The popularity of the poker variant Short Deck Poker has increased enormously since 2018. In this article we talk extensively about this new variant, which is now also played in official casino tournaments. Especially in Asia there is a large market for Short Deck Poker, but there is also increasing interest in Europe and America. The main difference between Short Deck situs online poker and traditional Texas Hold’em is the fact that the game is played without the twos, threes, fours and fives. In addition, the hand values are slightly different, which actually makes sense if you go deeper into it.
Find the Choices in winning
Short Deck Poker is played without cards 2-3-4 and 5 and is therefore also referred to as six plus hold’em. The Ace’s role remains the same because with A-6-7-8-9 you still have a straight. In the beginning it was even the case that you won trips from a street, but that has now been reversed. Also important is the fact that the game is played without blinds but in an “ante only” variant. This means that all players at the table place a mandatory ante on each hand and the player on the button must place a double ante. If the players at the table forget to place their ante, the hand is automatically won by the button. Because you no longer have Small Blind and Big Blind players, the player who is Under the Gun is the first to act before the flop and after the flop.
Flush worth more than a full house
Each suite misses 2-3-4 and 5 and therefore the chances of making a flush are less likely. Because there are fewer cards in the deck, the chance of a full house is greater. So at Short Deck Poker you win with a flush from a full house.
Because there are fewer cards in the deck and the hand values are different, the percentage that a player has to win a certain hand is therefore different in almost every situation. We have made an interesting situation for you below, where you can see this well.
We are going to look at the same situation twice. First we consider the percentages per hand when playing Hold’em and then the percentages when playing Short Deck Poker.
Normal
We see that the favorite is to win the hand. The premium pocket pair has 49% and will therefore win the hand almost 50% of the time. That doesn’t seem like much, but against three other players these are still quite good odds. The other players are much worse so in this situation it is best to have the women. It has the best chance of winning the hand, just under 1 in 3 times.
Check the percentages below if we use the Short Deck Poker rules
What is immediately noticeable is that the player with qh qsno longer has the best papers to win the hand. kd qdit stands best with 33% preflop and that will be a big surprise for many players. Pocket women only have a 25% chance of winning the hand in this situation and that saves a whopping 24% with the Texas Hold’em situation.