Short Deck Overview

Short Deck (also known as 6+) Texas Hold'em uses No-Limit Texas Hold'em rules but removes all 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s, increasing the strength of hands and decisions. When playing with a deck of only 36 cards, poker hand rankings change, with flushes ranking higher than full houses. In Short Deck Texas Hold'em, a flush beats a full house. The Ace can still be high or low in straights (also as a high card), making the smallest straight A through nine (A-6-7-8-9). Now that you know the key differences between this game and regular Texas Hold'em, learning how to play Short Deck poker is quite simple. For a Texas Hold'em guide, please refer to our complete Texas Hold'em beginner's guide.

Short Deck Texas Hold'em Rules

As in regular Texas Hold'em, Short Deck poker has four betting rounds, with each player using two hole cards and five community cards to make the strongest five-card hand.

First Betting Round (Pre-Flop):

Instead of posting small and big blinds, each player posts an ante, with the player in the button position posting a second (effective) ante. Players take turns clockwise from the big blind position (the current highest bet) to decide whether to call (match the previous bet), raise (increase the bet), or fold (discard their hand and wait for the next hand to begin).

After all players have made their decisions (if more than one player remains in the game), the flop is dealt — three community cards face up.

Second Betting Round

The first active player to the left of the button begins betting, and players take turns choosing to check (decline to bet, passing the decision to the next player), bet, raise a previous bet, or fold. Remaining players proceed to the turn, the fourth community card. If all players check, the turn is dealt for free.

Third Betting Round

Remaining players again take turns making decisions. If more than one player remains in the game after the third betting round ends, the river is dealt.

Fourth Betting Round

After all five community cards are dealt, there's a final betting round. If more than one player remains in the game when it ends, hole cards are revealed (showdown), and the player with the best hand wins the pot.

Hand Rankings

Short Deck Texas Hold'em hand rankings (highest to lowest):

Short Deck Texas Hold'em Probabilities

After removing the sixteen lowest cards (2 through 5), the probabilities of getting different starting hands in Short Deck poker change. The number of potential starting hands is reduced by half (if considering suits, there are only 630 different starting hands, or 81 types if suits aren't considered). With four fewer possible pocket pairs, there are now nine possible pocket pairs, and you now have about a 1% chance of getting them (including a pair of Aces). In Texas Hold'em with a complete deck, the frequency is almost doubled.

With fewer cards, straight draws become easier, while flush draw probabilities decrease. With connected cards, you have a higher frequency of straight draws on the flop, and open-ended straight draws have an 8/31 chance (remaining cards in the deck) of improving, rather than 8/47. Therefore, the traditional "Rule of Two and Four" used to estimate straight probabilities in traditional games is inaccurate in this game; your chances of getting an improving card on the turn are approximately triple, and on the turn and river combined, about six times higher. That is, an open-ended draw after the flop has a 48% chance (eight possible improving cards x6) of making a straight by the river.

In Short Deck poker, although you're more likely to get pocket Aces, their overall chances of beating other hands decrease. Their chances of beating pairs lower than the community cards also decrease; the smallest pair (a pair of sixes) going all-in pre-flop against pocket Aces has about a one-quarter chance of winning in Short Deck poker. Similarly, the strength of cards higher than community pairs or pocket pairs becomes more even, and matchups like AK vs. 10-J are almost 50-50.

Short Deck Texas Hold'em Beginner Strategy

Beyond the absolute basics (flushes beat full houses, the smallest straight is A through 9), playing Short Deck poker requires you to recalibrate your understanding of hole card strength and draws. Pocket pairs are still strong, but pairs considered extremely strong in regular Texas Hold'em (pairs of Jacks, pairs of tens) no longer have as much advantage. Smaller pairs can cause trouble; hole cards higher than community cards are more likely to make hands, as are straight draws. Pairs are more common, and your chances of getting a pair through community cards are about one in five (in regular Texas Hold'em, about one in eight).

If transitioning from Omaha to Texas Hold'em, it's generally recommended to adopt a "better safe than sorry" strategy initially, even if your hole card strength is above average. The chances of opponents or yourself drawing to expensive nut hands are also higher. However, game mechanics remain unchanged, and a thorough understanding of positional power and how to extract maximum value from your hands will benefit you. In button position, playable hands increase, and protecting your big blind (most Short Deck poker games are low-player games) and avoiding passive play can help you transition better from regular Texas Hold'em.

Middle disconnected hands (9-10 or 10-J) are much stronger than in traditional games (these hands have almost a one-in-five chance of getting open-ended straight draws on the flop). Meanwhile, getting the highest pair on the flop (or having only a pair lower than the community cards before showdown) is weaker in Short Deck poker, and if you can't improve your hand by the river, especially with multiple opponents, your chances of losing are high.

Finally, although flushes rank higher in this game, there are fewer cards of each suit. With the possibility of a flush on the flop, your chances of a flush draw on the river are about 30%, so playing bigger, connected, and suited cards, plus the possibility of multiple draws on the flop, is more advantageous than playing disconnected and smaller suited cards. Other players will constantly press the button on the flop, getting stronger draws, so the hand strengths at showdown are greater than in games using all cards.

Where to Play Short Deck Texas Hold'em

Short Deck poker took the high-roller tournament world by storm upon its introduction, with fewer cards allowing players to make bigger hands and making games faster-paced and more exciting. Soon, it could be seen in cash games and festivals around the world. In 2019, the WSOP added its first $10,000 Short Deck Texas Hold'em bracelet event, and now 6+ Texas Hold'em is common in both online and live cash games and tournaments.

QQPK offers Short Deck Texas Hold'em tables starting at very low stakes, allowing you to quickly and easily practice this exciting format and get accustomed to how gameplay works in practice with a more compact deck.