How to Play Short Deck Poker

If you’ve mastered the basics of Texas Hold’em, you already know how to play Short Deck poker. You don’t necessarily need experience in Hold’em to play Short Deck poker online, but it provides a solid foundation. So, before you work on your Short Deck poker strategy, I recommend reading our guide to Hold’em first.

Next, it’s time to get into the rules of Short Deck poker.

What is Short Deck Poker?

Short Deck poker is a variant of Texas Hold’em, which is why it’s also known as 6+ Hold’em. Traditional Texas Hold’em and 6+ Hold’em are identical in terms of their betting structures. The differences lie in the fact that 6+ Hold’em is a short-deck game.

What does short deck mean in poker? Poker with a short deck, as you can probably guess, is a game where the deck is “short” of a few cards. Another way to refer to Short Deck is stripped deck.

How Does Short Deck Poker Work?

Short Deck poker is a version of Hold’em in which certain cards have been removed from play. As per the rules of Short Deck poker, the cards removed from play are those worth 5 or less (not including aces).

Removing call cards lower than a 6 creates some interesting dynamics that fuel more action. It’s no surprise that 6+ Hold’em was popularized in Asia by action-loving high-stakes poker players such as Triton founder Paul Phua.

How to Play Short Deck Poker Online

Before I discuss the process of how to play Short Deck poker hands, let’s recap the rules so we understand the similarities and differences to regular Hold’em.

Short Deck Poker Rules

The Short Deck poker rules you need to know before you play online are:

• Each player receives two hole cards.
• Up to five community cards are dealt over three streets (flop, turn, and river).
• Two players post antes (big and small blinds) before any cards are dealt.
• The action starts with the player sitting immediately to the left of the big blind.
• Players have an obligation to meet the last biggest bet if they want to continue. If there haven’t been any previous bets, the player can call the value of the big blind and/or check (after the flop). Players can also raise.
• Pots can be won by forcing everyone to fold or by having the best five-card hand at a showdown.
• The rules of Short Deck poker dictate that all cards lower than a 6 are removed from play.
• Aces can be high or low. They can also be used to complete straights.
• Flushes beat full houses according to Short Deck poker hand rankings.

How to Bet in Short Deck Poker Online

Short Deck is typically a No Limit game, which means you can bet or raise up to the value of your entire stack, just like Texas Hold’em. So, if you’re learning how to play Short Deck poker, you can simply keep this principle in mind:

Action proceeds clockwise around the table and, if you want to stay in the hand, you need to meet the last biggest bet.

This principle applies before the flop (aka pre-flop), as well as post-flop, i.e., on the flop, turn, and river. The only time you don’t have to put any chips into the pot is post-flop when no one has placed a bet before you.

For example, let’s say the flop has been dealt and two players before you check (i.e., don’t make a bet). You have the option to bet or check at this point. You don’t have this option before the flop because the blinds count as bets.

If everybody before you folds pre-flop, you still can’t check, because you need to match the last biggest bet, which is the big blind. Therefore, you can only call the big blind or raise. All the best crypto poker sites will only show you buttons which make sense, so you don’t have to worry about acting out of turn or trying to raise when it’s not possible to do so.

Short Deck Poker Hand Rankings

I can’t teach you how to play Short Deck poker without giving you the hand rankings. You already know that removing cards changes the probability of making flushes. This translates into a different set of hand rankings than you might be used to.

Here are the standard Short Deck poker hand rankings:

Note that, in rare variations of 6+ Hold’em, three-of-a-kind beats a straight.

Short Deck vs Texas Hold’em

The main difference between Short Deck poker and Texas Hold’em is that the former has fewer cards in play, while traditional Hold’em uses the full deck. When you remove all the 2-5s from a standard 52-card deck, you’re left with 36 cards.

Something else that’s written into the rules of Short Deck poker is that aces can be used as high or low when there’s a possible straight. Here’s how that might look:

• Straight with a low ace: A♦ 6♥ 7♦ 8♠ 9♣
• Straight with a high ace: 10♦ J♣ Q♥ K♣ A♠

Removing cards and giving aces slightly more power not only separates Short Deck poker from traditional Hold’em, but it also generates more action. Short Deck poker odds are different from other types of Hold’em, which mixes up the hand rankings and creates more action.

The reason that Short Deck poker hand rankings are different is based on probabilities. It’s harder to make certain Short Deck poker hands because there are fewer combinations. Why? Because 16 cards have been removed from the deck. This means you’ve got fewer ways to make flushes.

Flush vs. Full House

Okay, so does a flush beat a straight in Short Deck poker? Yes. In fact, flushes also beat full houses, which doesn’t happen in regular Hold’em. This dynamic means hand equities run closer, which is a fancy way of saying it’s easier to make ranked hands.

The same is true of Pot Limit Omaha, and it means you can lose more often with hands such as two-pair because it’s easier for someone to make a stronger hand. People are therefore more willing to take risks, which generates more action.

Straight vs. Three-of-a-Kind

In most versions of Short Deck poker, a straight beats three-of-a-kind. But in some events, this is flipped around. Mathematically, you’re more likely to hit a straight than a set in 6+ Hold’em.

By default, a straight is the better hand, but it’s essential to check the house rules before you play.

Where to Play Short Deck Poker

Knowing how to play Short Deck poker is a useless skill if you don’t have anywhere to ante up. Despite its popularity increasing, 6+ Hold’em isn’t as prevalent as its more established namesake.

Anyone with a big enough bankroll to follow the Triton Series can enter Short Deck tournaments costing upwards of $10,000. For the rest of us, the best way to play Short Deck Hold’em is online.

My favorite place to play Short Deck poker online is BetOnline. In fact, as of now, it’s one of the only top-rated offshore poker sites offering this version of Hold’em. On the plus side, this pools most Short Deck players into one place, meaning you’ll often find cash games right up to $1/$2.

Based on my experience, the standard of play isn’t particularly advanced.  If you can master a bit of Short Deck poker strategy, you’ll stand a good chance of picking off the fish who think they’re simply playing a strange version of Hold’em.

Short Deck Poker Tips & Strategies

Before you rush off and play Short Deck poker online, I want to leave you with a few tips. In general, the strategy concepts that apply to Texas Hold’em also apply to Short Deck. Specifically, you should think about the strength of your hand in relation to your position and the table dynamics.

1.     Tight is Right

In my opinion, tight is always right in Hold’em, and it’s even more important in Short Deck. Put simply, the hands you choose to play matter. With this in mind, here are the best starting hands in Short Deck poker:

• 10-10 to A-A
• A-10 suited to A-K suited
• 10-9 suited to K-Q suited

That’s a basic starting hands chart for Short Deck poker, and you can definitely play other hands. However, the point I want to make here is that hands that can play well in traditional Hold’em aren’t as strong in Short Deck.

2.     Don’t Overvalue Hands

Specifically, pairs lower than 10-10 aren’t that strong, even in late position. In general, pocket pairs are less valuable in Short Deck. The same goes for middling connectors, such as 7-6.

You’re twice as likely to be dealt pocket aces in Short Deck than you are in Hold’em. This, of course, applies to all pocket pairs. Therefore, even though it’s still worth playing these hands, they’re not nearly as rare and valuable as they are in Texas Hold’em.

3.     Think Like a PLO Player

Personally, I liken Short Deck poker strategy to Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) strategy. In Omaha, pairs aren’t particularly strong and don’t win showdowns that often because everyone has four hole cards. You should adopt the same mindset in Short Deck. That means tightening up your range.

Single pair hands aren’t great, and neither are two-pair hands. Sets, straights, and full houses are better, but don’t forget that flushes trump all of these hands. That’s why my Short Deck poker best-starting hands list focuses on suited cards. You can play unsuited hands, but suited hands are more powerful in Short Deck than they are in Texas Hold’em.

So, to recap, here’s my basic Short Deck poker strategy:

• Play tight pre-flop
• Always focus on your position and the table dynamics
• Don’t overvalue pocket pairs
• Place more emphasis on suited hands than unsuited hands
• Don’t commit too much money post-flop with anything less than a straight
• Remember that flushes beat full houses

Keep these points in mind, and you should have a better chance of winning when you play Short Deck poker online.

Conclusion

Now you know how to play Short Deck poker, you can see it’s extremely similar to Texas Hold’em. If you can master a few simple strategy concepts, you’ve got an opportunity to exploit the schools of fish who play Short Deck poker online without really knowing what they’re doing.

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