Hold'em or Stud: Which Requires More Skill?

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I purposely did not specify which stud game nor the type of limit to the game. Let's see what type of answers we get.
 

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More skill........

1. No Limit Holdem
2. 7 CARD stud
3. Limit Holdem
 

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IMO - Hold-em but not by a lot. Pre and post flop stradegy is very unique and complicated.


wil.
 

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Keep in mind stud could be 5, 6 or 7 cards. Limits could be pot or no limit.

Oh my God! I just realized that after 1725 posts, The Shrink was gracious enough to finally reply to one of my threads.
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Stud requires more skill.

Basically because the very best know what cards are available. That is the main seperation between that and Hold em. While you know what can or cannot beat a particular hand, you have no way of knowing what the other person has. it is all guess work. But in stud you see a lot more cards, and the more skillful you are the better you are.

Hold em is mostly luck and balls, To be profitable at stud you need a lot of more skill. Basically because it is always structured. Anyone can get rich playing with a bunch of idiots that go all in all the time in hold em. But in Stud you have to grind away to make money. There are no all in bets to make your day.
 

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Hold em requires more skill.

Rarely does a bluff work in 7-stud.

Part of skill is winning with the worst hand.
 

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7 stud requires awareness and agressiveness.

In 7-stud, for the most part, it is strictly showdown, which requires just one gear....bet and raise when you think you have the best hand.

The 2 most skillful maneuvers are not usually viable in 7-stud.........setting a trap, and winning with a bluff.
 

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Lets frame it a bit differently. Stud requires more endurance. HE is tougher to master. Stud requires a lot of early aggression. In most HE games, early aggression doesn't change your results as much. Stud requires a player to chase. HE kills players that chase. And maybe most important: Stud doesn't hurt a player on tilt anywhere nearly as much as HE does.

A very tough call in general, that is why the experts always say learn both games well. You want to be able to move back and forth depending on where the live ones are. HE has many more regular live ones playing, but Stud is the type of game where one live one can make a game VERY good for everyone else.

If you are prone to being that live one or at least being somewhat prone to tilting, definitely stick to stud. If you are disciplined and want to put in long hours, HE is your game.
 

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Wildbill has the best answer here IMO. Two different games, each with their own characteristics.

On a different note, does anyone play Omaha Hi/Lo? This is where one can find some truly awful players -- the types that play every hand and don't understand the low aspect of the game.
 

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Stud H/L is much worse Picasso! I play both split games about 80-90% of the time. They do have some awful players, but most have a pretty good clue. The mistake most players make in Omaha is drawing to less than the nuts. In Stud they overplay decent, but not big high hands in a multi-way pot. That mistake is far more costly. Too bad Stud H/L is just not all that common. In the few places they have it at low limits it is nothing short of a blockbuster game! Imagine 4 or 5 players in a pot and you got a guy praying his two Kings will hold up and take half of it because he thinks three other guys are going for low. That is stuff that even Omaha players generally don't do.
 

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Yes, I've played a lot of Stud Hi/Lo too and watch people get themselves into trouble with 'poison' (as some term high pairs in this game) as the low draws back into 2 pair, straights, and flushes to scoop.
 

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Hold'em has many intangibles compared to the much more straight foward game of 7-stud.

How can a game that is definitely more complicated and has many intangibles to go along with the most successful style of play being tricky, not require more skill.

A monkey could learn how to play stud in a week.
 

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As you hinted at, the learning curve between hold'em and stud is enormous. Another reason why HE requires more skill.

Does it take more mathematical skill to do multiplication or calculus?
 

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No Limit/Pot Limit requires WAY more skill than limit in any game IMO, so hold'em gets the nod here. But if I had to compare limit versions of each I would say stud because there is more information available at any given time.
 

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Skill is winning with the worst hand,lol, in my book thats luck not skill! Sorry guys playing 7 card stud with no limit is the most skilled game out there!
 

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If we understand "skill" as the ability of a poker player to read people beyond the cards and "grind" the profit, then 7-C-Stud might be the game that recquires the most ability.

You're not waiting for a lucky hit in the "flop" to determine your strategy and you're definitely not praying God for a nice "river" card, as in TX Hold'em.

But if you understand "skill" as the ability to adapt to different games within a game, then Hold'em recquires of far more ability to play, not only your hand, but the hand of the other players. As Wilheim accurately states, the pre- and post-FLOP strategy are different...

My personal choice if I want to grind is 7-C-Stud, it allows for a "people-reader" to figure out other player's pattern of behaviour sooner in the game.

If I'm in the mood of being extremely aggressive and un-friendly, then Texas Hold'em is a good killing game... You can bait a guy by losing a couple of previous hands and then set him where you want for a head-shot... lock him in and shoot when he finally says "all-in"

But I just learned to play Tx H'em, I wouldn't know much. But as they say there's only two kind of poker players: "readers" and "read" or "rounders" and "rounded"... I hope to become a good reader some day...
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I have played stud since a child with dad and Hold em' since early 90's. IMO, I would vote that stud requires more skill of the 2.
 

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