You can start with the nuts (Straight flush to the Ace) in 5CD, but in holdem, AA is only about 450:1 better than a random disconnected offsuit (2s 8h).

Tight play is overwhelmingly rewarded (you can start with a hand thousands of times better than your opponent). So in a 5CD game against bad players, the good players fold repeatedly until they get a strong hand, and take all the money, repeatedly.

Against people of similar skill, draw (with the antes most people play with) is more of an actual game, and less of a horrible train-wreck of watching bad players getting fleeced. But in a similar holdem game, a guy can sit down, play every hand, and will often turn out okay.

*My comments are about cash games. For tournaments, the tournament dynamics dwarf a huge quantity of the strategy in the actual game.