Thread per connection vs Reactor pattern (with a thread pool)?

I want to write a simple multiplayer game as part of my C++ learning project. So I thought, since I am at it, I would like to do it properly, as opposed to just getting-it-done. If I understood correctly: Apache uses a Thread-per-connection architecture, while nginx uses an event-loop and then dedicates a worker [x] for the incoming connection. I guess nginx is wiser, since it supports a higher co