What is Short Deck Poker? It has garnered quite a bit of interest from players as they witness the incredible spread of this format across all Poker competitions worldwide.
To make it easier to understand, you can think of it as a modified version of Texas Hold’em with a simpler, more understandable gameplay, while also having a higher probability of winning.
This is expected to become the top choice for casinos and online bookmakers in the near future.
What is Short Deck Poker?
What is Short Deck? This is essentially a modified form of the traditional Poker game.
Instead of using the full 52 cards as usual, now the dealer and players only use 36 cards.
The small cards 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 will be completely removed from the game.
Perhaps this is also the reason why Short Deck is also known as Short Deck 6+.
Comparison of Short Deck Vs Texas Hold’em
In fact, the rules of Online Poker 6+ are quite similar to the basic Poker gameplay that is popular among players at the moment.
However, due to the lack of cards, Short Deck still has some slight differences.
To better understand this uniqueness, I have compiled the following factors:
- The gameplay is similar when you have 2 hole cards and 5 community cards in each betting round. The player with the strongest 5-card hand is the winner.
- However, the order of hands in the Poker 6+ game has changed compared to the traditional version.
- The highest card in both versions is A, but the lowest card in Short Deck is 6 while in Texas it is 2.
Some other interesting Poker variants:
- The rules of Mini Poker | #4 How to spin Mini Poker for big wins
- Video Poker is what? How to play for money, not afraid of any casino
How to play Short Deck Poker?
To help players quickly get acquainted and have the opportunity to experience this new generation Poker masterpiece, here are the detailed Short Deck Poker rules:
a. The deck
A Poker game uses a 36-card deck instead of the usual 52 cards.
The cards that have been removed are: 2 – 3 – 4 – 5.
Thus, you are left with the cards: 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – J – Q – K – A.
b. How to rank hands
As shared, the way to rank hands and the method of comparing hands in Short Deck 6+ has some changes due to their probability of occurrence.
Specifically, you need to remember the following 2 principles:
- Flush is stronger than Full House because each suit only has 9 cards left, making the chances of getting a flush harder than getting a Full House.
- Three of a kind is also stronger than Straight because now each suit is missing 4 cards, significantly increasing the chances of making a consecutive straight.
Below is the order of comparison for the new hand rankings in Poker 6+ that you need to remember:
Royal Flush > Straight Flush > Four of a kind (quads) > Flush > Full House > Three of a kind > Straight > Two Pair > A Pair > High Card.
c. Ace Rules
Another important point that players should know is the Ace rules in Poker.
Accordingly, whether in a regular game or a new style game, the power of this special card remains unchanged.
You can combine Ace in any straight of the game.
However, the smallest straight now is A – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 instead of A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5.
See more: What is Bluff in Poker? Tips for playing Poker for professionals.
4+ Professional Tips for Playing Short Deck Poker
Below is a compilation of 4 effective, professional tips for playing Short Deck Poker for those new to this format:
1. The 3 – 6 Principle
If you are already familiar with Texas Hold’em, you are likely familiar with the 2 – 4 principle.
However, with Short Deck, due to the reduced number of cards compared to normal, this principle changes to 3 – 6.
Specifically, we understand it as follows:
- At the Flop round, you will calculate the product of outs with 3 to get the probability of the card you need at the Turn.
- If at the Flop you multiply outs by 6, you will calculate the ratio of the cards at the Turn or River.
- Especially if at the Turn, players multiply their outs by 3, they will get an approximate probability at the River.
For example, in the following case:
- The player has a hand that buys a Flush at the Flop => Outs equals 5
- The probability of getting a Flush at the Turn is: 5 x 3 = 15%
- Similarly, the probability of getting a Flush at the Turn or River is 5 x 6 = 30%.
2. Prioritize “straight” over “bad flush”
According to the principle when playing Poker 6+, the value of Flush will decrease compared to Straight when waiting.
If you are waiting for a Flush at the Flop, the outs index when playing Hold’em is 9, while in Short Deck it is only 5.
Thus, when calculating the probability, you will notice that the chance of winning has decreased from 36% to only 30%.
Conversely, if a player decides to wait for a two-ended straight at the Flop instead of a flush, they still have a high outs index of up to 8.
Thus, the actual probability of hitting a straight will be higher (specifically 48% for the River round).
From the two simple calculations above, it can be seen that the choice to fold to wait for a straight when playing Short Deck is much more effective.
3. Re-evaluate your starting hand when playing Short Deck 6+
For players who are too familiar with the normal competition format, having a good hand right from the Pre-flop is very rare.
The probability of getting a pair of AA when playing Hold’em is only 1 in 221 consecutive hands.
However, if you have removed weak cards like 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 from the deck, you will notice a higher frequency of strong hands.
For example, a pair of AA in Short Deck will appear about once in every 100 consecutive hands.
Stronger pairs like AK, QQ, JJ, KQ also appear more frequently, creating excitement and thrill for players.
Usually, every starting hand when playing Poker 6+ has greater strength than their actual value.
Note: If your hand is stronger when playing Short Deck, the same goes for the opponent’s hand, therefore players need to pay special attention to re-evaluate their winning chances every time they reveal their starting hand.
List of #5 Clubs that allow playing Poker in Da Nang on a large scale.
4. Get used to luck
Players who have played Poker often and are overwhelmed by their luck ratio should not rush to participate in Short Deck Poker immediately.
The reason for this is that Short Deck has a much higher luck factor compared to the traditional Hold’em version.
According to calculations from experts, this ratio increases by up to 17% – a significant number that will greatly affect the final win-loss results.
Conclusion
Once you understand what Short Deck Poker is, many players are amazed at the creativity of Poker players around the world.
It cannot be denied that reducing the number of cards makes Poker more luck-based, however, the interesting appeal it brings to you only increases, not decreases.
To avoid falling behind, it is very important to regularly update new trends when playing cards.
