Texas Hold' em or 7 Card Stud

Hi,

I am new to learning Poker. What do you think would be easier to learn?

Texas Hold' em or 7 Card Stud?

I've only been play about 3 months but this is what I gather from what I've read.

It is easy to become proficient in pre flop play in hold em as only about 17-20% of the hands you play are profitable. A few more in late position and a few less in early position. This is a big part of the game as mistakes preflop are compounded post flop. You can read all you want about post flop play in holdem but the skills that will make you successful (hand ranging, bet sizing, folding) are really learned trial by fire.

7 card stud is alot more complicated. Your "preflop" decisions are much more complicated as you must not only consider you cards but your opponents door cards, whether the cards you need are already out, how you door card will influence what your opponents think you have, whether your hand plays better multi way or heads up and can you raise to make it heads up or will the limpers call?

I think 7 card stud gets really complicated really fast but its fun for that aspect. I'd guess since hold em is more popular the games would be a little softer.

Hope this helps

Definitely hold 'em.

There are tons and tons of resources to help you learn hold 'em - books, training sites, forums like this, the list goes on. There's also endless amounts of action at pretty much all stakes, so you've got pretty much unlimited opportunities to practice.

Stud, by comparison, has much more limited resources for learning and it has less action, so there's less chance to practice too. Plus there's less opportunity to really use your skills once you do develop them.