Why Play Texas Hold 'em?

There are many forms of poker, and you can win money at
virtually all of them if you develop the right set of skills. So why
play Texas hold 'em? Why is this the game of the present and
future? And why, of all poker games, is this complex form your
best bet?
The answer is easy.. By playing hold 'em, the expert player
can win the most money with only a reasonable amount of risk.
You win money at poker because of two important factors.
First, some of your opponents play badly, and in extreme cases,
literally give their money away. This seems to happen frequently
in Texas hold 'em since any two cards can win. However, random
hands do not win often enough to show a profit, and when they do
win, they frequently must be played cautiously, which also
minimizes their profitability. In addition, hands that appear similar
in strength to the non-skilled player are often quite different from
each other. For example, holding just an ace does not make your
hand very strong. Yet players who do not understand these basic
ideas seem to flock to hold 'em games. (If you want to verify this
statement, just look at the hold 'em explosion that took place in
California when the game became legal in 1987.)
The second reason you can win money when playing hold
'em is that this form of poker offers numerous opportunities for
the expert player to make expert plays that extract additional
money from unsuspecting opponents. This is less true of most
other forms of poker.
We mentioned earlier that the risk factor in hold 'em is
reasonable. The correct way to assess risk in a poker game is
through a statistical measure known as the standard deviation. We
won't discuss the standard deviation in detail here (see Gambling
Theory and Other Topics by Mason Malmuth), but will reiterate
that it is a measure of the amount of short-term luck in a game.

Specifically, the poorer the relationship between the
expectation (win rate) and the standard deviation the larger the
fluctuations that you - the skilled player - can go through. Or,
put another way, the worse you can run. Consequently, you
usually should prefer a poker game where your bankroll
requirements when compared to the size of the game, are not too
steep.
There is no question that once you have achieved expert
status, hold 'em offers an excellent relationship between the
expectation and the standard deviation. The reasons for this are
that the best hand holds up more often in hold 'em than in any
other game, and that you have the advantage of being able to see
your opponent's last card which is yours as well. This means that
sometimes you can throw away a hand that you would have to call
with in other forms of poker, or you might be able to get in an
extra bet, whereas in other games you might be forced to check.
Of course, hold 'em can still be very frustrating - especially
when it seems as though your opponents are always making their
two- or three-out hands. However, with the tremendous growth of
hold 'em, along with what we have just stated, there is no question
that anyone who becomes an expert at this game will do very well
indeed.