Short Deck Starting Hands

What's Short-Deck Poker?

• Short Deck Poker Starting Hands
• Short Deck Best Starting Hands
• Short Deck Starting Hands

• Equity calculator for short deck and full deck hold'em poker games with hand history storage.
• Texas Holdem Starting Hands Infographic. This Cheat Sheet covers every kind of starting hand and gives you easy-to-follow instructions on how to play them before and after the flop. The infographic also includes helpful stats about how likely it is for someone else to have a bigger pocket pair than you before the flop.

First 3 deposits only, Min deposit £10, Max total bonus £500 & 150 spins, Spin value varies, Best Starting Hands In Short Deck Poker 30x wagering (dep + bonus), 30x on spins, 5x conversion, selected slots only, full T&Cs apply. In short-deck games we have to recalibrate our sense of relative hand strength to make any sense of the board. 25% of all flops are paired and 36% of flops permit at least one straight. Once we factor out the remaining monochrome boards we are left with a paltry 37% of flops which are polychrome, unpaired and 0-straight. Whereas in regular hold'em there are 1,326 distinct starting hands, in short deck hold'em there are only 630 distinct starting hands — less than half (about 47.5 percent). That's counting suits as.

Poker has a problem.
Short-Deck is the answer.
Also known as, Triton Hold'em, Short-Deck has its roots in Asia, where successful businessmen, and poker lovers, Paul Phua and Richard Yong, experimented by removing a few cards from the standard 52-card deck, increasing the likelihood of strong pre-flop hands.
Out went the 2s.
Then the 3s.
Then the 4s.
Finally, the 5s.
The net result, was a 36-card deck – a Short-Deck – and the outcome was incredible.
Plus 4 uno. One of the problems that amateurs have when playing superior players, especially professionals, is they play with a broad range of starting hands because their primary focus in the game is to enjoy themselves, and you can't do that if you fold. The better player begins with a narrower range of hands, and this disparity means the amateur ends up with the worst of it more often than the pro.
Folding isn't fun.
Neither is losing all the time.
Paul and Richard found that by removing the lower half of the cards, they increased the likelihood that an amateur would receive two very playable starting hands.
As the former World Series of Poker (WSOP), Player of the Year, Ben Lamb, mentions during his first experience of Short-Deck during a 2018 Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea.

'The first thing you notice when you sit down to play Short-Deck is the equities run much closer than No-Limit Hold'em.'

And the closer you get, the more often a weaker player wins, and the more likely he or she is to remain in the game. At a time when poker's ecosystem is under pressure from advancements in technology and available poker resources, with players getting improving at a rate never before witnessed, Short-Deck is fixing a leak that is in danger of drowning the game.

The Rules of Short-Deck Poker

The variant featured in Triton Poker Series events is called Short-Deck, Ante-Only. There is no small or big blind, and instead everyone has to post an ante that increases each level in the same way blinds do in a standard game of No-Limit Hold'em. The player on the button posts a double ante.
Each player begins with three bullets.
Stack sizes can vary, but in the early events at Montenegro and Jeju in South Korea, each bullet was worth 100,000 in chips. And loading these three bullets into the chamber is important, as Ben Lamb explains.

'You have to put your stack in more often than the other games. That's why they give you three bullets, that's smart.'

Like No-Limit Hold'em, the player to the left of the button begins the action by calling the size of the double ante, raising or folding. The action continues in sequence as per No-Limit Hold'em rules. Post flops actions plays the same.
Here's Ben Lamb again to give you a few tips.

'You need to see a lot of flops. There are more passive ways to play the game, like limping, but this an action game. Stay away from dominated hands. Recognise the difference between shallow and deep-stacked play.'

During the early action, you can be forgiven for thinking you have walked into a game of deuces wild. All-in and calls are common, the action is crazy fast, and there is a lot of laughing and joking around the tables. But once the game gets deep, you need to switch gears, and this is why the game suits both skilled and weaker players alike.
And the best thing about Short-Deck is it's a new game. It's perfect for local home games where you can experiment with the rules and formats, while keeping an eye on the Triton Livestream to see how the Godfathers of the game continue to evolve.

Short-Deck Poker Hand Ranking (Best to Worst)

Royal flush
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Flush
Full house
Straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
It's important to remember that a flush beats a full house. That's the only hand ranking difference when compared to No-Limit Hold'em.
One of the features of Short-Deck, is unlike Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) where players have to learn to use four hole cards, Short-Deck is more suitable for people who have grown up playing the more familiar No-Limit Hold'em.
A few things to note:
Pocket aces come along 1 in 105 hands, not one in 220, but they are cracked way more often.
Straight draws arrive on the flop 48% of the time, not 31%.
The odds of flopping a set are 18%, and not 12%.
The other change to be aware of is the role of the ace. As in No-Limit Hold'em the ace plays both low and high when creating straights, meaning it becomes a five when 6,7,8,9 is on the board.

Triton Poker Series Spearheads Short-Deck Poker Trend

After playing Short-Deck in their local home game, and seeing the improvements in sociability and joy firsthand, both Paul and Richard decided to test the new variant at a professional level.
The Triton Poker Series was born.
Taking place in some of the most salubrious destinations around the world, the Triton Poker Series is a high stakes series that pits some of the wealthiest amateurs against the very best professionals in the game.
In 2018, at the Triton Poker Series at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Montenegro, Paul and Richard hosted a HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) and a HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only event, put the word out, and hoped they would come.
Come they did.
The most feared and respected poker player in the modern game, Phil Ivey, beat 61 entrants to win the HKD 4,749,200 (USD 604,992) first prize in the HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) version, and Jason Koon defeated 103 entrants to bank the HKD 28,102,000 (USD 3,579,836) in the HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) version, in only his second ever Short-Deck event.
Not only did the amateurs love the game, so did the pros, and so did the poker community, who tuned in to watch the livestream in their droves. There had not been this much buzz over a format of poker since the Texas Road Gamblers decided to add the words ‘All-In' to the game of Limit Hold'em.
Paul Phua and Richard Yong had achieved the remarkable.
Short Deck became the antidote to a game that was in danger of turning into a robotic, emotionless, and dull experience.
'People who fold too much are going to get eaten up, you have to be prepared to gamble,' Ben Lamb.
But how do you play this game?

The Future of Short-Deck Poker

The Triton Poker Series Livestream numbers show that this is a variant of the game that the poker community adores. It turns quite a boring spectator sport into one of the most illuminating.
All sports and games have their magic moments.
The goal.
The punch.
The all-in and call.
There are more swings than a kid's playground, and for this reason, Short-Deck poker is going to be here to stay, but where does it take it's seat in poker's landscape.
Back to Ben Lamb.
'It will grow, especially in America. I am going to try and help that happen by running games at ARIA and my local game in LA,' says Lamb, who played the variant in Jeju, for the first time, and fell in love with it. 'It fits a niche. Amateurs want to enjoy themselves. Pot Limit Omaha cash games tend to be more fun for amateur players, but Short-Deck takes it to another level. More gambling. More fun. The edges are smaller, and that's a great thing for the long term ecosystem of poker. Just because your a pro it doesn't mean you don't like to gamble. I love to flip and gamble.'
Poker's purpose is to enthrall, enlighten and entertain.
Somewhere along the way we forgot that.
Short-Deck won't let us make the same mistake twice.
Suddenly, it feels like poker has no problem at all.

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.

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

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.

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:

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 (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.

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

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.

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:

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 Starting Hands

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):

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)

Doubledown promo codes. 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.

Short Deck Best Starting Hands

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.

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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

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:

Short Deck Starting Hands

• 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.

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.

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.

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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