What poker game requires the most skill?

I always thought holdem, because most of the decisions are alot tougher than in other games.
In other games like omaha, stud and draw i always thought it was alot more to do your cards than the person your playing against, unlike holdem.
But i also think holdem is the simplest and easiest game?

Obviously it is Indian Poker. The game requires the ultimate in reading your opponants.

Seriously, I think that Omaha H/L is the game requiring the most skill. It is hard enough to decipher the starting hand of a high Omaha round, without the added problem of the low position.

I agree with wiz.......I've been trying to learn how to play and always have trouble with having to use both hole cards.

I think omaha and omaha hi/lo because you have to be patient and have to think through your hands fast.

Stud H/L has a high degree of skill to it, even though you can see some of your opponents cards. This is due to not only having a Hi and Low hand of your own, but calculating your outs to hit them based on what you've seen from your opponents.

Having been born with a deck of cards in my hand, I've played em all...and have always thought that 5 card stud was the tough one to be successfull at. As far as the easily avail games online...Omaha is fairly tough..need to assess position, bet, opponents, potential of hand. But when u get it right...nice pot!!

i say either omaha h/l or go fish

Go fish! TFF!

Crazy Eights, ftw

Either that, or war. I find war to be a battle of wits.

Razz is the game that confuses the living hell out of me.

I'll stick to learning Texas hold 'em for awhile.

I'm currently in love with Razz... if you happen to be playing with Razz players its a psychological game.. nothing greater than having a wheel while showing the highest cards...

What so hard about Razz? Lowest 5 cards win (Ace being low), straights and flushes don't matter.

Not hard to understand or play, but is hard to create strategies and such. Easy to learn, harder to play.

Razz is exactly like 7 stud hi, but upside down, and backwards. In fact Razz used to be known as 7 stud low. When it changed its name, or why, is apparently unknowable. No rules were changed when the name was.

In 7 stud hi, you don't want to see any of the cards you need in other peoples windows. IN Razz You want to see as many of the cards you have exposed in other windows. This will prevent pairing.

Taking all the posts here, you might want to get on the HORSE bus, aka wagon train.

Absolutely HORSE is the most challenging. But, that isn't a single game.

HORSE is a great game.

Any pot limit game.

The ultimate game of skill is 5 card draw. You don't get to see any cards on the board. You have to make your decision on what to play in your hand and then bet agianst your opponent. This is the toughest game of all to play. All else is for sissys.

I have to agree with BBB here. Your reads are harder to obtain from other players because there are no cards revealed to be able to see the reactions of other players.

Hmmm.... then why did Caro say "It was like someone turned the sound off" when he switched to holdem?

well after reading eveyones replies, I would have to say..

Its the one you feel most sound with, the one that makes you feel good, the most is the one that counts, what game that might be, well that is up to you. It basically comes down to what you feel compadable with.

I don't know, I haven't a clue what he's trying to say!

As for the most skill, you could define this by the game at which a good player is most likely to beat a bad player. I don't know what the answer is. It's complicated by the fact that Omaha, for example, naturally shows higher variance than Hold'em. So over the course of one game, you could say that Hold'em requires more skill than Omaha, because the more skilful player is more likely to win.

But over the long term, it may be that Omaha or some other game will produce a higher average win rate for the better player. Omaha certainly has more luck involved, but that doesn't mean there's less skill.

And this comes to why it's difficult to compare the games - big bet games will produce higher win rates for good players because the bets are bigger. But this doesn't necessarily mean it's more skilful than Limit Hold'em, because Limit would produce equally big win rates if you make the blinds big enough.

I suppose you could measure skill by the amount of time and practice it takes to become a break-even player at stakes appropriate for a given bankroll. This, however runs into the difficulty that the average player in some games will be more skilful and have more experience than in others, i.e. low-limit hold'em games are harder to beat with 10 hours' experience than low-limit Razz games. But if everyone played Razz all the time this probably wouldn't be true.

So I'm basically saying you're trying to compare apples with oranges... if I had to give an answer I'd say No Limit Hold'em, because everyone else is better at that than other games, so you are required to have more skill to play it.