If pocket Kings only beats this range 61% of the time, there’s simply no way Queens and below can be classed as premium hands. The below table illustrates how all pocket pairs in both Short Deck and Texas Hold’em stack up against the best 14% of starting hands. Whereas in traditional Hold’em, you’d include pocket Queens and probably pocket Jacks in the category of premium holdings, that is absolutely not the case for Six Plus. The game’s top players generally agree that Aces, Kings, and A-K suited fall into this category, but nothing else. In fact, against a random Short Deck holding, there are only seven card combinations that have an equity of greater than 60%.Īs such, very few Short Deck starting hands can truly be considered premium. We’ve already clearly seen that the smaller deck size leads to much more compacted starting hand equities. While hands that appear crushed in Hold’em terms are much closer together in Six Plus higher pocket pairs or dominated hands, for example. But in Short Deck, you’d actually be in a much stronger position holding the overcards. As you can see, common Hold’em situations are just completely different to comparable scenarios in Short Deck.Ī mid pocket pair against two suited overcards, for instance, is a marginal favourite in regular Hold’em.

We’ve rounded the percentages off to whole numbers for ease of display, but the message is clear. It concerns starting hand equities, which are far more tightly bunched than in Texas Hold’em.Ĭheck out the following examples of Short Deck starting hand matchups, compared to their Texas Hold’em counterparts. Make sure you understand this before sitting down at a table, or you run the risk of haemorrhaging money. There is one key fact about Short Deck Hold’em that greatly influences your hand selection. Which is exactly what this article is going to address. If you’re just starting to learn how to play short deck poker, you’ll need to know about the best - and worst - starting hands. And predictably, this has a huge impact on starting hand selection strategy when compared to its Texan cousin. It uses a reduced deck of just 36 since all cards ranked lower than a 6 are removed. Short Deck, or 6+, is an increasingly popular form of poker that’s loosely based on Texas Hold’em.

Top short deck hands