How many players can play Short Deck Hold'em?

Short Deck Hold'em can be played with 2 to 8 players.

How to Play Short Deck Hold'em

A modern poker variant played with a 36-card deck (2s through 5s removed): two hole cards, a shared five-card board, and a hand-ranking table where the Flush beats the Full House. Most games replace blinds with a button-ante structure for bigger, more aggressive pots.

How to Play

Short Deck Hold'em, also called Six Plus Hold'em or 6+ Hold'em, is a modern poker variant that strips every out of the deck before play begins, leaving 36 cards ranked 6 through Ace. Popularised on the high-stakes Macau and Asian cash-game circuit in the mid-2010s and later adopted by the World Series of Poker and the Triton Super High Roller Series, it keeps the core Texas Hold'em structure, two private hole cards, a five-card community board dealt across a flop, turn, and river, and a best-five-card showdown, while flipping one line of the hand-ranking table to match the smaller deck's changed odds. With fewer low cards in the pack, a five-card Flush becomes statistically harder to make than a Full House, so the Flush outranks the Full House, and the missing 2s through 5s let the Ace complete the game's only low straight, , in addition to its usual place atop . Most formal games also replace the small and big blind with a button ante structure, in which every player pays the same forced bet each hand and the button pays double, producing bigger starting pots and looser, more aggressive play than standard Hold'em.

Download rules (PDF)

Quick Reference

Goal

Win the pot by holding the best 5-card hand at showdown, using any combination of your 2 hole cards and the 5 community cards, or by getting every opponent to fold first.

Setup

2 to 8 players, a 36-card deck (2s through 5s removed from a standard 52-card pack).
Most games use a button-ante format: every player antes, and the button antes double; some home games use traditional blinds instead.
Each player is dealt 2 face-down hole cards.

On Your Turn

Pre-flop betting starts left of the button; flop deals 3 community cards, followed by another betting round.
Turn deals a 4th community card and a third betting round; river deals the 5th and final card and the last betting round.
Showdown follows if 2 or more players remain after the river.

Scoring

Best 5-card hand from 2 hole cards plus 5 community cards wins the pot.
Hand order (high to low): royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, flush, full house, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Flush ranks above full house, the opposite of standard poker.
Tied hands split the pot equally.

Tip: Remember is a valid low straight, and widen your starting-hand range compared to standard Hold'em since the smaller deck makes strong hands connect with boards more often.

Players

2 to 8 players at a single table; 6-max is the most common cash-game size on the sites and card rooms that spread the game, though full 8-handed tables are used in some high-stakes club and Triton Super High Roller Series events. Each player competes individually; there are no partnerships. The dealer button marks the nominal dealer and rotates one seat clockwise after every hand.

Card Deck

One standard 52-card French-suited pack with every of all four suits removed before shuffling, leaving 36 cards: in each suit. No jokers or wild cards are used. Suits are equal in rank; only card rank and, in a Flush, suit-matching determine hand strength. Because the deck holds only 9 ranks instead of 13, straights and flushes occur more often relative to a full 52-card pack, which is why the hand-ranking order below differs from standard poker.

Objective

Win chips from the pot by holding the best 5-card poker hand at showdown, using any combination of your 2 hole cards and the 5 community cards, or by getting every other active player to fold before showdown. A cash-game player 'wins' a session by leaving with more chips than they bought in with; a tournament player wins by finishing with all the chips in play.

Setup and Deal

Strip all 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s from a standard 52-card pack and shuffle the remaining 36 cards.
Place the dealer button in front of the nominal dealer; in casino and club play a house dealer handles the cards while the button marks the positional dealer.
Button ante format (most common): every seated player posts an equal forced ante into the pot, and the player on the button posts a second, matching ante on top of their own, so the button contributes double. No separate small or big blind is posted.
Blind format (some home and club games): a small blind and big blind are posted by the two players clockwise of the button instead of antes, exactly as in standard Hold'em, just with the 36-card pack.
The dealer deals 2 face-down hole cards to each player, one at a time clockwise, starting with the player immediately left of the button.
Each player looks only at their own hole cards, which stay private until showdown or an earlier fold.

Betting Rounds and Dealing

Pre-flop betting: starts with the first active player clockwise of the button (there is no under-the-gun blind to skip in the ante format) and proceeds clockwise; players fold, call, or raise.
Flop: the dealer burns the top card face down, then deals 3 community cards face up in the centre of the table.
Flop betting: a new round begins with the first active player clockwise of the button; players may check, bet, call, raise, or fold.
Turn: burn one card, deal a 4th community card face up.
Turn betting: another round, same order and options as the flop.
River: burn one card, deal the 5th and final community card face up.
River betting: the last betting round before showdown.
Showdown: remaining players reveal their hands; the best 5-card hand made from any 2 hole cards plus the 5 community cards wins the pot. Ties split the pot evenly among the tied hands.
If every player but one folds at any point, the remaining player wins the pot immediately without a showdown.

Hand Rankings (high to low)

Royal Flush: all one suit.
Straight Flush: five sequential cards, one suit. is the lowest possible straight flush, since the Ace plays low next to the 6 once the 2s through 5s are gone.
Four of a Kind: four cards of the same rank plus any kicker.
Flush: five cards of one suit, not in sequence. Ranked above a Full House in Short Deck because, with only 9 ranks per suit, five same-suited cards are statistically rarer than a triple plus a pair.
Full House: three of a kind plus a pair.
Straight: five cards in sequence, mixed suits. Ace plays high () or low next to the 6 (); no other gaps or wrap-arounds are allowed.
Three of a Kind: three cards of the same rank plus two unmatched kickers.
Two Pair: two pairs of different ranks plus one kicker.
One Pair: two cards of the same rank plus three unmatched kickers.
High Card: five unmatched cards; the highest card wins, ties broken by the next-highest kicker in turn.
Within the same category the higher-ranking cards win; identical hands split the pot as a tie.

Ante Structure and Betting

Ante amount: set at the table stakes, for example a $100 ante at a $100/$200-equivalent short deck game; every player pays it once per hand.
Button double ante: the button's extra ante roughly offsets the positional advantage of acting last on every post-flop street, since there is no blind disadvantage to make up for pre-flop the way there is in standard Hold'em.
No-Limit is standard: a player may bet or raise any amount up to all of their chips (all-in) at any point; this is by far the most common format for Short Deck.
Straddles: many short deck games allow voluntary straddles (an extra forced bet posted before cards are dealt) that build the pot further and speed up the action.
All-in and side pots: a player who cannot cover a bet goes all-in for what they have; further action from other players creates a side pot that the all-in player cannot win.

Winning

Each hand ends when either one player remains after all others fold, or the best hand is revealed at showdown and takes the pot; tied hands split it evenly. A cash-game session has no fixed end, a player wins it by leaving with more chips than they started with. In a tournament, the game continues, with antes rising on a clock, until one player holds every chip in play and is declared the winner.

Common Variations

Blind Short Deck: uses traditional small and big blinds instead of a button ante, popular in home games that want a more familiar Hold'em-style structure.
Mixed-game rotation: some high-stakes cash games and tournament series rotate Short Deck Hold'em with standard Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha across a set number of hands or a timed clock.
Heads-Up Short Deck: one-on-one play; antes are posted by both players, or the button/only opponent posts blinds as in heads-up Hold'em.
Straddled Short Deck: frequent voluntary straddles are treated as a house norm rather than an occasional add-on, keeping average pot sizes large throughout a session.
Full-Ante Variant: a small minority of clubs have every player, including the button, post the same single ante with no button surcharge, trading some of the position-equalising effect for simplicity.

Tips and Strategy

Adjust starting-hand values for the flipped Flush-over-Full-House ranking: suited hands and suited connectors gain value relative to standard Hold'em, since completing a flush is rarer but pays off higher, while hands that lean on making a full house lose some relative value.
Play a wider range than in standard Hold'em. With only 36 cards, hands connect with the board more often, straights and flushes are more common, and disconnected high-card hands lose value versus drawing and suited hands.
Remember the low straight when reading the board: a board showing can make a straight for any player holding an Ace and a 6, a trap many players new to Short Deck miss.
Because pots start larger under the button-ante structure, position and pot control matter even more than in standard Hold'em; a single missed street of value or a single loose call compounds quickly in a bigger pot.
Three of a kind still beats a straight and stays below it in this ranking table, unlike some other short-deck rule sets used outside the WSOP and Triton Series, so confirm the exact hand-ranking table before sitting down at an unfamiliar game.

Glossary

Ante: a forced bet every player posts before the deal, replacing blinds in the most common Short Deck format.
Button: the dealer position marker; rotates clockwise each hand and pays a double ante in the standard format.
Hole cards: the 2 private cards dealt face down to each player.
Community cards: the 5 shared cards dealt face up across the flop, turn, and river.
Flop, turn, river: the three stages of community-card dealing, 3 cards, then 1, then 1 more.
Showdown: revealing hands after the final betting round to determine the winner.
All-in: betting every remaining chip at the table.
Kicker: an unpaired card used to break ties between hands in the same category.
Straddle: a voluntary extra forced bet posted before the deal to build a bigger pot.

Tips & Strategy

Widen your starting-hand range compared to standard Hold'em, since 36 cards connect with boards far more often, and lean into suited and connected hands that benefit from the Flush-over-Full-House ranking. Always keep the [A♠][6♥][7♦][8♣][9♠] low straight in mind when reading boards that show a 6, 7, 8, or 9. Respect position even more than usual, since the button-ante structure inflates pots before the flop and small edges compound faster.

Short Deck Hold'em rewards players who fully re-derive their strategy from the changed deck rather than porting standard Hold'em instincts across unchanged. Hand equities run closer together with only 36 cards in play, so speculative suited and connected hands realise their equity far more often, while one-dimensional high-card hands that rely on pairing up lose relative value. The button-ante structure also means every player is incentivised to see more flops than in standard Hold'em, since the average pot is already larger before anyone acts, which rewards disciplined post-flop play over pre-flop tightness alone.

Trivia & Fun Facts

Short Deck Hold'em is sometimes nicknamed 'Six Plus' simply because the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s are removed, leaving 6 as the lowest rank in the deck. Because 36-card decks make straights and flushes far more common, Short Deck cash games at the highest stakes have produced some of the largest publicly documented poker pots ever streamed, driven by the inflated button-ante pots and looser starting-hand ranges the format encourages. The game's single hand-ranking flip, Flush above Full House, is often the very first thing new players are quizzed on before they are allowed to sit at an unfamiliar short deck table.

01Why does a Flush outrank a Full House in Short Deck Hold'em, the opposite of standard poker?

Answer Because the deck holds only 36 cards (9 ranks per suit instead of 13), each suit has fewer cards available, making a 5-card Flush statistically rarer than a Full House, so the ranking is inverted to reflect the true odds.
02What is the lowest possible straight in Short Deck Hold'em, and why does it exist?

Answer [A♠][6♥][7♦][8♣][9♠], because removing the 2s through 5s leaves a gap between Ace and 6 that the Ace is specifically allowed to bridge, giving the deck a low-end straight it would not otherwise have.

History & Culture

Short Deck Hold'em grew out of the high-stakes private cash-game scene in Macau and mainland China in the early-to-mid 2010s, where wealthy recreational players and professionals sought a faster, more action-heavy alternative to standard Hold'em. The Triton Super High Roller Series, founded in 2016, brought the game to a global streamed and televised audience with enormous buy-ins and pots, featuring professionals such as Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan. The World Series of Poker added its first Short Deck (6+ Hold'em) bracelet event in 2019, cementing the game's place in the mainstream professional poker calendar alongside standard Hold'em and Omaha.

Short Deck Hold'em is closely associated with the modern Asian high-stakes poker scene, particularly Macau's private cash games and the Triton Super High Roller Series, whose streamed final tables introduced millions of viewers to the format's oversized pots and rapid action. Its adoption by the World Series of Poker as an official bracelet event since 2019 signalled the format's acceptance into the traditional Western professional poker calendar, and it now appears regularly in mixed-game rotations alongside Texas Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha at the highest levels of the sport.

Variations & House Rules

Blind Short Deck swaps the button-ante structure for traditional small and big blinds, giving the game a more familiar Hold'em rhythm for home games. Mixed-game rotations pair Short Deck Hold'em with standard Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha across a timed schedule in some high-stakes series. Heads-Up Short Deck adapts the forced-bet structure for one-on-one play, and Straddled Short Deck treats voluntary extra forced bets as a constant house norm rather than an occasional add-on. A minority of clubs use a Full-Ante Variant where the button pays the same single ante as everyone else, trading away some of the position-equalising effect for a simpler structure.

Home games new to Short Deck should start with the simpler Blind format (standard small and big blinds) before introducing the button-ante structure, since the ante format inflates pot sizes and can overwhelm players still learning the flipped hand rankings. Print or pin up the Short Deck hand-ranking order at the table until players internalise Flush over Full House, and explicitly call out the [A♠][6♥][7♦][8♣][9♠] low straight rule before the first hand is dealt, since it is the single most commonly misplayed rule for newcomers.