This article was written by Andrew Wiggins, AKA "Muddywater."

As a poker player, I believe it can be easy to get into a routine with my play. When I find myself in a routine, my play often becomes monotonous, and I begin to exhibit poor play. Poker is a game that is supposed to be both fun and challenging. I find that at times, I take the challenge of the game for granted. When my interest wanes, so does my focus. I believe that for a player to always play his “A” game, he must have a vested interest in the game. Exploration is an excellent way to rediscover poker.

Recently, I had one of the worst runs of my poker career. It was the type of run where you slowly lose money over an extended period of time. I had a few good sessions during the run, but every time I did, my next session would have very poor results. I got into a rut, and I didn't see a way to get out of it.

Looking back, I think a large reason for the downswing was because of the repetitive routine I found myself in. In August, I set a goal for myself to make a certain amount of money. I believe the goal was beneficial, but it forced me to play a lot of poker. In addition, I spent the vast majority of my time 8 tabling 10/20 NL on Party. Poker was neither fun nor challenging for me during this time. After doing well for most of the month of August, I started a downswing that ended up lasting thirty days. I knew I would eventually get out of that run, but I wasn't sure how or when that would happen.

I decided I was going to take some time off poker and get back into playing when I returned from Aruba. That was before I had a conversation with my friend Brian (Stinger885). Brian had recently been playing PLO, and he was aware that I have played the game off and on since I started playing poker. He wanted my input on a few situations he had recently experienced.

After talking PLO strategy with Brian for several minutes, I got the urge to play. I opened Full Tilt and noticed that there were several 5/10 and 10/20 games running. I took a seat at a few tables and hoped for the best. I ran very well that session and was immediately hooked on PLO again. Taking up PLO again made me interested in playing poker again. Since that night, I have played mostly PLO, and I think that it is the biggest reason that I have gotten out of my rut. Eight tabling 10/20 NL had become too much of a chore for me, and it was affecting my results. By switching to a different game and playing fewer tables with more focus, poker became fun and challenging again.

Getting into a rut is something that happens to most poker players at some point in their career. It's also important to know of ways to combat these ruts. Poker is an excellent game, but it can become stale. It's important to take advantage of the variety that poker has to offer. The basic poker strategic concepts apply to all versions of poker. Too many people stick to one version of no-limit hold’em without exploring poker’s possibilities. These players are missing out on all that poker has to offer. I believe that branching out to different variations of poker is important to keeping the game exciting and challenging.