Why mixing it up can be a good thing.

The following is a short article I've written advocating the playing of a variety of games, even if you specialise in one. I believe it can help improve your chosen game.

This is true of all games, Omaha will improve an ability to instantly recognize the number of outs, nut outs and calculate odds accordingly. Obviously you do this at Holdem aswell but far more of it is required, more frequently, at Omaha.

Descisions will come up in NLHE tournaments that will help your limit cash game as they come up far more frequently in the former than the latter. An example would be playing against a player who is extremely short stacked.

7 card stud is also good for improving your memory.
Someone told me about a hand last week in a Holdem comp where they were in the small blind with 79o. Before the action was folded round to him, all three other 7's had been exposed. A player accidentally showed a 7 whilst mucking. This made a novice muck 77 face up.
Had the SB player much experience with 7-stud, it would have been second nature to muck his cards now that most of the deck was dead for him. Instead he went all-in on a steal and was unfortunate to run into A9o.

Even non poker pursuits can bring something to your game. Lots of chess players do well at poker because of their enormous powers of concentration and startegic forward thinking.

A bit of variety keeps you interested in the game, nutures your passion for it so you don't get slack. Kids might do math every day at school but if they did it all day Monday by the afternoon they'd be throwing rulers and rubbers out of the window.