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Game guide · Short Deck

How to play Short Deck poker

Learn how to play Short Deck poker — Texas Hold'em with sixteen cards pulled out, so it plays faster, bigger and full of coolers. Master the 36-card deck, why a flush beats a full house, and the new A-6-7-8-9 wheel, then drill each one in an interactive trainer.

Learn how to play What changes
  • Players 2–9
  • Deck 36 cards
  • Difficulty Advanced
  • Betting No-Limit
What is Short Deck

Fewer cards, wilder swings

Six Plus keeps every rule of Hold'em and changes just one thing — the deck. That single change rewires the odds and the rankings.

Hold'em, stripped for speed

If you're learning how to play Short Deck poker, start here: Short Deck — or Six Plus — is Texas Hold'em played with a 36-card deck, with every card below a six removed. It was born in the high-stakes cash games of Asia and spread fast because it does one thing brilliantly — it manufactures action. Two hole cards, a flop, turn and river, four betting rounds: the shape is identical to the game you meet in our poker rules and foundations guide. But with sixteen cards removed, everyone connects with the board far more often, so the pots are bigger and the swings are steeper.

Does a flush beat a full house?

Take out the low cards and the odds of every made hand change. Straights become common because the ranks sit closer together, while flushes get harder — there are only nine cards of each suit instead of thirteen. So the standard poker hand rankings chart is rebuilt to match reality: a flush now beats a full house, and three of a kind beats a straight. The ace even learns a new trick, sliding below the six to form the smallest straight — practise calling winners in our which hand wins trainer. Same game, re-tuned maths.

The big twists

What changes in Short Deck

The mechanics are pure Hold'em — but pull sixteen cards out of the deck and the maths shifts under your feet. Two hand rankings swap places and the smallest straight gets a new shape. Learn these three before you play a single hand.

The deck

36 cards, not 52

Every two, three, four and five is stripped out. Only 6 through Ace survive — nine ranks in each suit. Fewer gaps between cards means straights and flushes appear far more often.

Removed
2345
In play
678910JQKA
Ranking swap

A flush beats a full house

With only nine cards per suit, filling a flush is harder than making a full house — so the flush is promoted above it. This is the signature Short Deck rule.

Ace-high flush
Queens full of sevens
Ranking swap

Three of a kind beats a straight

Straights are everywhere in the compressed deck, so they drop below three of a kind. A set that would lose to a straight in Hold'em wins here — though this is the most ruleset-dependent twist: some rooms (e.g. Triton rules) keep a straight above trips and only promote the flush, so confirm the house rules first.

Set of nines
Seven-to-jack straight
New low straight

The wheel is A-6-7-8-9

With the low cards gone, the ace slides beneath the six to make the smallest straight. There is no A-2-3-4-5 anymore — the ace still plays high for Broadway, 10-J-Q-K-A.

The Short Deck wheel — ace plays low
Hand rankings

The Short Deck ranking ladder

Read it top to bottom, strongest to weakest. Two rungs are not where a Hold'em player expects: the flush jumps above the full house, and three of a kind jumps above the straight. Everything else keeps its usual place.

  1. 1

    Straight flush

    Five running cards in one suit. The top is 10-J-Q-K-A, the royal.

  2. 2

    Four of a kind

    All four cards of a single rank. Still unbeatable short of a straight flush.

  3. 3

    Flush

    Moved up

    Any five cards of one suit. Promoted ABOVE the full house in Short Deck.

  4. 4

    Full house

    Three of a kind plus a pair. It now sits just below a flush.

  5. 5

    Three of a kind

    Moved up

    Three cards of one rank. Promoted ABOVE the straight in Short Deck.

  6. 6

    Straight

    Five running cards, any suits. The lowest is the wheel, A-6-7-8-9.

  7. 7

    Two pair

    Two different pairs. Kickers break ties.

  8. 8

    One pair

    Two cards of the same rank — often not enough to win here.

  9. 9

    High card

    No pair at all. The ace-king plays simply as ace-high.

Interactive · How a hand plays

One hand, four streets

Short Deck runs over the same four betting rounds as Hold'em. Deal through a hand and watch a nut-flush story unfold — the kind of holding that's merely good in Hold'em but a monster here.

POT 40
Suited ace-king
Your hand
Pre-flop 2 cards each

You're dealt A♥ K♥. Suited aces are pure gold in Short Deck — with flushes rarer than full houses, a nut-flush hand is a genuine premium. Raise and take the lead before the flop.

Position & the ante

Position still rules the table

Short Deck usually replaces blinds with antes — often everyone antes and the button posts a double. Sweetened pots mean more action, but acting last is as powerful as ever: the button realises its big draws cheaply and gets paid on the nuts. Tap a seat to see how it plays.

Action moves clockwise, one seat →
  • Early — hardest
  • Middle
  • Late — strong
  • Button — best
  • Blinds — forced bets

Shown 6-handed. Full-ring tables (9–10 players) add earlier seats — UTG+1/2, the lojack and hijack — but the rule never changes: the later you act, the wider you can play.

Interactive · Trainer preview

Which Short Deck hand wins?

Forget your Hold'em instincts for a moment. A flush beats a full house, three of a kind beats a straight, and the smallest straight is A-6-7-8-9. Read the board and call the winner.

Hand 1 / 3 Score 0
Board
Pot · 480

Tap the seat you think wins the pot.

How it compares

Short Deck or Hold'em?

Same table, same four streets — but a smaller deck makes for a very different game. Here's what each one asks of you.

Texas Hold'em

52 cards, patience pays

The full deck spreads hand values wide, so a big hand is usually a big favourite and you can win by folding often and striking when clearly ahead. Blinds drive the action and standard rankings apply — the game everyone learns first.

  • 52-card deck
  • Standard hand rankings
  • Blinds drive the action
  • Easier to learn
Short Deck

36 cards, all gas

Strip out the low cards and everyone connects. Equities run close, draws are massive and antes swell every pot — so the game rewards aggression and sharp board-reading. Two rankings flip, and the wheel becomes A-6-7-8-9.

  • 36-card deck (6+)
  • Flush beats full house
  • Everyone antes
  • Straights everywhere
Talk the talk

The Short Deck words worth knowing

Six Plus has its own vocabulary layered on top of the poker basics. Learn this dozen and the strategy talk stops sounding foreign.

Six Plus
Another name for Short Deck — the deck begins at six, so every rank is 6 and up.
Button ante
A common format where every player antes and the button posts an extra (double) ante for the whole table, keeping the action lively.
Ante
Chips paid into the middle before a card is dealt — in Six Plus they replace blinds entirely, which is what makes every pot worth a fight from the first bet.
The wheel
The lowest straight in Short Deck: A-6-7-8-9, with the ace playing below the six.
Broadway
The highest straight, 10-J-Q-K-A. The ace's high end — it still plays both ways.
Flush-over-full
The headline rule: in the standard ruleset a flush outranks a full house.
Trips-over-straight
Three of a kind beats a straight here, because straights come so easily.
Nut flush
An ace-high flush — nothing beats it here except a straight flush, and since flushes already outrank full houses it's often the outright nuts you can shove without fear.
Set
You hold a pair, the board pairs it — three of a kind hidden inside your hand. In Six Plus it quietly outranks any straight, which is why it wins so many stacks.
Cooler
A hand where you lose holding a huge one. The compressed deck breeds them constantly.
Equity
How often your hand would win if the deal simply played itself to the end. In Short Deck those numbers bunch together — a big favourite is rarely as far ahead as it feels.
Dead card
A rank removed from the deck (2 through 5). Knowing they're gone reshapes every draw.
Avoid these

Short Deck poker tips: 6 mistakes to leave behind

Using Hold'em hand rankings

Fix Rewire your instincts: a flush beats a full house and trips beat a straight. Misreading the board here loses whole stacks.

Overvaluing top pair

Fix With straights and flushes everywhere, one pair is rarely the winner. Slow down and reassess when the board gets busy.

Chasing non-nut flushes

Fix Flushes are premium — but a low flush still loses to a higher one. Draw hard to the ace-high flush, tread lightly with the rest.

Forgetting the wheel

Fix The ace plays low only for A-6-7-8-9. There is no A-2-3-4-5, so recount your straight before you commit.

Ignoring the ante economy

Fix Everyone antes, so pots start bigger and you're priced in more often. Open a touch wider — but don't confuse that with playing junk.

Playing sets too passively

Fix A set beats a straight here and gets there often. Bet it for value instead of slow-playing into a cooler.

FAQ

Short Deck questions

Why is it called Six Plus?

Because the deck starts at six. All the twos, threes, fours and fives are removed, leaving 36 cards — six through ace in each of the four suits.

Does a flush really beat a full house?

In the standard Short Deck ruleset, yes. With only nine cards per suit, a flush is harder to make than a full house, so it ranks higher. A few home games keep the classic order, so always confirm the house rules first.

What is the lowest straight?

A-6-7-8-9, with the ace playing low. Because the low cards are gone there is no A-2-3-4-5 wheel — the ace only drops down to join the six, and it still plays high for the 10-J-Q-K-A Broadway straight.

How is the betting set up?

Usually No-Limit, funded by antes rather than blinds — often every player antes with the button posting a double, the 'button ante'. Antes make pots bigger from the start, which is a big reason the game plays so aggressively.

Is Short Deck good for beginners?

It's rated advanced. Learn Texas Hold'em first: Short Deck reuses all of Hold'em's mechanics, and the reshuffled hand rankings are far easier to absorb once the standard order is second nature.

Keep building

Where to go next

Texas Hold'em

The foundation Short Deck is built on. Master it first, then re-tune the rankings.

Open course →

Omaha (PLO)

Four hole cards and the exactly-two rule — another huge-action favourite.

Open course →

Seven-Card Stud

No community cards at all — a memory-and-reads classic.

Open course →

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