1. Short Deck Poker Hands Designs
  2. Short Deck Poker Hands Images
  3. Short Deck Poker Hands Signs
  4. Short Deck Poker Book

Equity calculator for short deck and full deck hold'em poker games with hand history storage. 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 A x.

Recently I’ve been hearing about a new game called short deck. It’s played just like normal Texas hold’em, except it’s played with a short deck—all the cards deuce through five are removed from the deck. Aces play as the low end of a nine-high straight. Some variants reorder the hand rankings, most notably changing it so that flushes beat a full house.

When I first heard about it, it sounded to me like the new math would break a lot of players’ intuition they’ve built playing regular no-limit hold’em. So the first thing I wanted to do was go through how some of the math changes.

Let’s say you get dealt 10h 9h. Let’s go through the math of how often you flop straight and/or flush draws both for normal hold’em and then for short deck.

Short Deck Poker Hands Designs

Full Deck Draws

Short Deck Poker Hands

Once you have your two cards, 50 cards remain in the deck. Three of these will appear on the flop, so there are 50 choose 3 total possible flops. (You can type 50 choose 3 into Google and it will give you the answer.) In this case, that’s 19,600 possible flops.

To flop a flush draw, you need two of the 11 remaining hearts on the flop, as well as an unrelated third card. So that’s 11 choose 2 times 39 (the number of non-hearts remaining in the deck). Since 11 choose 2 is 55, the total number of flush draw flops is 2,145. Divide that by the total number of flops, and you get about 11 percent, which is how often you will flop a flush draw.

To flop an open-ended straight draw you need either Q-J, J-8, or 8-7 on the flop—in each case also with an unrelated card. There are 16 ways to have Q-J (four queens times four jacks), and 16 ways each for the other two for 48 total ways.

If we specify that the unrelated card can’t be one that completes the straight, there are 40 possible unrelated cards for each of the 48 total ways to flop a straight draw. That makes 1,920 total straight draw flops. Divide that by the total number of flops, and you get about 10 percent, which is how often you will flop a straight draw.

Short Deck Draws

In short deck, there are 34 remaining cards after you get your two, so 34 choose 3 or 5,984 possible flops.

Ranking

There are only 7 remaining hearts, so to flop a flush draw you have 7 choose 2 times 27 possible flops. That’s 567 flops or about 9.5 percent of flops. The full deck chance was 11 percent so flush draws are somewhat less common in short deck.

To flop a straight draw you still have your 48 ways to get Q-J, J-8, or 8-7 on the flop, but now there are only 24 unrelated third cards. That’s 1,152 total straight draw flops or about 19 percent. The chance of flopping a straight draw in short deck is much higher than it is with a full deck.

Making The Draw

Everyone knows the chance to make flush and straight draws in normal hold’em are nine and eight outs respectively. You can use the rule of two and four to estimate the chance of making the draws. But the exact way to figure it out is to do something similar to what we did on the flop. The only twist is you calculate the chance of missing the draw and then subtract that from one.

There are 47 choose 2 possible turn and river cards. That’s 1,081. If you have a flush draw (nine outs) then there are 38 cards that brick your draw, so you have 38 choose 2 ways to miss. That’s 703 total misses out of 1,081, or 65 percent. That leaves a 35 percent chance you hit your flush draw.

Straights work the same, except you have 39 cards that brick your draw. That’s 741 total misses, or 68.5 percent. That leaves a 31.5 percent chance of hitting the draw.
In short deck, there are 31 choose 2 possible turn and river cards. That’s 465. A flush draw has only five outs in this game. So there are 26 cards that brick your draw, and you have 26 choose 2 ways to miss, or 325. That’s about a 70 percent chance to miss, so it’s about a 30 percent chance to make a flush.

Open-ended straights still have 8 outs though. So there are only 23 cards that brick your draw, giving you 23 choose 2 ways to miss, or 253. That’s about a 54.5 percent miss percentage, so you hit your straight about 45.5 percent of the time.

That’s pretty close to 50-50! And you flop a straight draw to your connector nearly 20 percent of the time. Flushes are a bit harder to make in this game, but straights are much easier.

Flopping A Set

Deck

The odds of flopping a set change also in short deck. You can figure it out the same way as the chance of making draws—count the flops where you miss the set and subtract from one. With a full deck, there are 48 choose 3 ways to miss your set, or 17,296. That’s about 88 percent of flops, leaving about a 12 percent chance to flop a set.
In short deck, there are 32 choose 3 ways to miss your set, or 4,960 flops. Divide that by the 5,984 total possible short deck flops, and there’s about an 83 percent chance to miss, leaving a 17 percent chance to flop a set.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know how many of us will be playing short deck soon. The game is popular in only a small number of places, mostly in ultra high-stakes cash games. I think one reason it’s become popular in those games is because it turns your ingrained intuitions against you.

Short Deck Poker Hands

When you’ve played hold’em long enough, you begin to internalize the probabilities to make certain hands. You end up getting to the correct answer in many situations through intuition honed over zillions of hands.

Short deck wrecks a lot of those intuitions. The probabilities to make the basic hands are just plain different. Therefore hand values are different. The hands to semi-bluff with and bluff catch with and so on are also different. Blockers mean more in some contexts.

The basic concepts of poker are all the same. But the details of how to resolve conflicts between competing concerns is turned on its head.

Shaking things up in this way always tends to reward the best poker players. The ones who can adjust more quickly than anyone else. The ones who can figure things out rather than rely solely on learned intuition.

Poker

Doing the math in this article is the beginning of this process. ♠

Ed’s newest book, The Course: Serious Hold ‘Em Strategy For Smart Players is available now at his website edmillerpoker.com. You can also find original articles and instructional videos by Ed at the training site redchippoker.com.

Six-plus hold 'em
Alternative namesShort-deck hold 'em
TypeCommunity card poker
Players2-10
Skills requiredProbability, psychology
Cards36
DeckFrench
PlayClockwise
Card rank (highest first)A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6
Random chanceHigh

Six-plus hold 'em (also known as short-deck hold 'em) is a community card poker game variant of Texas hold 'em, where the 2 through 5 cards are removed from the deck. Each player is dealt two cards face down and seeks to make the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards (five community cards and their own two hole cards).[1]

Rules[edit]

The rules in terms of betting structures, play of the hand, and showdown are the same as in Texas hold 'em. However before play begins all cards 2 through 5 are removed (16 cards), thus the total number of cards in the deck is 36. Aces are high, but same as in Texas hold 'em, can make both low and high end of straights. For example the lowest straight would be (9x-8x-7x-6x-Ax) and the highest (Ax-Kx-Qx-Jx-10x). This changes the probability of hands and alters hand rankings.[2]

Modified hand rankings[edit]

RankNameExample
1Royal flush
2Straight flush
3Four of a kind
4Flush
5Full house
6Straight
7Three of a kind
8Two pair
9One pair
10High card

Short Deck Poker Hands Images

Flush ranks higher than full house. In theory, three-of-a-kind ranks higher than a straight as the probability of achieving three-of-a-kind is lower than a straight in short-deck, however recent games have been ranking straight higher than three-of-a-kind which has become standard.[3] Some variations of six-plus hold 'em plays with standard Texas hold 'em hand rankings. When calculating for 5 card six-plus hold 'em where each player gets only 5 cards, straights rank higher than three-of-a-kind.

The 2018 Triton Poker tournament series hosted the first televised six-plus hold 'em tournaments. The first Triton Super High Roller HK$250,000 short deck ante-only event was won by Phil Ivey, earning him US$617,396.[4] The 2018 Triton tournaments ranked straights higher than three-of-a-kind.[5]

Short Deck Poker Hands Signs

History[edit]

The game originated in 2014 and is popular among high stakes gamblers in Asia due to its high variance.[clarification needed] In 2015, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan promoted the game in an online video showing this variant of Texas hold 'em which is frequently played in Macau, Hong Kong and Manila.[6][7]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^'Six Plus Hold'em'. PokerVIP. 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  2. ^Gheorghe, Florain (14 March 2016). 'The New Six Plus Holdem'. PokerTube. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  3. ^DellaFave, Robert (2016-02-25). 'Six Plus Holdem Launches - How Will It Impact iPoker Liquidity?'. Online Poker Report. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  4. ^Fast, Erik (2018-05-14). 'Phil Ivey Wins Triton Poker Montenegro $250,000 HKD Short Deck Event'. cardplayer.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  5. ^CardsChat Tournament News (2018-05-14). 'Phil Ivey Wins 'Short Deck' Poker Tournament in Montenegro for $605K'. Cardschat. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  6. ^Rettmuller, Charles (10 June 2015). ''Six Plus Hold'em' Promoted by Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey'. PokerTube. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  7. ^Weldon, Alex (2015-06-11). 'What the Heck is Six-Plus Hold'em?'. Part Time Poker. Retrieved 2017-08-28.

External links[edit]

  • Six Plus Hold'em on PokerNews
  • Beginners Tips on Sixplusholdem.com

Short Deck Poker Book

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