Dresden

This years WSOP Main Event final table has been one of the most exciting and action packed in history, but the players it was constituted of are also a very interesting bunch, a group that tells us a huge amount about the current state of poker.

All this years final table were young men, and all (even the 'amateurs') had an already solid track record in No Limit Hold'em tournaments. Of all the variants played in the current era, No Limit Hold'em has quickly become by far the toughest, and just like in many hyper competitive walks of life, has quickly become dominated by young, hungry, and very talented youngsters - all of whom are going the extra mile to out learn and out think everyone around them.

As a general prediction, I would guess that the trend for the foreseeable future in the Main Event will be final tables like this - there are simply so many extremely talented young Hold'em players that in any tournament like this you would expect them to dominate in most circumstances. Although poker has a great deal of luck in it, it also has a great deal of skill, and over such a field size and structure, in the modern era the final table should start to become very dominated by this group - they are simply so talented and in such large numbers that it is hard to see any other class of player dominating in the foreseeable future.

Compare this to the 50k H.O.R.S.E that ran at the WSOP before they introduced the eight game mix. This was basically always won by one of the old guard, someone whose years of experience across all games saw them through even against hungry and talented youngsters. This tournament has changed to now include PLO and No Limit Hold'em, and was subsequently won by Main Event final tablist Michael Mizrachi (who is slightly different to many of the pure Hold'em specialists in that he has played the other games extensively for many years).

Despite his success, I would still expect the future big mixed game tournaments to be won by older players as a general rule - particularly if it returns to just the H.O.R.S.E format or starts including draw games as well as the big bet games in a ten game mix - experience just counts for so much in playing all the games in a mix to a solid standard.

Hold'em is getting tougher, but these players have big leaks across other games. With mixed games becoming a bigger and bigger part of poker, these hyper skilled Hold'em players may well soon be being fish in other games, and keeping a casual eye on where the money and the amateurs are going may well help you in finding the softest games in the future - one thing is for sure, the Main Event is certainly not nearly as soft as it once was, and is looking to only get harder in future.

In the history of poker, the game which has probably had the most money traded over it is probably Seven Card Stud. It blends luck and skill perfectly, and is arguably the most complex and skilled form of poker out there.

However, it differs quite substantially from many other forms of poker, and if you are just starting out on it, one of the key lessons you need to learn is that of sticking to solid hand values.

Stud is a limit game, and as such, it requires a much stricter adherence to starting hand guidelines than the big bet games. Unlike in no limit and pot limit games, where large pots can be won late on in hands with marginal holdings, in limit games you can't win enough on the later streets to pay for all the time your marginal hands miss. You simply cannot fight the maths in limit games, and although you still have substantial room to manoeuvre in Stud, in ring games for the most part you need to stick to solid starting hands - particularly if you are new to the game.

Although you should only be playing quite a limited range of hands, those that you do you should be playing extremely aggressively in Stud. The only real exception to this is rolled up trips (when you start with three of a kind), here your hand is so strong that you generally want to be encouraging action from as many players as possible, and these should usually be played quite passively until the later streets.

Most of the money in Stud comes from weak players who not only play too many hands, but play them too passively, choosing to call bets early in the hope of hitting something. Because of this, you want to be charging these players as much as possible to stick around any time you have a hand - they will call, so the simplest and shortest route to the money is simply in betting and raising any time you enter a pot.

Like all forms of poker, Stud can at first seem a world of new possibilities, with every hand throwing up some possible future combinations. Do not fall into the trap of thinking like this - the first and most key lesson you can ever learn about Stud is the key importance of solid starting hands, and you forget it at your peril.