What is six-plus holdem AKA short-deck Poker?

Six-plus hold’em, also called short-deck Poker, is a relatively new Poker format that quickly rose in popularity after having a tribute on the high-stakes Poker tables on television.

The game has almost the same rules of no-limit hold’em with the exception that you play Six-plus hold’em with a short deck – there are only 36 cards – A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 in 4 suits. Six-plus hold’em also has a different hand-strength-ranking compared to Hold’em.

Differences to Texas Hold'em

Given the short-deck of 36 cards the probabillity of forming certain hands (flush, straight etc.) becomes different, hence the hand-strenght-ranking is changed.

Given that there are now only 9 outs (instead of 13) when drawing to a flush-draw, the flush beats the full house, and three-of-a-kind beats the straight.

Also, the Ace is still counted as the lowest card and you can make a straight Eg. with A-6-7-8-9.

Hand strength

You can play Short-deck Poker with the traditional hand rankings of Texas Hold’em. Given the different probabilities of forming hands, it is more common to play the game with altered hand rankings, adjusted to the likeliness of making different Poker hands.