The problem with Texas Hold’em
Texas Hold’em is not a great form of poker to learn for so many different reasons but there are two huge reasons that hinder the progress of good players more than any other. The first reason is to do with how short stack players can almost totally offset the edge that a good player can and does have. As a very strong no-limit Texas Hold’em player (assuming that you are) then your edge will come from being able to outplay your opponents on later streets in deep stacked situations!
However against short stacked players then your big stack does you no good as the effective stacks are what are important. So if you have $100 and your opponent only has $15 then your extra $85 does you no good whatsoever. Also if the player with $15 is prepared to get all-in either pre-flop or on the flop then you cannot outplay them when skill really matters and that is deeper into the hand. Your opponent’s tactics and their stack size are not allowing you to do this.
If you have only one short stack player on your table then it isn’t a problem but every short stack player is reducing the number of bigger stack players who can take a seat at the table. Then when you get decent short stacked regulars who are multi-tabling then it isn’t difficult to see entire tables not being profitable. Imagine a situation where you have many short stacked multi-tabling regulars at a certain level, suddenly the entire level is polluted by short stacks and deep stacked players don’t have much by way of profit potential.
This is a serious problem but another big problem with No Limit Texas Hold’em is to do with the game being played with only two cards unlike Omaha which has four. This brings in a rather interesting dynamic because the number of hands that players can make in Texas hold’em and the quality of them are far lower than in Omaha and of course the knock on effect of this is that all of the hold’em players know how difficult it is to make a hand. So we then have a situation where bluffing and highly aggressive plays are far more prominent in hold’em and it is this that causes many novice and intermediate players an awful lot of trouble.
Because a player knows that it is difficult for his opponent to make hands in Texas hold’em once their sophistication reaches a certain level, this then causes them to play far more aggressively and fancy play syndrome becomes a problem. This is common with many intermediate players and certainly with novices because they end up being aggressive in the wrong situations and there is a name for these players and it is “LAGTARD”. Basically this means players who are loose aggressive but do not have the knowledge to identify the correct times to do so. This is all created by Texas hold’em being a two card poker game and not a four card one.