The world’s leading online poker site, PokerStars has finally launched its own version of the exciting new variant 6+ Hold’em (also known as Short Deck Poker)—a game that has taken the poker industry by storm.
Short Deck Hold’em – also known as Six Plus (6+) Hold’em – is No-Limit Hold’em played with a stripped-down deck. All of the deuces to fives are removed to make the total deck just 36 cards. That means some pretty big changes to the poker hand rankings, game dynamics and to standard Texas Holdem strategy. Rules for Short-Deck Hold’em or 6 Plus Poker. In Short-Deck Hold’em the standard 52-card deck that is used in all poker games is culled down to 36 cards by removing all deuces, treys, fours and fives. Short-Deck Poker is also known as Six Plus Poker because the lowest card in the deck is the six. Six-plus hold 'em (also known as short-deck hold 'em) is a community card poker game variant of Texas hold 'em, where the 2 through 5 cards are removed from the deck. Each player is dealt two cards face down and seeks to make the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards (five community cards and their own two hole cards). In Strategy In this article we will have a deeper look into low to mid pocket pairs and how they perform in the great game of Six Plus Holdem. Hands from pocket 6s to pocket 10s are the ones in question and many people tend to overplay those, mostly by calling a.
6+ is the operator’s fifth new cash game variant since 2018 and the first this year. It follows PokerStars Fusion, an innovative variant that blended the elements of Texas Hold’em and Omaha into a single variant. Fusion was recently withdrawn from the client after running for more than two months.
PokerStars’ 6+ Hold’em rolled out in Denmark, Estonia and in the play-money client (on the dot-net site) on January 15. It launched in the UK, Sweden, and on the global dot-com and dot-EU player pools on January 16.
6+ is quite easy to learn as the game is played quite similarly to traditional Texas Hold’em except with a stripped down deck. All the cards lower than Six are removed from the deck to make it a 36-card deck instead of the usual 52. Because the low cards are removed, players are more likely to get dealt premium hands and hence this makes the game more of an action-oriented game.
Sign Up Today »In PokerStars’ version of Six Plus Hold’em, instead of the traditional “small blind” and “big blind”, the game uses a “button blind” structure meaning every player on the table pays an ante while the player on the Button not only pays the ante but also pays a blind equivalent to the size of the ante. The same structure is also followed in the high stakes Triton Poker Series.
As in Hold’em, the action starts with the player seated to the left of the button. Each round then plays out according to standard Texas Hold’em rules, with pre-flop, flop, turn and river betting rounds.
Aces are played both low and high just like in traditional Hold’em, but in 6+ Aces can also play as Fives when making a straight. The lowest straight is A6789 and the highest straight is TJQKA.
What makes the game more interesting is the differences in the hand rankings compared with the Traditional Hold’em. Since the game is played with a deck of 36 cards, Flushes are harder to hit because there are only 9 cards of each suit instead of 13. As a result, Flushes are ranked higher than Full Houses—which in this game is easier to hit than a Flush.
Mathematically speaking, it is also easier to hit Straights than Sets or Trips in Six Plus Hold’em. However, in the PokerStars version, Straights are still ranked higher than Three-of-a-Kind.
To conclude:
At launch, 6+ Hold’em is available only as cash game format. There has been no official announcement by the operator whether the game would be available in Sit & Go or tournament formats.
The game is currently offered with buy-ins starting from $3-$4 with Button and Ante at $0.02 to a table with buy-ins as high as $30,000-$40,000 with Button and Ante at $200.
Rake is charged at 3.50% at the lowest buy-in ($3-$4), 5% on Mid-stakes, and 4.50% on Higher-Stakes.
Caps on the rake depend on the table stakes and buy-ins which is shown below.
Buy-in | Ante | % Rake | 2 Player Cap | 3-4 Player Cap | 5+ Player Cap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
$2 -$3 | $0.02 | 3.50% | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
$5-$7.50 | $0.05 | 4.15% | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
$10-$15 | $0.10 | 4.50% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 |
$25-$37.50 | $0.25 | 5.00% | $0.50 | $1.00 | $2.00 |
$50-$75 | $0.50 | 5.00% | $1.00 | $1.00 | $2.50 |
$100-$150 | $1.00 | 5.00% | $1.25 | $1.25 | $2.75 |
$200-$300 | $2.00 | 5.00% | $1.50 | $1.50 | $3.5 |
$500-$750 | $5.00 | 5.00% | $2.00 | $2.00 | $4.50 |
$1,000-$1,500 | $10.00 | 4.50% | $2.50 | $2.50 | $4.50 |
$2,000-$3,000 | $20.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $3.00 | $5.00 |
$5,000-$7,500 | $50.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
$10,000-$15,000 | $100.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
$20,000-$30,000 | $200.00 | 4.50% | $3.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
No. Just like in the previous cash game novelties, 6+ Hold’em too has adopted “Seat Me” (also called blind-lobby functionality). Under this system, players choose the game and stake and the software automatically finds a seat for the players. If no seat is immediately available, players join a waiting list.
6+ Hold’em is available for real money in global dot-com, European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), Sweden (SE) client, Denmark (DK) client and the Estonian (EE) client. The game is not yet available in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, European shared network (France, Portugal, and Spain), Greece, India, Italy, and New Jersey.
However, players from all these regions (including the United States) can play the game for play-money in NET client.
Yes, we have written two strategy articles on this game.
1) Six Plus Hold’em/Short Deck Poker Odds and Probabilities
2) Beginners Strategy/Five Tips about Six Plus Hold’em
There is no mention by PokerStars whether 6+ Hold’em will be available indefinitely or if it will be available for a limited time offering. However, if history is of any indicator, it seems that 6+ will also be a temporary offering like the previous cash game novelties.
But given the fact that the game has turned out to be very popular across both live and online field, 6+ could well be made available permanently, much like Fast Fold format (aka Zoom) or Jackpot based Sit & Go’s (aka Spin & Gos).
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Read more on Six Plus Hold'em »