourages your opponent to check on the next round, is "massively important," Lederer said.

In a game such as pot-limit Omaha, "position," where you bet in relation to your opponents on each round of the hand, is "enormously important," Lederer said.

Even if free cards and position aren't quite as significant in no-limit hold 'em, thinking about such poker concepts serves to boost any player's no-limit game.

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