Short Deck Poker

Short Deck Poker Rules & Gameplay

The short-deck poker game, also known as six-plus hold ’em, has gained rapid popularity in high-stakes poker games. Poker players from around the world play cash games and tournaments in the short-deck poker format. Short-deck poker is a fun alternative for Texas Hold’em poker games as it offers a lot of action and big hands. 

Let’s look at short-deck poker and the essential rules to play this fun variant.  

What is Short-Deck Poker?

Short-deck poker is an alternative to Texas Hold’em with the difference that it is played with a 36-card deck. The game derives its name from the 36-card deck, a shorter deck that includes all cards from sixes and above. The deuces, threes, fours, and fives are removed from the standard deck to play this game. 

Due to this shorter deck, the hand rankings and strategy are relatively different in short-deck poker. However, the gameplay and betting remain similar to Texas Hold’em poker. The cards are dealt in a similar fashion, but the shorter deck significantly impacts hand rankings. For instance, the top pair in Texas Hold’em can be strong, but the top pair can be weak in short-deck poker due to the many draws. 

How to Play Short Deck Poker?

The gameplay and rules of six plus hold'em are similar to the traditional texas hold'em game. This poker short-deck game is played using a 36-card deck, and a slight difference in the hand rankings.

The dealer deals two hole cards to each player and five community cards at the centre of the table. The objective is to make the best five-card hand combination by combining the hole cards and community cards.

The betting rounds take place through four streets:

Pre-flop

Flop

Turn

River

At the end of all the betting rounds, the player with the highest-ranking five-card hand wins the game.

Short Deck Hold'em Poker Rules

Before you start playing short-deck poker, you must learn all the rules of poker. Here are several rules you should keep in mind:

The game uses only 36 cards from a standard deck of 52 cards. The deuces, threes, fours, and fives are removed, making six the lowest card, which gives it the name six-plus hold'em.

The game is played between 2 to 10 players, with the usual number of players being 6.

The hand rankings in short-deck poker are re-worked due to the higher chances of hitting certain hands such as straights or sets.

As per the short-deck poker rules for aces, aces are counted as high and low while making straights, but they also substitute the fives, like in 9-8-7-6-A.

Short-Deck Poker Hand Rankings

Compared to Texas Hold 'em, the hand rankings in Short-Deck poker differ slightly, with Royal Flush and Straight Flush being the best hands. For instance, a Flush beats a Full House and three of a kind beats a straight in some variations of the game. The betting in this poker short deck game can be either fixed-limit or no-limit (although most games are played with the no-limit betting structure). You must learn the below short-deck poker starting hands rankings if you want to dominate the table:

Alternate Short-Deck Hold'em Hand Rankings

The short deck hold'em game is also often played with an alternate hand ranking system. Here are the alternative short-deck hand rankings of the game with a difference in the ranking of these hands - Straight, Three of a Kind, Flush, and Four of a Kind:

In this hand rankings chart, a three of a kind beats a straight, and a flush beats a full house.

Short Deck Hold’em Odds

The short deck hold'em odds are a complete game changer.

In the poker short-deck game, more starting hands are playable as the chances of two hole cards to be connected or paired are more. For instance, you may be dealt pocket aces twice as often as any other pocket pair. Moreover, you can play more hands and get involved in multiway pots as the super disconnected hands such as J-4 or 9-2 are eliminated.

Straights will come in more often as the odds of flopping an open-ended straight draw are 19% as opposed to 10% in the full-deck poker game.

The odds of hitting outs are more due to the fewer cards in short-deck hold'em. For instance, the odds of hitting a straight by the river with an open-ended straight draw is 45.5 % compared to 31.5% in the full-deck texas hold'em game.

There are more chances of being dealt connectors, hitting paydirt for a straight half the time, and flopping the open-ended draw twice as often.

In the short deck hold'em game, a three-of-a-kind hand occurs more often than in full-deck holdem but less frequently than a straight. Therefore, the odds of hitting a set on the flop is 17% if you are dealt a pocket pair (compared to 12% in the traditional hold'em game).

You will flop fewer flush draws and hit them less often in short deck poker. In contrast to 9 outs and 35% chance in standard Hold'em, the odds of landing a flush draw by the river is 5 outs and a 30% chance if you flop a flush draw. However, if you miss the flush on the turn, the odds of hitting on the river are 16.6%.

Six-Plus Hold'em Variation — The Deal (Fifth Street)

A popular variation of the six-plus hold'em game involves a slight variation in the way cards are dealt at the river.

The game is played according to the short-deck poker rules, with community cards being dealt the same way - three cards in the flop, one card on turn, and one card on the river, followed by betting rounds after each street. However, in this variation, players are dealt a third hole card each on the river instead of a community card. Players can make their five-card hand using two of the three hole cards and three of the four community cards.

Short-Deck Hold'em Strategy

Don’t Shy Away From Draws

Owing to a shorter deck and higher number of face cards in short-deck poker, the players are bound to hit a higher number of draws in the short deck hold'em game compared to full-deck Hold’em. You must make the most of the draws instead of shying away. 

For instance, on the flop in Texas Hold’em, you can multiply the number of outs by 4 and by 2 on the river to evaluate the percentage and improve the hand. Whereas, in short-deck poker, you can multiply the number of outs by 6 on the flop and by 3 on the river. So, when you have 10 outs on the flop, there’s a 54.8% chance to improve the hand on the turn and river.

Hitting Flush

Compared to Texas Hold’em, hitting a flush is more difficult in short-deck poker due to fewer cards in the deck. Therefore, hitting that draw with only nine cards of each suit is quite challenging. Also, in the majority of short deck plays, a flush is considered bigger than a full house. Check the house/table rules before you sit in to grind. 

For instance, in Hold’em, completing a hand with a flush draw and nine cards left in the deck is easier. However, there are fewer chances of hitting that flush with only five cards in short-deck. The chances at the river are 30% and at the turn are 15% as opposed to 18% in Hold’em. The difference between the two may not seem significant, but it can cost your chip stack while calling the bets for that flush in short-deck. 

Focus More on a Straight

Compared to Hold’em, straights are much more common in the short-deck poker format. The straight draws are way more powerful than the flush draws and are more valuable when playing aggressively. The hand strength of an open-ended straight draw at the flop is also much higher, and the chances of making a straight by the river go all the way up to 45%. So, when you play your straight draws aggressively, you would mostly have equity even in the circumstances when your opponent calls.

Ditch Big Pocket Pairs 

The big pocket pairs such as AA, KK, QQ, and JJ in short-deck aren’t as powerful as they are in Texas Hold’em due to the premium cards and big draws in the deck. Therefore, ditching the big pocket pairs in short-deck poker is a trick you can include in your skillset and include suited and connecting hands instead. 

Connected Hands are Strong

In short-deck poker, the connected hands such as 89, 9Ten, TenJack, or QueenJack are much stronger than in No-Limit Hold’em. 19% of the time, you may flop an open-ended straight draw with a TenJack or 9Ten, 12% of the time with a QueenJack, and 6% with a KingQueen in this format.

Don’t be Afraid to Overbet in Short-Deck Poker

Overbets are quite regular in short-deck poker; you must not be afraid to overbet. While sizing the bets in Texas Hold ’em is done according to the pot, and not many players make huge bets bigger than the pot, overbetting is quite normal and recommended in short-deck poker.  

If you flop a big hand in short-deck, the best way to protect it is by betting big or overbetting the pot. You must also determine if your opponent is sticky or has a big draw before deciding to overbet.

Hand Equities Run Much Closer

In comparison to N0-Limit Hold'em, the hand equities run much closer in six-plus hold’em, because of which only a few hands are considered premium hands. For instance, getting in with KK instead of an AK will not be as good as in NLH. In fact, the pocket kings are preferred by only 10% against any AK and by 6% against suited AKs because aces make frequent appearances on the river. This also changes the whole approach to the game as you will find yourself making more straights than on NLH.

Feel Free to Open-limp with a variety of hands

In six-plus hold’em you can take the liberty to open-limp with many more poker hands than in the classic Hold’em game. You can limp with the entire range from the initial stages to make the game more profitable.

This is because only aces, kings, and AKs are the premium hands in short-deck, and balancing the best hands with weaker ones becomes difficult, leaving open-limping a viable option.

If you raise from the initial stages with non-premium hands, you are more likely to run into a better hand as opposed to becoming too predictable while raising premiums.

FAQs

How to play Short-Deck Poker?

Short-deck poker has the same rules and gameplay as regular Texas Hold'em poker. So, if you know how to play Texas Hold'em, you can easily play the poker short-deck game. The differences between the two are that short-deck poker is played using a 36-card deck from card rank 6 and above, and the hand rankings differ slightly.

Why is short-deck hold'em so popular?

The short-deck hold'em or six plus hold'em game is quite popular due to the small deck, which makes it more probable for players to hit high-value combinations. Short-deck is popularly played in high-stakes games.

What's the best short-deck poker strategy?

There's no perfect short-deck poker strategy as the game is relatively new. However, players can use a few strategies to dominate the short-deck hold'em table. Some of the strategies include hitting a flush, not shying away from draws, focusing more on straights, ditching the big pocket pairs, using connected hands, open-limping with a variety of hands, and overbetting frequently.

What are the hand rankings for short deck poker?

The hand rankings for six plus hold'em include these hands in the order of highest to lowest - Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Flush, Full House, Straight, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card.