In Texas Hold’em it’s about 11.8% or roughly one time in eight. In Six Plus, we will do the maths quickly (just to prove I can!) There are 36 cards in the pack, we have – let’s say again – JJ in our hand. So there are two jacks left in the 34 remaining cards. Build your winning strategy with our training content and become poker pro. Crush poker now!

Those who follow the offline poker industry have noticed that this year the interest in Short Deck Hold'em, known as Six Plus Hold'em, began to grow exponentially. Basically, because of two very advertised events of the Triton Super High Roller Series. In its schedule, half of the tournaments were in fact played in this poker modality, and Jason Koon and Phil Ivey names emerged among the Asian players who won the Short Deck tournaments.

Online poker players can now play high stakes games of Short Deck Hold'em, but let's first study the rules and strategies.

Short Deck Hold'em history

Macau is known as the birthplace of 6+ Hold'em. The first information about it appeared in 2014. Quickly, the game became popular in Asia. The Short Deck Hold'em rules are simple and the tables offer more action compared to regular Texas Hold'em.

In 2015, Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey posted a video talking about Short Deck. 'Durrr' mentioned that he was bored of playing regular hold'em. After these comments, the term 6+ was now known in the West.

Some rooms added this variant to their lobbies, but only the iPoker network maintained it. Right now during peak time maybe 10 tables of 6+ Hold'em can be found in stakes from NL10 to NL100. But generally speaking, Short Deck Hold'em remained just as a purely Asian fun.

Short Deck Hold'em rules

There are three main differences between with Texas Hold'em (which is played with a 52-card deck):

• The cards from 2 to 5 are removed from the deck, for a total of 36 cards in the game.
• The hand ranking changes: set beats straight, and a flush is better than a full house.
• The A can be used for any straight both as a low or high card (as a 5 for example)

Strategy for Short Deck Hold'em

Even though the game became popular about 4 years ago, there has been not much development of theory or strategy of Six Plus Hold'em. As a matter of fact, no support software has been released for it. Therefore, even regulars have to play 'old school style,' relying on general experience and knowledge of poker mathematics.

The basis for building a strategy for Short Deck Hold'em is keeping in mind that because there are fewer cards in the deck, many probabilities change with the same number of outs. One out equals 3%:

Tips for playing Short Deck Hold'em

• No need to overplay top pair / top kicker - in Six Plus Hold'em the draws probability is significantly higher, so TPTK is actually not a very good hand here, especially in the last streets;
• Be aggressive with strong projects - this as a result of the previous paragraph. Semi-bluffs with a strong draw are more effective in Short Deck. You either immediately win the pot, or you will find yourself playing with excellent odds of improving your hand;
• Be careful with weak kickers - hands like top pair, two pairs and straight are not that strong in Short Deck. You should adjust your pre-flop ranges according to this. In comparison to traditional Texas Hold'em, you should be looking for 2 strong cards as kicker instead of one. That is if A8o is a good hand to raise pre-flop in a 52-card deck game, in Six Plus hold'em it's better to raise minimum with ATo;
• Call 3-bets with any pocket pair - since a set is now stronger than a straight and the probability to get one in the flop is 18%, any pocket pair is reasonable to defend against a 3-bet;
• Keep in mind the new hand rankings - play carefully with suited boards, and also straight draws. For example, if you have a set, you should only be afraid of flushes so straight draws must not concern you.

Odds table for Short Deck Hold'em

Where can I play high stakes Short Deck Hold'em games online?

Recently we added a new room that answers this question - PokerKing Asia. This new Asian poker application has Short Deck hold'em tables from $80 to $300. If you want to know more information about this room, please read our room review and FAQ.

We must mention that the action at the 6+ tables include very weak lineups. Is not common to see regular players at Short Deck, and in PokerKing Asia they are even rarer.

Any general questions about PokerKing Asia, please contact our team:

Telegram @iamlonga or Skype: rodion_longa

To request a test account or gaming account, make a deposit or have more information - write to Juan:

Telegram @wpdspanish or Skype: live:wpd.spanish

PokerKing Asia (扑克王)

Six Plus Hold'em Strategy Rules

Table Of Contents

What is Short Deck Poker?

Short-deck poker (also known as six-plus hold'em) is a new variation of traditional Texas hold'em that mostly follows the same rules albeit with a significant difference.

Short-deck poker uses a smaller 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck.

Most first heard of short-deck poker after it was introduced among the mix in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.

Play Short-Deck Poker Online

6+ Short-deck poker is available online on the following websites:

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Short-Deck Poker Rules

Before we discover how to play short-deck poker, let's see how to get to the 36-card deck needed to play a game of 6+ hold'em.

The 36-card deck in use in poker short deck is created by removing the 2xs, 3xs, 4xs, and 5xs from the deck (16 cards).

That leaves the 6xs up through the Kxs as well as the Axs.

What about the Aces?

As in regular hold'em, in short-deck poker the aces still count as high or low when making straights.

Six Plus Hold'em Strategy Rules

The lowest possible straight in a game of short-deck poker is Ax9x8x7x6x (think of the ace as essentially replacing the missing 5x).

Poker short-deck is played similarly to regular hold'em.

Each player receive two hole cards and use them in combination with five community cards to create the best possible hand.

A game of short-deck poker features four streets of betting:

1. Pre-flop
2. Flop
3. Turn
4. River

However, there are some differences in the poker short-deck poker that you should know about before playing.

Short-Deck Poker Hand Rankings

Short-deck poker can be played according to the exact same rules as regular Texas Hold'em.

The betting can be fixed-limit or no-limit (although most often the game is played no-limit), and the same hand rankings can be used as follows:

Hand Ranking	Hand Name	Poker Hand
Lowest	High card	Kx6x9x8xQx
One pair	K♦K♠5x8xQx
Two pair	K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx
Three-of-a-kind	K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx
Straight	A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦
Flush	K♦J♦10♦6♦9x
Full house	K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠
Four-of-a-kind	K♦K♠K♥K♦6x
Straight flush	6♦7♦8♦9♦
Highest	Royal flush	10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦

For more info about the hand rankings in poker and which hand wins, visit our guide to poker hands.

Alternative Short-Deck Hand Rankings

Short-deck poker is played often employing a different hand ranking system. Here are the alternate hand rankings for short-deck poker (note the differences in bold):

Hand Ranking	Hand Name	Poker Hand
Lowest	High card	Kx6x9x8xQx
One pair	K♦K♠5x8xQx
Two pair	K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx
Straight	A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦
Three of a kind	K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx
Full house	K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠
Flush	K♦J♦10♦6♦9x
Four of a kind	K♦K♠K♥K♦6x
Straight flush	6♦7♦8♦9♦
Highest	Royal flush	10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦

As you can see, following these alternate poker short deck hand rankings a three-of-a-kind beats a straight (instead of vice-versa), and a flush beats a full house (instead of vice-versa).

Why a Different Hand Rankings?

These changes were introduced the because the removal of cards from the standard deck alter the probabilities of making certain hands.

For example, with only nine suited cards (instead of 13), a flush is harder to make in shord-deck poker than in regular hold'em.

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

One other popular variation often introduced in six-plus hold'em has to do with the way the river is dealt.

The game can be played according to the same procedure followed in regular hold'em, with the community cards coming in the same way — flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — and betting rounds after each street.

More often, though, instead of a river card being dealt to complete a five-card board, players are each dealt a third hole card instead.

Players then make their five-cardpoker hands by using exactly two of their three hole cards and three of the four community cards.

The building of hands resembles the procedure followed in Omaha poker where players must use two of their four hole cards plus three board cards to make a five-card poker hand.

Short-Deck Poker Basic Strategy

As you might imagine, the removal of low cards and use of the 36-card deck makes it more likely to make higher value hands, a change that tends to introduce more action.

You should adjust your thinking about relative hand values from what they are used to in regular hold'em.

The smaller deck makes it easier to make two-pair hands, which means a hand like top pair-top kicker is no longer as strong in six-plus hold'em as it is in regular hold'em.

Straights and full houses are also easier to make in six-plus hold'em than in the regular version of the game (a reason for the alternate hand rankings).

The odds of hitting certain draws change, too, in short-deck pokr.

Just to highlight one example, filling an open-ended straight draw becomes more likely in poker short-deck.

While you're still looking for the same eight outs there are fewer total cards in the deck, thus increasing the percentage you'll make your straight.

The smaller deck also affects the likelihood of being dealt certain hands. [∫]You're more than twice as likely to get pocket aces[/B] in short-deck poker than you are in regular hold'em!

Finally, players being dealt a third hole card instead of there being a fifth community card obviously affects hand values as well, making it even more likely that players improve their hands — yet another factor that has to be taken into account when calculating odds and considering your final-round betting strategy.

Conclusion

Short-deck poker / 6+ hold'em introduces several exciting twists to traditional Texas hold'em, creating an action-filled alternative that many players are finding especially enjoyable to play.

The changes from regular hold'em aren't terribly complicated, making it easy to new players to learn and play right away.

Short-Deck Poker FAQ

How do you play Short-Deck Poker?

A game of short-deck poker follows the same rules and gameplay as Texas hold'em poker.

The players receive two hole cards and they need to combine them with five community cards to create the best possible five-card hand.

Short-deck poker, however:

• Uses a 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck
• Ranks the hands differently compared to Texas hold'em

All the details to know before playing a game of short-deck poker are in this article.

Why is short-deck poker so popular?

The game of short-deck poker, os six-plus hold'em became famous at the high-stakes games in Macau. Due to the smaller deck, the game makes it more probably for players to hit high-value combinations.

Where is short-deck poker played?

You can play short-deck poker live at most poker festivals. If you are looking for games of short-deck poker online, check out the pokes sites listed on this page.

What's the best short-deck poker strategy?

The removal of some low-value cards from the deck changes the game's basic strategy and the value of different poker hands.

To understand ranges and odds in short-deck poker, have a look at this article.

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