Tomorrow sees the return of one of the jewels in the European Poker Tour, as EPT Prague once again closes out the calendar year in classic wintery fashion.
Previous visitors will know that snow is common, the Christmas markets are unmissable, and the beautiful architecture of one Europe’s oldest and grandest cities makes for a perfect background for those jealousy-inducing selfies.
This year, however, that old world charm will meet the thrill of the new at the Hilton Hotel Prague, as the EPT adds a new string to its bow in the shape of the €2,200 Mixed Game Main Event, December 12-14.
As Prague prepares for another visit from the EPT, PokerOrg spoke to the person who first suggested the idea of a ‘Mixed Main’, PokerStars ambassador Georgina ‘GJ Reggie’ James.
We know you’re a big fan of mixed games - is it true the Mixed Main was your idea?
It was an idea that myself and a friend of mine, Tobias [Leknes], who's also really passionate about mixed games, put forward just to see if there was any interest. It was born from trying to get more mixed games live, trying to have a PokerStars live offering that better reflects what’s online, since they're pretty much the only place that you can play all these mixed games online.
It was first mentioned maybe around EPT Cyprus. I was kind of surprised about how quickly they managed to turn it around. I really wasn't expecting it to be ready for Prague and thought it may be something in the pipeline for next year. The PokerStars live events team was super receptive to the idea, and they even said that they had thought about doing something like this before.
I've been trying really hard to campaign for mixed games, both online and at live events. I try really hard to make sure all the UKIPTs, for example, have at least one mixed game in them, and then trying to change the schedule for the EPTs a little bit so that people can travel and play all the mixed games if they so wish.
'GJ' having fun at the UKIPT Nottingham Main Event last month.It must be great to see the idea become reality?
I’m trying my best to make sure that the 10-Game [Mixed Main] is a success - I do feel some small sense of responsibility for it doing well.
I'm super invested in the 10-game doing well this series - and the other side events, too. There are other new side events that they've added as a result of having the Mixed Main; the 8-Game, the HORSE and the PLO8 are things they have at almost every event, but the Mixed Main and the Big Bet Mix are new, and so is the no-limit 2-7 single draw event. It would be great if it was something we could keep up in the future.
What is it about playing mixed games that particularly appeals to you?
Honestly, I just love the variety. Maybe it's just because I get bored easily, so the fact that you've got the game changing every so often, you always have something new to focus on. Hold’em, for me at least, can get kind of monotonous, whereas with the stud games you're looking for the upcards, the draw games you have to pay attention to how many cards people are drawing, and then you've got the split-pot games, going for high, going for low, and the dynamic can change so so drastically between games. I just think they're more fun.
I also think the mixed game crowd is more sociable, the tables are friendlier and chattier. The community is small, and it kind of knows it's small, so everyone ends up being super-passionate about the fact that they're in that niche.
I think in terms of the game itself there's there's a lot of nuances to it that I think people kind of underestimate or don't realize, and they dust it off, like ‘It's fixed limit, it's so boring’, but once you understand it and see a few more of the intricacies to the game, I think it's super interesting.
I also think learning mixed can also be a benefit to your hold’em game as well; it might open you up to some different ideas, and you can implement that into your hold’em game too.
EPT Prague runs from December 4-15.What would be your advice for a player getting into mixed games?
Just give them a try. Some might say hold’em is potentially easier to learn, I don't know if I necessarily agree with that. I think the reason it's easier to learn is because everyone kind of knows the basics already, everyone's sort of familiar with it, or seen it before on TV, and they kind of have a reasonable idea of how the game might work. But once you know the rules of the mixed games, I don't think that they’re hard to learn.
Just give them a go for super small stakes, you’ll learn the flow of the games. Some of the games have very different handrankings, so make sure you know that stuff, but just give them a try. I think people would be surprised about how quickly they can pick things up.
There are a lot of resources available online for hold’em and PLO, but less so for mixed games. What can players do to improve once they know the basics?
There definitely are not as many resources to learn mixed games, but it is out there, whether it's free stuff on YouTube or the courses that people put out on various sites. There are courses on BBZ and Upswing, there’s a mixed games book that Dylan Linde has written.
Apart from that, getting into communities like Discord, being able to ask questions about hands played, is a really good resource. Getting to meet people in the community who can help you, who are better than you and who can go through hand histories for you, is really good.
The other thing I also recommend is final table replays. For a big series like WCOOP and SCOOP on PokerStars, you've got the final table replays of all the mixed games from the $22 level to the $2K level, and you can go through and spend some time analyzing what some of the best players in these games are doing at these final tables.
James' fellow Brit Benny Glaser is one of the best mixed game players you'll find in the 'COOPs.There are also some tools that you can use to try and get better at judging and analyzing equities in different hands in different games, such as Pro Poker Tools. For example, you can look at equities between two different razz hands or Stud8 hands. There are tools out there, they are just more limited than what you would get with hold’em or PLO.
I think in some ways you get a better understanding of what you're doing and the reasons why you're doing it. A lot of the time I think people who are studying hold’em are guilty of, like, ‘Solver says this, I do this’, without really thinking about it.
EPT Prague begins tomorrow, December 4 at Hilton Hotel Prague, kicking off with Day 1 of the €1,100 Eureka Main Event.
The inaugural €2,200 Mixed Game Main Event runs December 12-14, while another addition to the schedule - the Spin & Go World Championship, will also make its debut.
Images courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Neil Stoddart/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd
