They say (whoever they are!) that variety is the spice of life and the same can be said of poker.

When a major online tournament series is just around the corner (such as Pokerstar's SCOOP) and you look at the schedule of tournaments, you realise there is more to poker life than straight forward, full ring, No Limit Texas Hold'em.

You find that there are several different formats for Hold'em, such as 6-max, Heads Up, Shootouts and Knockout tournaments to name a few. But also there are a large variety of other forms of Poker around as well as the SCOOP reflects these different tastes in a variety of ways.

As well as you No Limit Hold'em there's Limit, Pot Limit and Mixed varieties.

Then there's Ohama. With Pot Limit, 6-max and Hi Low Split to name a few.

And then there are other varieties as well; such as Badugi, 7 Card Stud and 5 Card Draw.

For those not familiar with these other varieties of poker, Pokerstars have put up some videos both on pokerstars.tv and YouTube to give you a taste of what these are like.

For those who are interested in Badugi, Pokerstars have posted a video on YouTube "How to Play Badugi" and there is highlights of the WCOOP 2009: Event 15 - $320 FL Badugi here on Pokerstars.tv.

For those who are interested in 7 Card Stud, highlights of the WCOOP 2009: Event 13 - $320 7-Card Stud can be seen here and highlights of the WCOOP 2009: Event 32 - $530 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo can been seen here.

Also for those not familiar with Mixed games events here is a video on "How to Play 8 Game Mix" and highlights of the WCOOP 2009: Event 42 - $2,100 8-Game can be seen here.

Personally, I'm quite taken with 5 Card Draw, so will be playing Event 06-L; $11 Pot Limit 5 Card Draw. Pokerstars ran a Pot Limit 5 Card Draw event at last year's WCOOP and made a highlights show of the final table that you can find here.

So lots of ideas if there is anyone looking for a change from No Limit Hold'em.