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Oct 17, 2019 ★★★★★ Texas Hold'em is the best casino poker game in the world. 6 Plus hold'em (or Short Deck) is the easiest Texas Hold'em for player. Your take free chips, share a VIP poker table, join Tour and fight in League Seasons with global friends. This is a discussion on Short Deck is Fun! Within the online poker forums, in the Online Poker section; seems Short Deck Poker is becoming more and more popular i just played a tournament in that. As short deck continues to proliferate, more and more poker players across the world will get the chance to play, be it in a home game, in live poker rooms, or online. This is the game where flushes beat full houses, you flop loads of sets, and say goodbye to pocket 3’s. It’s Short Deck Poker. This format is a favorite of both recreational players and high rollers alike. Jul 25, 2019 Short Deck Hold’em has been around for several years and have been played online on the iPoker Network (Ladbrokes Poker, Bet365, William Hill Poker), PokerStars and partypoker for a while. With it's latest rise in popularity due to it's natural more action, it has now also been implemented at Tiger Gaming and 888poker. Short Deck became the antidote to a game that was in danger of turning into a robotic, emotionless, and dull experience. “People who fold too much are going to get eaten up, you have to be prepared to gamble,” Ben Lamb. But how do you play this game? The Future of Short-Deck Poker.
Last year, my friend and old PokerNews colleague Rich Ryan stayed with me for a few days over the summer so he could fire the $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the World Series of Poker.
While discussing strategy and talking over some hand histories, Rich lamented the current state of the no-limit hold'em metagame. It had become a bit stale, he thought, and it was hard to disagree.
'Poker's become a dance where everyone knows the moves,' he lamented.
Indeed, in many ways the mechanics of the game have become as predictable dancing to the cha cha slide. Player raises, big blind calls. Big blind checks, player bets these flops but not those flops. Double-barrels these turns but not those turns. Slide to the left. slide to the right. One hop now ya'll.
Once the Cadillac of poker, hold'em has become a beige Volvo. Perfectly fine for getting you place to place, but not something that's going to excite the driver or turn the heads of anyone who happens to be watching.
Enter short deck, a.k.a. 'six-plus hold'em.' The format, growing in popularity since it first entered the poker public's consciousness a few years ago, brings a brand new beat. No longer does everyone know the moves. Quite the opposite, in fact, as strategies and concepts are still in the early stages of being explored. This new and crazy beat has changed the game.
As short deck continues to proliferate, more and more poker players across the world will get the chance to play, be it in a home game, in live poker rooms, or online. In this series, PokerNews will seek to flesh out some of the basics and concepts behind the game, so you can learn the first couple of moves to this brand new dance.
Today, we'll start with the basics.
Rules Short Deck Poker
The mechanics of short deck as it relates to the action-by-action playing of the game are simple enough. In fact, anyone familiar with hold'em — most likely, nearly all of the readers of this site — will have no problem quickly grasping short deck's basics.
Everyone is dealt two cards, except they're not coming out of a standard deck. Every card two through five is removed, so the deck is 36 cards deep instead of 52. Players make hands using one or both of their hole cards and the five community cards that come from a flop, turn, and river.
Hand rankings change slightly due to the nature of the deck changing the chances of different hands being made. No set of rules has become 100 percent the standard, but it's pretty much accepted that flushes rank above full houses. Some rule sets also have three of a kind beating straights, while others stick to the hold'em rankings that elevate straights above trips.
Blind and ante structures also vary in short deck. While some games have used blinds or blinds with an ante, the format that's currently gaining the most popularity at the time of writing involves no blinds and every player contributing a set ante, with the player on the button putting in a double ante. Play then starts to the left of the button, with each player either having the option to call by putting in a second ante, folding, or raising.
Subsequent streets proceed as in hold'em, starting on the dealer's left with a check or bet option.
Optimizing the Short Deck Rules
Few players enjoy learning a new dance more than Jason Somerville. The Run It Up patriarch has already made short deck a part of his Run it Up Reno tournament series, and he's among the game's early proponents, having gone on the record calling it 'the next big thing' in poker.
Somerville likens the action produced by short deck to pot-limit Omaha when discussing why it can be such a game-changer for the future of poker.
'It's so much fun because of the action,' he said. 'That's really what it comes down to.'
'It's just so much action because all the hands run so close preflop, especially playing with the ante structure, that the reason people are attracted to it is that you can play a lot of hands. That's always a lot of fun. There's not a lot of folding. Especially in the high-stakes games, there's a lot of limping before the flop, and so it creates a ton of fun, and that's why it's been so popular.'
Somerville's been getting a feel for short deck over the past year or so. He voiced his opinion on some of the disagreements running through the community on the best way to play the game.
As for straight versus trips, Somerville favors keeping straights superior. The reason, he outlined, is playability of the game and encouraging action.
The most common counterargument is that it's easier to make a straight than trips. However, it's also easier in short deck to make a pair than to go unimproved and finish with only a high card, Somerville pointed out. No pair doesn't beat one pair, so rarity shouldn't be the determining factor. Gun lake casino birthday rewards.
Short Deck Poker Online
'From a fun or playability point of view, if you have seven-eight on a six-nine-ten board, in short deck when you're playing straight is worse than trips, you're drawing dead to a set,' he said. 'That's not very fun. You flop a straight and the guy has ten-ten and you're just dead. So it really creates very un-fun games.'
Somerville said he also enjoys the antes with a button double-ante structure. It punishes tight play and encourages players to open things up and play more hands. That keeps the pots big and creates more action for everyone, which is the idea behind short deck itself.
If you're looking to host your own short deck game, you can set the music to whatever pace you want, but those are the settings Somerville and many others believe best to create an environment with maximum fun.
Whatever rules you decide on, the game of short deck is simple enough on the surface to learn. It's when you really start to dive in that things get interesting, so stay tuned for further entries in this series as PokerNews explores this exciting game.
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What’s Short-Deck Poker?
Poker has a problem.
Short-Deck is the answer.
Also known as, Triton Hold’em, Short-Deck has its roots in Asia, where successful businessmen, and poker lovers, Paul Phua and Richard Yong, experimented by removing a few cards from the standard 52-card deck, increasing the likelihood of strong pre-flop hands.
Out went the 2s.
Then the 3s.
Then the 4s.
Finally, the 5s.
The net result, was a 36-card deck – a Short-Deck – and the outcome was incredible.
One of the problems that amateurs have when playing superior players, especially professionals, is they play with a broad range of starting hands because their primary focus in the game is to enjoy themselves, and you can’t do that if you fold. The better player begins with a narrower range of hands, and this disparity means the amateur ends up with the worst of it more often than the pro.
Folding isn’t fun.
Neither is losing all the time.
Paul and Richard found that by removing the lower half of the cards, they increased the likelihood that an amateur would receive two very playable starting hands.
As the former World Series of Poker (WSOP), Player of the Year, Ben Lamb, mentions during his first experience of Short-Deck during a 2018 Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea.
Short-Deck is the answer.
Also known as, Triton Hold’em, Short-Deck has its roots in Asia, where successful businessmen, and poker lovers, Paul Phua and Richard Yong, experimented by removing a few cards from the standard 52-card deck, increasing the likelihood of strong pre-flop hands.
Out went the 2s.
Then the 3s.
Then the 4s.
Finally, the 5s.
The net result, was a 36-card deck – a Short-Deck – and the outcome was incredible.
One of the problems that amateurs have when playing superior players, especially professionals, is they play with a broad range of starting hands because their primary focus in the game is to enjoy themselves, and you can’t do that if you fold. The better player begins with a narrower range of hands, and this disparity means the amateur ends up with the worst of it more often than the pro.
Folding isn’t fun.
Neither is losing all the time.
Paul and Richard found that by removing the lower half of the cards, they increased the likelihood that an amateur would receive two very playable starting hands.
As the former World Series of Poker (WSOP), Player of the Year, Ben Lamb, mentions during his first experience of Short-Deck during a 2018 Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea.
“The first thing you notice when you sit down to play Short-Deck is the equities run much closer than No-Limit Hold’em.”
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And the closer you get, the more often a weaker player wins, and the more likely he or she is to remain in the game. At a time when poker’s ecosystem is under pressure from advancements in technology and available poker resources, with players getting improving at a rate never before witnessed, Short-Deck is fixing a leak that is in danger of drowning the game.
The Rules of Short-Deck Poker
The variant featured in Triton Poker Series events is called Short-Deck, Ante-Only. There is no small or big blind, and instead everyone has to post an ante that increases each level in the same way blinds do in a standard game of No-Limit Hold’em. The player on the button posts a double ante.
Each player begins with three bullets.
Stack sizes can vary, but in the early events at Montenegro and Jeju in South Korea, each bullet was worth 100,000 in chips. And loading these three bullets into the chamber is important, as Ben Lamb explains.
Each player begins with three bullets.
Stack sizes can vary, but in the early events at Montenegro and Jeju in South Korea, each bullet was worth 100,000 in chips. And loading these three bullets into the chamber is important, as Ben Lamb explains.
“You have to put your stack in more often than the other games. That’s why they give you three bullets, that’s smart.”
Play Short Deck Poker Online Free
Like No-Limit Hold’em, the player to the left of the button begins the action by calling the size of the double ante, raising or folding. The action continues in sequence as per No-Limit Hold’em rules. Post flops actions plays the same.
Here’s Ben Lamb again to give you a few tips.
“You need to see a lot of flops. There are more passive ways to play the game, like limping, but this an action game. Stay away from dominated hands. Recognise the difference between shallow and deep-stacked play.”
During the early action, you can be forgiven for thinking you have walked into a game of deuces wild. All-in and calls are common, the action is crazy fast, and there is a lot of laughing and joking around the tables. But once the game gets deep, you need to switch gears, and this is why the game suits both skilled and weaker players alike.
And the best thing about Short-Deck is it’s a new game. It’s perfect for local home games where you can experiment with the rules and formats, while keeping an eye on the Triton Livestream to see how the Godfathers of the game continue to evolve.
Short-Deck Poker Hand Ranking (Best to Worst)
Royal flush
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Flush
Full house
Straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
It’s important to remember that a flush beats a full house. That’s the only hand ranking difference when compared to No-Limit Hold’em.
One of the features of Short-Deck, is unlike Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) where players have to learn to use four hole cards, Short-Deck is more suitable for people who have grown up playing the more familiar No-Limit Hold’em.
A few things to note:
Pocket aces come along 1 in 105 hands, not one in 220, but they are cracked way more often.
Straight draws arrive on the flop 48% of the time, not 31%.
The odds of flopping a set are 18%, and not 12%.
The other change to be aware of is the role of the ace. As in No-Limit Hold’em the ace plays both low and high when creating straights, meaning it becomes a five when 6,7,8,9 is on the board.
Triton Poker Series Spearheads Short-Deck Poker Trend
After playing Short-Deck in their local home game, and seeing the improvements in sociability and joy firsthand, both Paul and Richard decided to test the new variant at a professional level.
The Triton Poker Series was born.
Taking place in some of the most salubrious destinations around the world, the Triton Poker Series is a high stakes series that pits some of the wealthiest amateurs against the very best professionals in the game.
In 2018, at the Triton Poker Series at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Montenegro, Paul and Richard hosted a HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) and a HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only event, put the word out, and hoped they would come.
Come they did.
The most feared and respected poker player in the modern game, Phil Ivey, beat 61 entrants to win the HKD 4,749,200 (USD 604,992) first prize in the HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) version, and Jason Koon defeated 103 entrants to bank the HKD 28,102,000 (USD 3,579,836) in the HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) version, in only his second ever Short-Deck event.
Not only did the amateurs love the game, so did the pros, and so did the poker community, who tuned in to watch the livestream in their droves. There had not been this much buzz over a format of poker since the Texas Road Gamblers decided to add the words ‘All-In’ to the game of Limit Hold’em.
Paul Phua and Richard Yong had achieved the remarkable.
Short Deck became the antidote to a game that was in danger of turning into a robotic, emotionless, and dull experience.
“People who fold too much are going to get eaten up, you have to be prepared to gamble,” Ben Lamb.
But how do you play this game?
The Triton Poker Series was born.
Taking place in some of the most salubrious destinations around the world, the Triton Poker Series is a high stakes series that pits some of the wealthiest amateurs against the very best professionals in the game.
In 2018, at the Triton Poker Series at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Montenegro, Paul and Richard hosted a HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) and a HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only event, put the word out, and hoped they would come.
Come they did.
The most feared and respected poker player in the modern game, Phil Ivey, beat 61 entrants to win the HKD 4,749,200 (USD 604,992) first prize in the HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) version, and Jason Koon defeated 103 entrants to bank the HKD 28,102,000 (USD 3,579,836) in the HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) version, in only his second ever Short-Deck event.
Not only did the amateurs love the game, so did the pros, and so did the poker community, who tuned in to watch the livestream in their droves. There had not been this much buzz over a format of poker since the Texas Road Gamblers decided to add the words ‘All-In’ to the game of Limit Hold’em.
Paul Phua and Richard Yong had achieved the remarkable.
Short Deck became the antidote to a game that was in danger of turning into a robotic, emotionless, and dull experience.
“People who fold too much are going to get eaten up, you have to be prepared to gamble,” Ben Lamb.
But how do you play this game?
The Future of Short-Deck Poker
The Triton Poker Series Livestream numbers show that this is a variant of the game that the poker community adores. It turns quite a boring spectator sport into one of the most illuminating.
All sports and games have their magic moments.
The goal.
The punch.
The all-in and call.
There are more swings than a kid’s playground, and for this reason, Short-Deck poker is going to be here to stay, but where does it take it’s seat in poker’s landscape.
Back to Ben Lamb.
“It will grow, especially in America. I am going to try and help that happen by running games at ARIA and my local game in LA,” says Lamb, who played the variant in Jeju, for the first time, and fell in love with it. “It fits a niche. Amateurs want to enjoy themselves. Pot Limit Omaha cash games tend to be more fun for amateur players, but Short-Deck takes it to another level. More gambling. More fun. The edges are smaller, and that’s a great thing for the long term ecosystem of poker. Just because your a pro it doesn’t mean you don’t like to gamble. I love to flip and gamble.”
Poker’s purpose is to enthrall, enlighten and entertain.
Somewhere along the way we forgot that.
Short-Deck won’t let us make the same mistake twice.
Suddenly, it feels like poker has no problem at all.
All sports and games have their magic moments.
The goal.
The punch.
The all-in and call.
There are more swings than a kid’s playground, and for this reason, Short-Deck poker is going to be here to stay, but where does it take it’s seat in poker’s landscape.
Back to Ben Lamb.
“It will grow, especially in America. I am going to try and help that happen by running games at ARIA and my local game in LA,” says Lamb, who played the variant in Jeju, for the first time, and fell in love with it. “It fits a niche. Amateurs want to enjoy themselves. Pot Limit Omaha cash games tend to be more fun for amateur players, but Short-Deck takes it to another level. More gambling. More fun. The edges are smaller, and that’s a great thing for the long term ecosystem of poker. Just because your a pro it doesn’t mean you don’t like to gamble. I love to flip and gamble.”
Poker’s purpose is to enthrall, enlighten and entertain.
Somewhere along the way we forgot that.
Short-Deck won’t let us make the same mistake twice.
Suddenly, it feels like poker has no problem at all.