Short Deck Strategy
ShortDeck Hold’em (6+ Hold’em) Strategy In this continuation into a look at 6Plus Hold'em we have some starting hand tips for Short Deck Hold'em. Including tips on how to be balanced, unpredictable and become very profitable in this new lucrative game. Take a look at the post and jump ahead of your competition.
We are going to spend some time looking at some Poker Strategies. Today’s – Short Deck Hold’em:
The beauty of poker is that each game has a variety of different ways to play it. Original games are still popular, but newer versions seem to be ever increasing in demand. Poker players are looking for a change in traditional games that offer more difficulty and lucrative betting options.
- Short Deck, or 6+ Hold’em as it’s sometimes known, is the game of choice for the high stakes cash games and tournament specialists around the world.Check out the GGPoker lobby and you’ll see daily tournaments with $10,000 buy-ins that are frequented by the game’s superstars.
- 9 Short Deck Starting Hand Strategy Considerations To “Heighten” Your Short Deck Game Regardless of your playing style, success in Short Deck No Limit Hold’em depends largely on the starting hands you choose to play.
- WHAT YOU LEARN Discover an overarching strategy that wins in 6 and 9-handed Short Deck Hold'em games. Exactly which hands to play preflop (and the best way to play them) at 50 and 100 Ante stack depths. Profitably start new tables with strategies, tactics, and preflop ranges meant specifically for 1-on-1 Short Deck play.
Five Quick Tips For Short Deck Hold ’em
Having a short deck hold ’em strategy is going to be different from your regular poker game. This is because of the rule changes. The differences you will see are of rankings, cards used, and overall knowledge of the game.
Five quick tips for short deck hold ’em are :
- Understand the rules
- Know the hand rankings
- Look at your hand value
- Search for the flush
- Create the best starting hand
Understand The Rules
Short deck hold ’em will catch your attention with the change. You can tell by the word that “short” means that you will be playing fewer cards. The deck has been cut down to 36 total, with the cards being removed are all twos, threes, fours and fives.
“Six Plus Poker” is a nickname for this game, since the six is now your lowest card in the deck. Oddly enough, 10 players can still play this game even with the cut of the deck.
Know The Hand Rankings
Short Deck Rules
If you are not careful, you will miss the card rankings. The best hand is still set at a royal flush, but other hands have been changed. The card rankings are as follows:
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Flush *
- Full House
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High card
Notice how the flush is now able to beat a fullhouse. Since there are fewer cards being played, that particular hand is now more difficult to create.
Aces are a little different because they can either be high or low. So, it can also be used in the place of a five to make your straights.
Look At Your Hand Value
When playing short deck hold ’em, you are going to realize one thing: your hands are going to be better a lot more often than normal. More than likely, scenarios like being dealt pocket aces, will happen a lot more often compared to your regular hold ’em.
Keeping all of this in mind, your opponents are going to have better hands as well. You should not be worried, but not more cautious because of this. You will have scenarios of when you need to be the aggressor and, of course, when you should fold.
Search For The Flush
As noted above, flushes have had an increase in their betting value. Because there are fewer cards in the deck, you are now less likely to lose to a higherflush, so your hand becomes more attractive.
Do not be afraid if you find yourself being dealt multiple suitedcards, and then you see the flop turning in your favor because flushes are now an excellent hand to have. These hands have the power to take on the whole pot, so you need to be aware of not only your hand but also what your opponents could have if the flop is valuable.
Create The Best Starting Hand
Do not let pocket pairs such as queens and jacks fool you. They do not have the same value as they once had in a regular hold ’em game. Aces and kings still are desirable, especially if you get three or four of a kind, but remember where you are in the game to decide.
Suited hands, for example, to make flushes are hands that are excellent or starter hands. Since they have an increase in value, you will be better off going for them. So if you have weaker cards dealt to you at first, do not overlook them, especially if they are suited.
What is “short-deck” poker? This is just one of the things Paul Phua discusses with Phil Ivey in the latest Paul Phua Poker School video, along with strategy tips for beginners
Do beginners have an easier time at poker these days? In the latest Paul Phua Poker School video, we welcome back the great Phil Ivey. Last time we talked about the thrills and challenges poker holds, even for a player as experienced as Phil. This time we focus on beginners to the game, as well as a fun variant on Texas Hold ’Em called “short-deck poker” or “Six Plus Hold ’Em”.
Basic Short Deck Strategy
Poker can be a hard game to break into: experienced players may punish you if they sense weakness, and though it is easy to learn the basic rules, it can take a while to understand all the odds and strategies. But as Phil Ivey says in this video interview, “Because of all the information that’s available, with the different teaching schools and things that are available now, different ways of learning that are out there, and with Paul’s teaching site, I think everyone is catching up.”When Phil Ivey started out in poker, winning his first WSOP bracelet when he was just 23, internet poker was in its infancy. There were a few strategy books, such as Doyle Brunson’s Super System, but not the virtual library of tips that is out there now.
“I didn’t have schools,” says Phil Ivey in the video interview. “I didn’t have teaching sites. I didn’t have different tools I could learn from.” His most important lessons, he says, came just from trial and error.
A big tip for beginners
So one big tip for beginners is to learn everything they can from sites like Paul Phua Poker! And always be aware that however much you think you know, there is always more to learn. As Phil Ivey points out in our video interview, “beginners have a certain selection of hands in their minds that they want to play, and they just stick with that”.
Instead, he encourages players to experiment: “Start learning which hands you can play, in which positions, which hands you can bluff with, which hands you should call with.”
And as I say in the video, your play should also vary according to the structure of the games – whether there are antes or straddles involved, for instance – as well as whether the other players are aggressive or tight.
If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is! Phil Ivey has devoted two decades to perfecting his game. I know Phil pretty well, as we have played together many, many times. And, as I also say in the video, I think one of the most impressive things about him is not just his grasp of strategy, but his strength of character. He just never seems to go on tilt, and that’s something I try to model myself on.
“Short-deck” or “Six-Plus Hold ’Em”
There are more useful tips in the video, so do watch it. But one thing I perhaps need to explain more is the “short deck game” that we talk about in the interview. We often like to play this game when we get together. It is very similar to Texas Hold ’Em, but with fewer cards.
Before you start you remove from the deck all the low cards, deuce through to 5, which is why the game is also known as “Six Plus Hold ’Em”. It’s a more exciting game than Texas Hold ’Em in many ways, because with the low cards taken out you are more often dealt high cards and big pairs. You also have to adapt to a different set of odds. Post-flop, you have a nearly 1 in 2 chance of completing an open-ended straight draw by the river, for instance, compared with nearly 1 in 3 in classic Texas Hold ’Em.
As Phil Ivey says in the video interview, “There’s a lot of gambling involved. The equities run pretty close, so it’s pretty easy to get your money in the middle and be 50/50 or somewhere near that. It suits a more gambling style of player.”
Phil thinks this makes the short-deck game perfect for the beginner. But if so, I have just one piece of advice. You still don’t want to be playing against Phil Ivey!
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