Cash Game Variety Rules the World Series of Poker

There’s some serious variety on offer at the Rio this summer.

Most people associate the World Series of Poker with multi-table tournaments, and with good reason – the entire concept of the poker tournament originated with the “gambler’s convention” first put together by Benny Binion more than 40 years ago. But anyone who’s only seen the WSOP on television, or stopped by on a Las Vegas vacation just to see the spectacle of famous poker pros like Phil Ivey and world champions like Joe Cada, is missing out on everything else that goes on at the World Series – particularly the cash games that take up more than a quarter of the Pavilion Room.

The sheer number of different cash games on offer at the Rio outdoes just about any live poker room in the world, and it even rivals the variety you can find playing online poker. There are the standard hold’em games, of course – limit hold’em games from $10/$20 all the way up to $75/$150, and no-limit hold’em with blinds ranging from $1/$3 all the way up to $10/$25. 

There are also a lot of fixed-limit games on the big board, including Omaha Hi-Lo ($10/$20, $20/$40, $75/$150), Stud Hi-Lo ($50/$100), and a $20/$40 mixed game consisting of deuce-to-seven triple draw, Badugi, Razz, Omaha Hi-Lo, limit Hold’em, and a relatively new split-pot game called Badeucy. And finally there’s the refuge of traveling poker players, Chinese Poker, available at $50 and $100 per point.

Some of the biggest games being spread are Pot-Limit Omaha. Even the $5/$5 PLO games being spread play pretty big for being the smallest stakes on offer, but for real big swings you can play with blinds anywhere from $5/$10/$25 all the way up to $100/$100/$200. There’s also an Omaha variant being spread that should see some serious action – it’s called Big O, and it plays just like regular $5/$10 PLO Hi-Lo, only you’re dealt five hole cards instead of four. At least one high-limit player I talked to told me that it’s some of the easiest money he’s ever made. “They get that extra card and suddenly every hand is playable,” he said.

If you’re not married to tournament poker and like to branch out with the varieties you play in cash games, drop by the Pavilion Room when you visit the World Series of Poker and get your game on.