• Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Plo8
• Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands Ever
• Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Texas Hold Em
• Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands In Golf
• Short Deck Poker Hand Rankings
• Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Omaha Hi Lo
• Poker Best Starting Hands

One of the games that have seen a flurry of interest over the last few months is Six Plus Hold’em, also referred to as Short Deck Poker.

Six Plus Hold’em is an exciting and fun poker variant based on Texas Hold’em where the game is played with a deck of 36 cards as opposed to the usual 52 cards in traditional hold’em. Deuces through fives are removed from the deck giving the game its name Six Plus Hold’em/6+ or Short Deck Poker.

Aces are played both low and high, making both a low-end straight A6789 and the high JQKTA. Also, with a shortened deck, the game changes a bit in terms of hand rankings and rules. A Flush beats a Full House and in most places where Six Plus is offered, a Set or a Three-of-a-Kind beats a Straight.

This is actually one of the best starting hands in Omaha aside from As Ad Ks Kd, which is typically considered to be the best. Firstly notice that the hand has exactly 2 cards of each suit. This is referred to as a double-suited holding in Omaha. Double-suited holdings are always the best. Let’s compare our As Ad Js Td to a similar holding As. There are 1,326 possible combinations of cards from a standard deck but there are only 169 non-equivalent starting hands in poker. This number is made up of 13 pocket pairs, 78 suited hands and 78.

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Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Plo8

Because the low cards are removed, there are more playable hands compared with traditional Hold’em, and so it is more of an action-orientated game. Not only are the hand rankings modified but so are the mathematics and odds/probabilities of the majority of hands.

Before we talk about the odds and probabilities of some of the hands, let’s have a look at the hand rankings offered in Six Plus Hold’em (ranked from the highest hand to the lowest):

Six Plus Hold’em Hand Rankings Comparison

Traditional Hold’em	6+ Plus Hold’em (Trips beat Straight)	6+ Plus Hold’em (Straight beat Trips)
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	Three-of-a-Kind	Straight
Three-of-a-Kind	Straight	Three-of-a-Kind
Two Pair	Two Pair	Two Pair
One Pair	One Pair	One Pair
High Card	High Card	High Card

One may wonder why a Flush is ranked higher than a Full House or why Three-of-a-Kind is ranked above a Straight. That’s because in Six Plus Hold’em, a Flush is harder to make since there are only nine cards in each suit instead of thirteen. Similarly, the stripped-deck also means that the remaining 36 cards are much closer in rank and so there will be smaller gaps between the cards in the hand and those on the board. This increases the probability of a hand becoming a Straight and hence Straights are ranked higher than a Three-of-a-Kind.

However, it is worth noting that the rules vary from game to game. For example, in the Short Deck variant offered in the Triton Poker Series, a Straight is ranked higher than a Three-of-a-Kind like in traditional hold’em even though mathematically a player would hit a Straight more.

One of the reasons why an operator would rank a Straight higher than Three-of-a-Kind is because it would generate more action. If Trips were ranked higher, a player with a Straight draw would have no reason to continue the hand as he or she would be drawing dead.

Let’s take a look at the odds/probabilities of hitting some of the hands:

Six Plus Hold’em vs Traditional Hold’em (Odds and Probabilities comparison)

Traditional Hold’em	Six Plus Hold’em/Short Deck Poker
Getting Dealt Aces	1 in 221 (0.45%)	1 in 105 (0.95%)
Aces Win % vs a Random Hand	85%	77%
Getting Dealt any Pocket Pair	5.90%	8.60%
Hitting a Set with a Pocket Pair	11.80%	18%
Hitting an Open-Ended Straight by the River	31.50%	48%
Possible Starting Hands	1326	630

As you can see in the table above, the odds of being dealt pocket Aces are doubled as you now get the powerful starting hand dealt once in every 105 hands, as opposed to once in every 221 hands with a full 52-card deck. However, the probability of winning a hand with aces vs a random hand decreases from 85% in traditional hold’em to 77% in Six Plus Hold’em.

The probability of hitting a Set with pocket pairs increases to 18% from 11.8%, and the probability of hitting an open-ended Straight by the River also increases to 48% in 6+ Hold’em compared with 31.5% in traditional Hold’em.

Let’s now have a look at some of the pre-flop all-in hand situations:

Six Plus Hold’em vs Traditional Hold’em (Hands Comparison)

Hand All-in Pre-Flop	Traditional Hold’em	6+ Hold’em (Trips beat Straight)	6+ Hold’em (Straight beat Trips)
Ac Ks vs Th Td	43% vs 57%	47% vs 53%	49% vs 51%
Ac Ks vs Jc Th	63% vs 37%	53% vs 47%	52% vs 48%
As Ah vs 6s 6h	81% vs 19%	76% vs 24%	76% vs 24%

As mentioned earlier, the equities run very close to each other with the shortened deck and so a hand like Ace-King versus Jack-Ten is almost a coin-flip, whereas the former is a favorite in Texas Hold’em. Again, a hand like Ace-King versus a pocket pair like Tens is a coin-flip in 6+, whereas a pocket pair is a slight favorite in normal Hold’em.

Now, let’s take a look at the probabilities when a connected or wet Flop is dealt:

Player 1: Ac Ks
Player 2: Td 9h

Flop: Kh 8c 7d

Traditional Hold’em	6+ Hold’em (Trips beat Straight)	6+ Hold’em (Straight beat Trips)
Player 1 vs Player 2	66% vs 34%	52% vs 48%	48% vs 52%

In traditional Hold’em, Ace-King is a favorite with 66% and Player 2 is chasing the Straight draw with a close to 34% chance of hitting it. However, the probability significantly changes in both variants of 6+ Hold’em. In a variant where Trips beat a Straight, Player 1 is only a slight favorite with just 52% (more like a coin-flip). However, in a Short Deck game where a Straight beat Trips, Player 2 is now slightly favorite with 52% chance of hitting a Straight by the river.

Another hand:

Player 1: As Ah
Player 2: Qd Jh

Flop: Ad Th 9s

Traditional Hold’em	6+ Hold’em (Trips Beat a Straight)	6+ Hold’em (Straight beat Trips)
Player 1 vs Player 2	74% vs 26%	100% vs 0%	68% vs 32%

It’s pretty clear when it comes to normal Hold’em, but in a Short Deck variant where Trips beat a Straight, Player 2 is drawing dead as opposed to the other variant where Player 2 still has a 32% of chance of completing a Straight by the River.

Over the course of five entries in this series, we've gone over a number of relevant concepts applied to short deck hold'em. We've covered the basic rules, the odds, and delved into strategies applicable to preflop and postflop play.

With the groundwork for an understanding of short deck laid out, it's time to look over some hands wherein players are putting these concepts into practice.

Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands Ever

To start off with, we'll look over a hand from the recent Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju HK$1,000,000 (~$128,000) Short Deck Ante Only.

At this point in the tournament, 16 players remained from a field of 81, so it was getting close to the money. Antes were 12,000 with a 24,000 ante on the button. Justin Bonomo started with about 950,000 on the button, with Gabe Patgorski covering and playing 1.5 million in the cutoff. Bonomo had recently been caught bluffing for double the size of the pot.

The Action

'Jungleman' Dan Cates opened action by calling in the hijack with , Patgorski called in the cutoff with and Bonomo checked his option on the double ante with .

The flop came and Cates checked. Patgorski bet 50,000 and Bonomo called, with Cates folding to leave them heads up.

The turn brought the and Patgorski slowed down with a check. Bonomo bet 100,000 and Patgorski called. On the river, Patgorski checked again and Bonomo stuck in all but the last few crumbs of his 789,000. Patgorski took some thinking time, but eventually conceded the pot.

Concept and Analysis

First off, we see in action a concept from Part 3 of this series. Isaac Haxton pointed out that players who aren't on the button are getting a great price to put in one more ante to try to see the flop and Cates does just this by limping in with a mediocre .

Patgorski just calls as well despite holding a decent suited ace. Remember, suited cards help you far less in short deck compared to regular no-limit, but this is still a hand many players will raise in this spot.

Bonomo opts to check and it goes three ways to a highly coordinated flop. Everyone has a little something here as Patgorski had top pair and a straight draw while the others each have a blocker to the current nuts. Patgorski bets about half of the pot, and given that he likely has the best hand here — Bonomo checked and could have any two, while Cates limped from late position — that seems sound enough.

Bonomo perhaps senses an opportunity. First off, if a ten comes out, he'll have a straight. While gutshots are an object of some derision when it comes to hold'em, we know from Part 2 of this series that in short deck they come in about a quarter of the time, which isn't insignificant.

Furthermore, he already has a blocker to the nuts and if a diamond hits, he has both a flush draw and another blocker to a strong hand. Plus, they're deep-stacked with a stack-to-pot ratio of more than four still. He has room to maneuver and opts to float.

On the turn, Bonomo not only still has a blocker to a straight, but he picks up the nut diamond blocker as the falls. Now, Patgorski checks and Bonomo has a pretty good bluffing opportunity. The fact that Patgorski bet the flop and the top card paired is a bit concerning, but it's not a given that he has trips. Furthermore, because this is short deck, even if he's already full — which isn't that likely because he'd have had to have limped a big hand — Bonomo is still drawing live in the worst-case scenario.

When Patgorski calls his bet, it seems most likely he has trip aces, with a straight also a possibility. He certainly could also have a low flush himself though, having limped in for the minimum in late position.

On the river, Bonomo picks up some showdown value that's almost certainly worthless. He probably needs to bluff to win the hand and he has the nut flush blocker, but what sizing should he choose? If he thinks Patgorski has at least trip aces, a small bet may not do it. Shoving for over the size of the pot likely gives him the best chance to induce a fold, and he does so.

Now, it's on Patgorski and the situation is tough. He has a straight and he has an ace in his hand to block some full houses that beat him, but Bonomo is most likely shoving this big for value with flushes.

Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Texas Hold Em

Bonomo just checked preflop, so he could certainly have any two suited cards. What makes it especially hard for him to be bluffing, though, is his flop action. Heads up, it might be a little more plausible to think Bonomo might show up with some bluffs, but he called on the flop with a third player behind him.

Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands In Golf

Some of the plausible bluffs, as the commentators pointed out, would be hands that make a straight where Bonomo is turning his hand into a bluff. Especially plausible would be something with one diamond in it. Patgorski has to consider that a possibility, and in those cases he'd only be calling to chop.

Finally, there's a meta factor with Bonomo having recently been caught bluffing for over the pot. Does that make it more or less likely he's bluffing?

Short Deck Poker Hand Rankings

Who knows, but as Bobby Baldwin once said, the second bluff against a good player is the good one. And Bonomo got the second one through here.

Short Deck Poker Best Starting Hands For Omaha Hi Lo

Poker Best Starting Hands

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  tournament strategybet sizingbluffingblockersJustin BonomoGabe PatgorskiDan Catesshort deck hold’emsix-plus hold’empostflop strategyboard texturerangesrange readingTriton Super High Roller Series

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  Justin BonomoDan CatesGabe Patgorski