Why the government forces you to play Texas Hold'em

The Prometheus Institute ^ | 3/24/2008 | Justin Hartfield

[tang0r]

Texas Hold'em is a great game of skill and widely popular for good reason. It's easy to learn, you don't have to remember any cards (the downfall of 7-Stud) and since there's rarely a split pot situation dealing the game is relatively undemanding. But there is a price for poker's newly found fame. Texas Hold'em has managed to destroy every single other form of poker played in American card rooms.

It seems that Hold'em's popularity has come at the cost of nearly every other single form of poker in America. Omaha, Low-Ball, 5-Card Dutch, 5-Card Draw, Chicago, 7-Stud, Pineapple -- all of these poker variants used to be as common as Hold'em and were spread in card rooms throughout the US. But good luck getting a Pineapple game anywhere besides Lake Tahoe, and good look finding a 7-Stud game in Vegas outside the geriatric Imperial Palace.

[Phantom Lord]

After reading it twice, I fail to see how government is limiting card players selection of games to 1, Texas Hold Em.

[billybudd]

The article claims that because governments regulate gambling, Texas Hold'em is the most popoular form of poker. No relationship between these two facts is demonstrated.

Texas Hold'em is the most popular because the rules are simple, it has the most marketing on TV channels, and most hype since Chris Moneymaker's win. If people lost interest and became interested in other forms of poker, those would rise into prominence. Government regulation has nothing to do with it.