Short Deck Odds
Short Deck Poker Odds Calculator - Six Plus Hold'em Odds How to use Six+ Odds to improve your game By using Six+ Odds, you will boost your odds knowledge about 6+ Hold’em, you will improve the quality of your thinking process, and thus, your decision playing Short Deck. Here is how you can use this poker odds calculator to improve your game. Short Deck Poker Odds Calculator - Six Plus Hold'em Odds How to use Six+ Odds to improve your game By using Six+ Odds, you will boost your odds knowledge about 6+ Hold’em, you will improve the quality of your thinking process, and thus, your decision playing Short Deck. Here is how you can use this poker odds calculator to improve your game.
Table Of Contents
- Short deck is remove 2-5 so 36 cards left. A6789 is a straight. What is the hand order and probability. For example a flush is harder to make but a straight is easier. Ideally post the equations for probability.
- In short deck, however, since there’s less cards overall, this means that there’s less cards that don’t complete your hand. So instead of 2 and 4, we use 3 and 6. That same straight draw is 24% to hit by the turn and 48% on the river.
What is Short Deck Poker?
Short-deck poker (also known as six-plus hold'em) is a new variation of traditional Texas hold'em that mostly follows the same rules albeit with a significant difference.
Short-deck poker uses a smaller 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck.
Most first heard of short-deck poker after it was introduced among the mix in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.
Play Short-Deck Poker Online6+ Short-deck poker is available online on the following websites:
'>Short-Deck Poker Rules
Before we discover how to play short-deck poker, let's see how to get to the 36-card deck needed to play a game of 6+ hold'em.
The 36-card deck in use in poker short deck is created by removing the 2xs, 3xs, 4xs, and 5xs from the deck (16 cards).
That leaves the 6xs up through the Kxs as well as the Axs.
What about the Aces?
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 Ax9x8x7x6x (think of the ace as essentially replacing the missing 5x).
Poker short-deck is played similarly to regular hold'em.
Each player receive two hole cards and use them in combination with five community cards to create the best possible hand.
A game of short-deck poker features four streets of betting:
- Pre-flop
- Flop
- Turn
- River
However, there are some differences in the poker short-deck poker that you should know about before playing.
Short-Deck Poker Hand Rankings
Short-deck poker can be played according to the exact same rules as regular Texas Hold'em.
The betting can be fixed-limit or no-limit (although most often the game is played no-limit), and the same hand rankings can be used as follows:
Cached
| Hand Ranking | Hand Name | Poker Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | High card | Kx6x9x8xQx |
| One pair | K♦K♠5x8xQx | |
| Two pair | K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx | |
| Three-of-a-kind | K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx | |
| Straight | A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦ | |
| Flush | K♦J♦10♦6♦9x | |
| Full house | K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠ | |
| Four-of-a-kind | K♦K♠K♥K♦6x | |
| Straight flush | 6♦7♦8♦9♦ | |
| Highest | Royal flush | 10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦ |
For more info about the hand rankings in poker and which hand wins, visit our guide to poker hands.
How To Play Short Deck Hold'em Short Deck Poker Rules ...
Alternative Short-Deck Hand Rankings
Short-deck poker is played often employing a different hand ranking system. Here are the alternate hand rankings for short-deck poker (note the differences in bold):
Short Deck Odds Outs
| Hand Ranking | Hand Name | Poker Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | High card | Kx6x9x8xQx |
| One pair | K♦K♠5x8xQx | |
| Two pair | K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx | |
| Straight | A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦ | |
| Three of a kind | K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx | |
| Full house | K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠ | |
| Flush | K♦J♦10♦6♦9x | |
| Four of a kind | K♦K♠K♥K♦6x | |
| Straight flush | 6♦7♦8♦9♦ | |
| Highest | Royal flush | 10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦ |
As you can see, following these alternate poker short deck hand rankings a three-of-a-kind beats a straight (instead of vice-versa), and a flush beats a full house (instead of vice-versa).
Why a Different Hand Rankings?
These changes were introduced the because the removal of cards from the standard deck alter the probabilities of making certain hands.
For example, with only nine suited cards (instead of 13), a flush is harder to make in shord-deck poker than in regular hold'em.
Six-Plus Hold'em Variation — The Deal (Fifth Street)
One other popular variation often introduced in six-plus hold'em has to do with the way the river is dealt.
The game can be played according to the same procedure followed in regular hold'em, with the community cards coming in the same way — flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — and betting rounds after each street.
More often, though, instead of a river card being dealt to complete a five-card board, players are each dealt a third hole card instead.
Players then make their five-cardpoker hands by using exactly two of their three hole cards and three of the four community cards.
The building of hands resembles the procedure followed in Omaha poker where players must use two of their four hole cards plus three board cards to make a five-card poker hand.
Short-Deck Poker Basic Strategy
As you might imagine, the removal of low cards and use of the 36-card deck makes it more likely to make higher value hands, a change that tends to introduce more action.
You should adjust your thinking about relative hand values from what they are used to in regular hold'em.
The smaller deck makes it easier to make two-pair hands, which means a hand like top pair-top kicker is no longer as strong in six-plus hold'em as it is in regular hold'em.
Straights and full houses are also easier to make in six-plus hold'em than in the regular version of the game (a reason for the alternate hand rankings).
The odds of hitting certain draws change, too, in short-deck pokr.
Just to highlight one example, filling an open-ended straight draw becomes more likely in poker short-deck.
While you're still looking for the same eight outs there are fewer total cards in the deck, thus increasing the percentage you'll make your straight.
The smaller deck also affects the likelihood of being dealt certain hands. [∫]You're more than twice as likely to get pocket aces[/B] in short-deck poker than you are in regular hold'em!
Finally, players being dealt a third hole card instead of there being a fifth community card obviously affects hand values as well, making it even more likely that players improve their hands — yet another factor that has to be taken into account when calculating odds and considering your final-round betting strategy.
Conclusion
Short-deck poker / 6+ hold'em introduces several exciting twists to traditional Texas hold'em, creating an action-filled alternative that many players are finding especially enjoyable to play.
The changes from regular hold'em aren't terribly complicated, making it easy to new players to learn and play right away.
Short-Deck Poker FAQ
A game of short-deck poker follows the same rules and gameplay as Texas hold'em poker.
The players receive two hole cards and they need to combine them with five community cards to create the best possible five-card hand.
Short-deck poker, however:
- Uses a 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck
- Ranks the hands differently compared to Texas hold'em
All the details to know before playing a game of short-deck poker are in this article.
The game of short-deck poker, os six-plus hold'em became famous at the high-stakes games in Macau. Due to the smaller deck, the game makes it more probably for players to hit high-value combinations.
You can play short-deck poker live at most poker festivals. If you are looking for games of short-deck poker online, check out the pokes sites listed on this page.
The removal of some low-value cards from the deck changes the game's basic strategy and the value of different poker hands.
To understand ranges and odds in short-deck poker, have a look at this article.
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In this series we are offering various strategy advice for short deck hold'em, also sometimes called six plus hold'em (or 6+ hold'em), including sharing tips from some of the pros who have found the game a fun and challenging poker variant to play.
Before we delve any further into strategy, with this article we're going to highlight some of the more interesting and notable odds and probabilities in short deck hold'em. In particular, we'll point out how those odds and probabilities differ from what you encounter in regular, full deck hold'em, which in turn creates some important differences when it comes to strategy.
Short Deck Hold'em (Six Plus Hold'em): Rules and Hand Rankings
As discussed last week, short deck hold'em tosses out all of the fives, fours, threes, and twos, creating a 36-card deck with which to play. The game is played just like regular hold'em, with players being dealt two hole cards and making hands with the five community cards dealt as a flop, turn, and river. Also, as in regular hold'em the ace can be high or low, meaning in short deck A-6-7-8-9 makes a straight.
The big change from regular hold'em comes from the hand rankings being altered. In short deck, flushes rank above full houses, and depending on the game it is sometimes the case that three of a kind beats straights.
| Regular hold'em | Short deck (straights beat trips) | Short deck (trips beat straights) |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Flush | Royal Flush | Royal Flush |
| Straight Flush | Straight Flush | Straight Flush |
| Four of a Kind | Four of a Kind | Four of a Kind |
| Full House | Flush | Flush |
| Flush | Full House | Full House |
| Straight | Straight | Three of a Kind |
| Three of a Kind | Three of a Kind | Straight |
| Two Pair | Two Pair | Two Pair |
| One Pair | One Pair | One Pair |
| High Card | High Card | High Card |
The reason for these changes has to do with the fact that in short deck the probabilities of making certain hands are different. In short deck, it is actually easier to make a full house than a flush, which is why flushes rank higher than full houses. (The opposite is true in regular hold'em.) It is also easier to make a straight than to make trips in short deck, which is why some rank three of a kind higher than a straight.
If you're curious to explore the math here further, a poster on the TwoPlusTwo forum helpfully sorted out all the hand frequencies in short deck hold'em in a post titled 'Six Plus Hold-Em Hand Rankings.'
While some short deck games use small and big blinds just like in regular hold'em (with or without antes), others have introduced another twist by removing the blinds and having all players ante, with the button putting in a double-ante and play beginning before the flop with the player left of the button having an option to call, fold, or raise.
Short Deck Hold'em (Six Plus Hold'em): Preflop Probabilities
If you're a regular hold'em player, you're probably well acquainted with probabilities related to starting hands, and therefore know the chances of getting dealt pocket aces (1 in 221), a pocket pair (1 in 17), or two cards of the same suit (1 in 4.25). But what happens to those preflop probabilities after the fives through deuces are removed from the deck?
As you might imagine, reducing the deck from 52 cards down to 36 cards also reduces the number of different starting hand combinations there are.
Whereas in regular hold'em there are 1,326 distinct starting hands, in short deck hold'em there are only 630 distinct starting hands — less than half (about 47.5 percent). That's counting suits as distinct, which isn't generally done when valuing starting hand strength.
If we don't consider suits as distinct, in regular hold'em there are just 169 combinations of starting hands (13 pocket pairs, 78 non-paired suited hands, and 78 non-paired unsuited hands). Meanwhile when not considering suits as distinct, in short deck hold'em there are just 81 combinations of hands (9 pocket pairs, 36 non-paired suited hands, and 36 non-paired unsuited hands) — again, less than half as many in short deck versus regular hold'em (about 47.9 percent).
Fewer starting hand combos obviously affects the frequency with which you are dealt specific hands. For example, when it comes to being dealt pocket aces, that happens about twice as often in short deck hold'em — once every 105 hands (just under one percent of the time).
Pocket pairs come around more frequently in short deck, too — once every 11.66 hands (about 8.6 percent of the time). That's almost 1.5-times as often as in regular hold'em.
Meanwhile in short deck you're dealt suited hands at just about the same frequency as in regular hold'em — once every 4.375 hands (or about 22.8 percent of the time).
Here is all of that in table form, with a couple more comparisons of probabilities added to the list:
| Regular hold'em | Short deck (Six Plus) hold'em | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cards used | 52 | 36 |
| Distinct starting hands | 1,326 | 630 |
| Distinct non-equivalent starting hands | 169 | 81 |
| Probability of being dealt pocket aces | 0.45% (1 in 221) | 0.95% (1 in 105) |
| Probability of being dealt any pocket pair | 5.9% (1 in 17) | 8.6% (1 in 11.66) |
| Probability of being dealt any suited hand | 23.5% (1 in 4.25) | 22.9% (1 in 4.4) |
| Probability of being dealt connectors | 15.7% (1 in 6.4) | 22.9% (1 in 4.4) |
| Probability of being dealt ace-king | 1.2% (1 in 83) | 2.5% (1 in 39) |
| Probability of being dealt two Broadway cards | 14.3% (1 in 7) | 30.2% (1 in 3.3) |
It’s obvious players have to adjust their thinking when it comes to starting hands and their value in short deck hold’em. Hand values go up in short deck, so what might seem like a decent starting hand in regular hold’em is going to be average or worse in short deck.
Another preflop issue to keep in mind — with fewer starting hands overall, that means the gap in equities between starting hands is narrower as well. For example, in a preflop all-in situation, is about a 78 percent favorite to beat in regular hold'em, but in short deck hold'em the aces are only about 63-67 percent to win depending on the rules being used. Search online for 'short deck hold'em calculator' or 'six plus hold'em calculator' if you're curious to test out some hand comparisons using some recently-built equity calculators.
We’ll talk more about preflop strategy in the next installment.
Short Deck Hold'em (Six Plus Hold'em): Postflop Odds
Postflop is where short deck hold'em introduces some surprises to new players, since the odds and probabilities can be quite different from regular hold'em.
Of course, if you just take a moment to think about it, it's obvious that when drawing to a certain number of outs, the chance of hitting your needed card changes when there are fewer cards left in the deck.
Let's say you hold and the flop comes to give you an open-ended straight draw. You have eight outs (the kings and the eights) to fill your straight, but instead of there being 47 unseen cards (as in regular hold'em), there are only 31 unseen cards in short deck. Whereas in regular hold'em you'd have an 8 in 47 chance of filling your straight on the turn (about 17 percent), in short deck hold'em your odds of turning the straight are 8 in 31 (nearly 26 percent).
I have seen discussions of short deck hold'em outs recommending players replace the 'Rule of 2 and 4' from regular hold'em with a new 'Rule of 3 and 6' for short deck. In regular hold'em, if you flop an open-ended straight draw with eight outs, you can roughly estimate your chance of filling the straight by multiplying those eight outs by two for the turn (~16 percent) and by four for the turn and river (~32 percent).
In short deck you can do something similar, multiplying your eight outs by three for the turn (~24 percent, which is close to the actual 25.8 percent) and by six for the turn and river (~48 percent, which is also close to the actual 45.6 percent).
Here's a table showing how your odds of hitting a certain number of outs change from regular hold'em to short deck:
| Regular Hold’em Outs | Turn | River | Short Deck Hold’em Outs | Turn | River |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.1% | 4.3% | 1 | 3.2% | 6.5% |
| 2 | 4.3% | 8.4% | 2 | 6.5% | 12.7% |
| 3 | 6.4% | 12.5% | 3 | 9.7% | 18.7% |
| 4 | 8.5% | 16.5% | 4 | 12.9% | 24.5% |
| 5 | 10.6% | 20.4% | 5 | 16.1% | 30.1% |
| 6 | 12.8% | 24.1% | 6 | 19.4% | 35.5% |
| 7 | 14.9% | 27.8% | 7 | 22.6% | 40.6% |
| 8 | 17.0% | 31.5% | 8 | 25.8% | 45.6% |
| 9 | 19.1% | 35.0% | 9 | 29.0% | 50.3% |
| 12 | 25.5% | 38.4% | 12 | 38.7% | 63.2% |
| 15 | 31.9% | 54.1% | 15 | 48.4% | 74.2% |
By the way, don’t forget when you are drawing to a flush that there are fewer outs available to you in short deck than in regular hold'em. If you flop a flush draw in regular hold’em you have nine outs, but in short deck you only have five.
As already noted, hand values tend to be higher in short deck hold’em, which means one-pair hands aren’t going to be as strong postflop in short deck as they are in regular hold’em. And thanks to the increased chance of players filling draws, those one-pair hands and other modest “made hands” are going to be more vulnerable, too.
A few other items related to postflop probabilities in short deck:
- with suited cards you flop flush draws less often in short deck, and complete flushes less often as well
- with connectors and one-gappers you flop straight draws more often in short deck, and complete them more often, too
- with a pocket pair, you flop a set more often in short deck (about 17 percent of the time vs. 12 percent in regular hold’em
We'll be exploring postflop strategy in more detail going forward in the series as well. Meanwhile, take a look at the video below and listen to Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Cates, Kane Kalas, Jason Koon, Phil Ivey, Wai Kin Yong, and Gabe Patgorski offer some general advice about how to approach short deck hold’em strategy.
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