SHORT DECK HOLD’EM

What is Short Deck;

  • As a descendant of Texas Hold’em, the Short Deck is played in a similar way, except for a few key differences:
  • Initially, all cards with a value below 6 have been removed. Therefore, the deck consists of 36 cards. This results in a small straight A-6-7-8-9.

Is the classification of the hands different?

  • Due to the smaller deck, there are fewer leaves to form a flush. In the Short Deck, then the flush wins the full and the hierarchy of possible hands is formed as follows:
    • Royal flush
    • Straight flush
    • Four of a kind
    • Flush
    • Full house
    • Straight
    • Three of a kind
    • Two pairs
    • One pair
    • High card

How does betting work

  • Unlike regular Texas Hold’em games, where the two players just to the left of the dealer must place a small blind and a big blind, there are no blinds on the Short Deck.
  • Instead, all players place an ante and the dealer places a larger mandatory bet to start the action. This bet value is usually double the ante amount, however it can be configured.
  • Before the cards are dealt, the normal ante are collected in the base pot, while the dealer's additional ante remains in front of him to start betting.
  • Each player receives their starting cards and the first betting round (pre-flop) is ready to begin.
  • Common cards are dealt in the same way as in Texas Hold’em.

Ante

  • For example, let's say the ante is $1 and the add-on ante is $1.
    • Players have the option to call $1 and raise a minimum pre-flop to $2.
    • Then the game is exactly the same as regular Texas Hold’em.
    • The minimum bet after the flop is $1.
  • There is a betting round in each row: Flop (the first 3 community cards), Turn (the 4th community card) and River (the final community card), as in Texas Hold’em.
  • For example, in a game the normal ante is $ 2 and the dealer's additional ante is $3.
    • Players have the option to call $3 and raise a minimum pre-flop to $6.
    • The game continues in the same way as in a regular Texas Hold’em game.
    • The minimum bet after the flop is $2.
  • A player hand is the best 5-card hand between the player's 2 starting cards and the 5 community cards, just like in regular Texas Hold’em.

How much is the buy-in;

  • In each game, players can buy-in with 50-300 ante, while bets start at $0.02 ante up to high stakes games.

Pot size

  • Another important difference between Short Deck and Texas Hold’em is that because each player places an ante pre-flop on the Short Deck, the pot starts with a larger amount. For example, at a regular Texas Hold’em table with a buy-in of $ 100, before the pot starts to fill with voluntary contributions, the value of the pot is $1.50. On a Short Deck table with a buy-in of $100, however, this amount is $7.

Last modification date: 8/4/2021