Texas Holdem Short Deck
Short Deck Hold’em – also known as Six Plus (6+) Hold’em – is No-Limit Hold’em played with a stripped-down deck. All of the deuces to fives are removed to make the total deck just 36 cards. That means some pretty big changes to the poker hand rankings, game dynamics and to standard Texas Holdem strategy. 6+ Poker - The Short Deck Texas Hold'em (10 Similar Apps & 2,540 Reviews) vs Texas Holdem Poker: House of Poker (10 Similar Apps & 1,073 Reviews). GOODING GAME published the 6+ Poker - The Short Deck Texas Hold'em Game for Android operating system mobile devices, but it is possible to download and install 6+ Poker - The Short Deck Texas Hold'em for PC or Computer with operating systems such as Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and Mac.
Short Deck Hold’em is also known as 6+ (Six Plus) Hold’em. This No-Limit Poker game is played with a stripped-down deck.
Increasing in popularity
The game is a fast, fun variation of the world-recognised Texas Hold’em format. Short Deck Hold’em originated in Asia a few years back and is gaining increased recognition in Europe.
Due to some recent star-studded High Roller events, the game is attracting growing interest in the USA and is now being played in Las Vegas.
Difference in pack size
All of the 2’s, 3’s, 4’s and 5’s are removed from the standard 52-card pack leaving a game where only 36 cards are used. This means the 6 is the lowest card…. Unless you use an Ace as low.
An Ace has added value
As in traditional Hold’em the Ace can be used as either a High or Low, but in the Short Deck version of the game it can also make up the low and high ends of a straight. As in:
• A 6 7 8 9 is classed as a straight (In this example the Ace is classed as a ‘5’)
Hand ranking differences – Let the significance sink in!
While there are only a few differences in the value of a hand between the 2 formats of Hold’em these are very significant and will prove expensive if forgotten.
In Short Deck Hold’em
• A Flush beats a Full House – This is because mathematically it is harder to make a flush than a full house from the reduced deck.
Note: This is the general rule. However, some houses may still have it the other way around – As ever; check the house rules before taking your seat.
Flush possibilities
In regular Hold’em, players with suited hole cards have 9 cards in the deck from which to make a flush. Playing the Short Deck game reduces this to 5 cards. This means a Flush is far harder to hit.
Easier to hit a set
Playing short deck Hold’em makes it easier to hit a set than when playing the regular game. Short deck players holding a pocket pair have 2 cards remaining from the 34 to give them a set as opposed to 2 cards out of 50 in the regular game.
Short Deck Hold’em strategy
Players who are used to the regular version of Hold’em should be aware of strategy considerations during a traditional game.
Playing the Short Deck game brings a number of changes. Here are just 5 you need to bear in mind:
• The rule of 4 and 2 turns into the rule of 3 and 6
• Stronger Post-Flop hands are needed
• The chance of being dealt pocket Aces are twice as high
• Hands such as top pair and top kicker have a much lower value
• Single pair hands rarely win a pot
Fast, fun & exciting
There is no doubting that Short Deck Hold’em (6+ Hold’em) is making waves in Poker communities across the globe so why not taste the action by giving it a go?
A final word of caution though: While you are sure to hit far bigger hands than in the regular game this means your opponents will too!
Short Deck Hold’em, also known as Six Plus Hold’em, is similar to traditional Texas Hold’em. Players are dealt two hole cards and the hand proceeds with four betting rounds and five community cards (a three-card flop, turn and river) just like Hold’em. The main difference, as the name implies, is that Six Plus Hold’em is played with only the cards that are six or higher in value.
All of the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s, are removed from the deck (hence the nickname six plus or Short Deck), so instead of playing poker with a 52-card deck, it is played with a 36-card deck. With the deuces through fives removed, the sixes are the lowest cards in the deck.
Despite its similarities to Texas Hold’em, there are some significant differences in the hand rankings, strategy and rules of the game.
Short Deck Hand Rankings
Perhaps the biggest difference between Six Plus Hold’em and Texas Hold’em (besides the number of cards in the deck) is the hand rankings. Because the total number of cards in the deck is reduced, the mathematical odds of being able to make certain poker hands changes. It is this change in odds that dictates the change in hand rankings.
While there can be some variance in hand ranking depending on where the game is spread, for the most part, there are two important hand ranking to note:
Three-of-a-kind Beats a Straight
One might think that removing the deuces through fives would make it harder to make Straights, but the card removal means that all of the cards left in the deck are closer in rank than in a 52-card deck, meaning Straights are actually easier to make.
Also, just like in traditional Hold’em, the ace can be used as high or low when making straights. In the case of Six Plus Hold’em, the ace still acts as the highest card and can makes the highest straight AKQJ10, but it also can be used in place of the five making the smallest straight A6789.
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A Flush Beats a Full House
Card removal makes it harder to hit a flush than in traditional Hold’em, as there are four less cards of each suit. As a result, flushes are moved up in the hand ranking above full houses.
You can see all of the hand rankings for Six Plus Hold’em side by side with those of regular Hold’em in the table below (ranked from the highest hand to the lowest).
| Six Plus Hold’em (36-Card Deck) | Texas Hold’em (52-Card Deck) |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | Royal Flush |
| Straight Flush | Straight Flush |
| Four-of-a-Kind | Four-of-a-Kind |
| Flush | Full House |
| Full House | Flush |
| Three-of-a-Kind | Straight |
| Straight | Three-of-a-Kind |
| Two Pair | Two Pair |
| One Pair | One Pair |
| High Card | High Card |
Where to Play Six Plus Hold’em
With the recent boom in popularity of Six Plus Hold’em, there are now several places to play the game online.
iPoker Network
One of the more popular places that players gather to play Six Plus Hold’em is at Red Kings which is on the iPoker network and offers a large international player pool that provides the liquidity needed to ensure that more games go off at the times you want and at the stakes you want to play.
Americas Cardroom
Short Deck was recently added to the offshore US facing poker room, Americas Cardroom on the Winning Poker Network (WPN). Another room on the network that offers Six Plus Hold’em is Black Chip Poker.
Soon be Available on PokerStars
Last month, pokerfuse discovered that PokerStars may be planning on adding Six Plus Hold’em to his game offering. When that happens, the game is likely to be added to its dot-com player pool first (although PokerStars is known to test games out in segregated European markets such as Italy).
Adding a new game to all of the regulated markets that PokerStars operates in will likely require additional testing and cutting through plenty of red tape to get approval from gaming regulators in those markets.
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