I learnt to play poker in the NEW SCHOOL POKER aka post 2004, but I grew up and was influenced by OLD SCHOOL POKER aka pre 2004 and the way the NEW SCHOOL POKER plays bugs me and I couldn't figure out why it bugged me so much until recently.

5 CARD DRAW is the main starting point I can come up with to this dilemma of mine.

5 CARD DRAW was a very popular poker game pre NEW SCHOOL and after the emergence of NEW SCHOOL POKER 5 CARD DRAW took a back seat and not played much anymore in turn some of the most important poker basics and fundamentals has been lost.

Why is 5 CARD DRAW so important to learn for a POKER PLAYER?
How the game is played out teaches one by default to learn what cards to hold on to and not and therefore the poker player learns intuitively the patterns of cards outs via hi-lo, red or black, connectors and probabilities of outs.

In 5 CARD DRAW only the poker player knows what his cards is therefore and needs to work out what 5 cards the other player is holding on to which is the foundations of fundamental poker at its most basic, rawest and purest form which a typical Poker Player (should) start off from and develops there overall Game Strategy.

This is the basic fundamentals of what poker players of today are missing in their Poker Game.

Why Develop Game Strategy via Other Games?
Every Game has its own patterns of Ins & Outs, own unique skill sets and strategy and the patterns to these can be similar in other games and transferable to other games.

An example of this is Mah jong which is essentially another form/variant of Poker, therefore when one plays poker for the first time after playing mah jong they can see the similarities of it and will be able to transfer their skills and strategy they learnt from mah jong to the poker game and the skills and strategies they learn from poker can be easily transferred back to the mah jong table.

Another example is Chinese Poker,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_poker
In this poker game one learns very quickly how to manage their flushes, straights, pairs, top card in a strategic manner in order to win the maximum amount of points, therefore they will well versed in one or several aspects of poker that a normal poker player may struggle with.

I am sure if you think about your past and the games you have played you will slowly realize how they all helped you to develop the foundations of your GAME STRATEGY you have applied in your current game of poker and it is important that one maintains their GAME STRATEGY by learning other strategic games to help you play better poker.

my favorite game is called Low in the Hole. It's seven card stud where the lowest down card in your hand is wild for you only.

the best variation is called Low in the Hole Roll Your Own. You are dealt 3 down cards to start, and flip one up, therefore controlling which card is wild for you. then instead of up cards, you continue getting down cards one at a time until you make seven, flipping up the one of your choosing each time. betting is done the same as 7card stud.

i believe that the optimal strategy is to always play for a straight flush. This is because most people play for five of a kind and end up with quads or less 90%.