- Short Deck Poker Hands Ball
- Short Deck Poker Starting Hands
- Short Deck Poker Hands Designs
- Short Deck Poker Hand Odds
- What Is Short Deck Poker
- Short Deck Poker Hand Ranking
The world’s leading online poker site, PokerStars has finally launched its own version of the exciting new variant 6+ Hold’em (also known as Short Deck Poker)—a game that has taken the poker industry by storm.
- Nov 07, 2020 Choose Short Deck. Choose Short Deck from the game menu. Set your desired stake. Set the stakes you’re comfortable with. You simply need to play 100 hands to complete the Day 15 mission.
- Where things do get different in Short Deck poker, however, is in the ranking of poker hands from highest to lowest and which cards are actually in the deck. Short Deck poker also frequently incorporates antes into the game to increase the pot sizes and make the action even more frenetic. Remove All Cards 2-5.
The hands like pocket Queens, pocket Jacks, or even AKo aren’t nearly as powerful in Short Deck. So make sure not to take your marginal hands too far. At the same time, suited and connected hands go up in value. The reason for suited hands is obvious, as flushes are very strong.
6+ is the operator’s fifth new cash game variant since 2018 and the first this year. It follows PokerStars Fusion, an innovative variant that blended the elements of Texas Hold’em and Omaha into a single variant. Fusion was recently withdrawn from the client after running for more than two months.
PokerStars’ 6+ Hold’em rolled out in Denmark, Estonia and in the play-money client (on the dot-net site) on January 15. It launched in the UK, Sweden, and on the global dot-com and dot-EU player pools on January 16.
How is PokerStars 6+ Holdem Played?
6+ is quite easy to learn as the game is played quite similarly to traditional Texas Hold’em except with a stripped down deck. All the cards lower than Six are removed from the deck to make it a 36-card deck instead of the usual 52. Because the low cards are removed, players are more likely to get dealt premium hands and hence this makes the game more of an action-oriented game.
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Rules of 6+ Hold’em
In PokerStars’ version of Six Plus Hold’em, instead of the traditional “small blind” and “big blind”, the game uses a “button blind” structure meaning every player on the table pays an ante while the player on the Button not only pays the ante but also pays a blind equivalent to the size of the ante. The same structure is also followed in the high stakes Triton Poker Series.
As in Hold’em, the action starts with the player seated to the left of the button. Each round then plays out according to standard Texas Hold’em rules, with pre-flop, flop, turn and river betting rounds.
Aces are played both low and high just like in traditional Hold’em, but in 6+ Aces can also play as Fives when making a straight. The lowest straight is A6789 and the highest straight is TJQKA.
Hand Rankings
What makes the game more interesting is the differences in the hand rankings compared with the Traditional Hold’em. Since the game is played with a deck of 36 cards, Flushes are harder to hit because there are only 9 cards of each suit instead of 13. As a result, Flushes are ranked higher than Full Houses—which in this game is easier to hit than a Flush.
Mathematically speaking, it is also easier to hit Straights than Sets or Trips in Six Plus Hold’em. However, in the PokerStars version, Straights are still ranked higher than Three-of-a-Kind.
To conclude:
- Flushes rank higher than Full Houses.
- Straights are ranked higher than Trips or Three-of-a-Kind
- A6789 is a low Straight while TJQKA is a high Straight.
- The game is played with an ante. All the players post an ante while the Button posts an additional ante that acts as the only blind.
- The player to the left of the Button is the first to act.
Is the Game Available in Tournaments or Other Format?
At launch, 6+ Hold’em is available only as cash game format. There has been no official announcement by the operator whether the game would be available in Sit & Go or tournament formats.
What are the Minimum and Maximum Buy-ins or Table Stakes Available?
The game is currently offered with buy-ins starting from $3-$4 with Button and Ante at $0.02 to a table with buy-ins as high as $30,000-$40,000 with Button and Ante at $200.
Short Deck Poker Hands Ball
What is the Rake Structure of 6+ Hold’em?
Rake is charged at 3.50% at the lowest buy-in ($3-$4), 5% on Mid-stakes, and 4.50% on Higher-Stakes.
Caps on the rake depend on the table stakes and buy-ins which is shown below.
Short Deck Poker Starting Hands
PokerStars 6+ Hold’em Rake Info
| Buy-in | Ante | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2 -$3 | $0.02 | 3.50% | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| $5-$7.50 | $0.05 | 4.15% | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
| $10-$15 | $0.10 | 4.50% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 |
| $25-$37.50 | $0.25 | 5.00% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $2.00 |
| $50-$75 | $0.50 | 5.00% | $1.00 | $1.00 | $2.50 |
| $100-$150 | $1.00 | 5.00% | $1.25 | $1.25 | $2.75 |
| $200-$300 | $2.00 | 5.00% | $1.50 | $1.50 | $3.5 |
| $500-$750 | $5.00 | 5.00% | $2.00 | $2.00 | $4.50 |
| $1,000-$1,500 | $10.00 | 4.50% | $2.50 | $2.50 | $4.50 |
| $2,000-$3,000 | $20.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $3.00 | $5.00 |
| $5,000-$7,500 | $50.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| $10,000-$15,000 | $100.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| $20,000-$30,000 | $200.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
Can Players Choose Their Own Table or Seat in 6+ Hold’em?
No. Just like in the previous cash game novelties, 6+ Hold’em too has adopted “Seat Me” (also called blind-lobby functionality). Under this system, players choose the game and stake and the software automatically finds a seat for the players. If no seat is immediately available, players join a waiting list.
Is the Game Available in My Region?
6+ Hold’em is available for real money in global dot-com, European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), Sweden (SE) client, Denmark (DK) client and the Estonian (EE) client. The game is not yet available in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, European shared network (France, Portugal, and Spain), Greece, India, Italy, and New Jersey.
However, players from all these regions (including the United States) can play the game for play-money in NET client.
Are there any strategies on 6+ Hold’em available?
Short Deck Poker Hands Designs
Yes, we have written two strategy articles on this game.
1) Six Plus Hold’em/Short Deck Poker Odds and Probabilities
2) Beginners Strategy/Five Tips about Six Plus Hold’em
Will it be a Temporary Offering or Permanent?
There is no mention by PokerStars whether 6+ Hold’em will be available indefinitely or if it will be available for a limited time offering. However, if history is of any indicator, it seems that 6+ will also be a temporary offering like the previous cash game novelties.
But given the fact that the game has turned out to be very popular across both live and online field, 6+ could well be made available permanently, much like Fast Fold format (aka Zoom) or Jackpot based Sit & Go’s (aka Spin & Gos).
Latest News on Six Plus Hold'em:
PokerStars Launches 6+ Hold’em Spin & Gos
Games are spread at five buy-ins from $1 to $100.
GG Network Will “Probably” Launch Short Deck Poker in 2019
The stripped deck version of Texas Hold’em continues to surge in popularity as GGNetwork is set to add this action-packed variant to its game offering.
6+ Hold’em MTTs to Debut on PokerStars as SCOOP Side Events
Starting May 17, Short Deck tournaments will become available at PokerStars in both tournaments and Sit & Go formats.
PokerStars and partypoker Continue to Emphasize the Importance of Twitch
The competition between the two online poker giants intensifies as both look to expand their reach via the popular live-streaming platform with new signings.
Exclusive: 6+ Hold’em, Showtime and Fusion to Return to PokerStars in Tournament Format
Both Hold’em and Omaha versions of Showtime are among the games that will soon make their debut as MTTs.
Seating Scripts Now Completely Banned on PokerStars
Unexpected consequences of previous restrictions caused increased difficulties for players looking to get a seat.
Partypoker Launches Short Deck Hold’em
Two months after PokerStars launched Six Plus Hold’em, partypoker has joined the short deck craze with its own stripped deck cash game.
PokerStars Rolls Out 6+ Hold’em in Italy, 6+ Tournaments Set to Debut
The Short Deck variant will be the first new novelty poker game by PokerStars to be offered in a tournament format.
Exclusive: PokerStars Readies Split Omaha
In its continued attempt to keep poker fresh, PokerStars is planning to launch yet another new novelty variant based on the game Double Board Omaha.
6+ Hold’em to Debut in Italy and it Could be Permanent
6+ will be the only variant in the recent wave of new games from PokerStars to go live in a segregated market.
Read more on Six Plus Hold'em »
Some starting hand tips for Short Deck Hold’em
Low connectors such as 7♣ 8♠ are going to have less value, as even if we flop a straight say on a 9♠ 10♠ J♣ board then someone could easily have Q♣ K♠ and we are going to be drawing almost dead.
Drawing hands on flush boards
Will prove less lucrative than in Hold’em for example, we have 8♠ 8♣ and the flop comes down 8♥ 10♥ K♥ in regular hold’em we still have 35% equity on this board even if our opponent has been lucky enough to flop a flush, as we can win with the board pairing or the case 8 rolling off. In Short Deck where flushes out rank full houses our equity is reduced greatly to below 7% as we will need to hit the case 8♦ and making 4 of a kind to bag the win. With other hands such as Q♠ J♠ we have zero equity against a flopped flush, so it is a good idea to keep the pot small with these types of holdings as flushes are so strong players are likely to slow play these types of boards in the hopes of opponents like us hitting our straight draws and then putting in large bets on the river.
Don’t be fooled by big pocket pairs hand strength
Hands like K♠ K♣ are still the second highest ranking hand however the equities run so close in this game that even against a hand such as A♦ K♦we will only drag the pot 55% of the time, compared to the 66% equity we would have with a 52 card deck.
Another eye opener for a new Short Deck hold’em player will be how much equity J♣ 10♣ has even against the strongest of holdings, such as A♦ A♠ we will win this around 40% of the time, around double our chances of that in regular hold’em where we would have 21.5%
Weak Ace High hands have poor playability in Short Deck
In regular No limit Hold’em an offsuit Ace high hand such as A♠ 8♣ would make us a favorite over a suited hand such asQ♦ K♦ in Short Deck hold’em the opposite is true, holding the suited connector would make us a 57% favorite over the Ace high hand. In general, we want to be playing the low offsuit combinations of Ace high rarely and if at all not in bloated pots, as there is never really a great outcome for playing a hand such as A♠ 8♣
For example, if the flop comes A♣ 8♦ J♦this can be deceiving for a modest player as a good flop, we have two pair! Great, Right?! Hmm, not really, these are dicey waters in Short Deck poker, say at worst our opponent is going to continue with a hand like A♥ Q♥ even against this hand we only have a small edge with 53% in equity. The dangerous part about continuing with a board like this in Short Deck is that there aren’t many good turns or river cards for our hand, any next card makes straights or better two pairs possible, any diamond makes a flush possible, if the Jack on the board pairs we will have our two pair counterfeited.
Short Deck Poker Hand Odds
Pick good bluff candidates
Middle and bottom pairs are great semi-bluffing hands in Short Deck Hold’em because these pairs have less showdown value and so you are less incentivized to try to check down with them. When called you are more likely to improve your hand as there are fewer cards in the deck.
Have a mixed limping strategy
Limping into pots with a balanced range of strong, medium and weak holdings can not only allow you to see cheap flops with hands that play well on certain boards like suited connectors and pocket pairs trying to connect, but you can also balance this strategy by including hands like A♠K♣, K♣ K♠ and Q♠ Q♣ in your limping range, along with weak holdings such as 6♣ 7♣ and hands of this nature will serve two purposes.
Allows us to limp, 3bet for value VS any aggressive players that are raising hands such as A♣ J♠ and pairs such as 10♠ 10♣ profitably and play bigger pots with a strong range advantage or just pick up the pot pre-flop with even more dead money after the raise and any calls that followed.
The second part of this strategy that can be very lucrative for us, is playing a Pot with a deceptively strong hand after the flop, for example if we include Q♠ Q♣ into our limping range and the flop comes A♠ Q♦ 8♦ and our opponent has a hand like A♠ 8♣ then we are well disguised and set to win some bets from our opponent.
Want to play Short Deck Hold’em?
What Is Short Deck Poker
Join in the action today on Pokerstars.
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There has never been a better time to get involved with this great new game mode on the site 6Plus Hold’em!