Play Short Deck Poker Online

Jan 07, 2019 Short Deck Holdem will continue to grow in 2019. Last year, Short Deck Hold’em or Short Deck Poker/Six Plus Hold’em swept the world off its feet; this was due to the victory of the Poker Hall of Fame member Phil Ivey. Short Deck Poker is played like normal Texas No-Limit Hold’em, except that all cards from two to five are removed from the. Short Deck is an increasingly popular variation of poker which uses just 36 cards. The game plays similarly to Texas Hold’em, however the reduced deck opens up a whole new level of strategy! The game plays similarly to Texas Hold’em, however the reduced deck opens up a whole new level of strategy!

Paul Teoh has won the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $1,000 buy-in short deck hold’em event. The Malaysian overcame field of 487 entries to secure his first WSOP gold bracelet and te top prize of $82,202.

Short deck is a format that has quickly growing in popularity since first appearing in high-stakes cash games in Asia several years ago. The game is played with a 36-card deck, with the deuces through fives removed and a couple of resulting rule changes. Flushes beat full houses, and aces can play both as the highest card and as a five in order to complete a nine-high straight.

By the time the final table was set in this single day event, it was Canadian poker pro Michael Watson who held the chip lead. The World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour main event winner had 28.3 million in chips with nine remaining. The first eliminations of the final table resulted from a three-way all-in between Boon Heng Siong (AQ), Shota Nakanishi (AK) and Andrei Konopelko (AJ). The board ran out 977108 and Konopelko made a straight on the river to take down the massive pot to become the new chip leader. Nakanishi earned $6,850 for ninth place, while Siong secured $9,345 as the eighth-place finisher.

Mykhailo Krasnytskyi was the next to fall. Again, it was a three-way all-in with three players holding an ace and another broadway card. This time around, Watson’s AQ made a broadway straight on the river to earn him the pot and the knockout. Krasnytskyi settled for $12,750 for his seventh-place showing.

Jose Luis Maslhia’s run in this event came to an end shortly after he lost the majority of his stack by running A-K into the pocket aces of Michelle Shah. He got the last of his chips in with J10, which was beat out by the AQ of Teoh, who flopped trips and held from there. Maslha cashed for $17,394.

Joseph Orsino got his last 17,200,000 in the middle with KQ and was called by the AJ of Watson. Orsino flopped a king to take the lead, but Watson turned an ace to regain the advantage. A blank on the river locked up the pot for Watson and sent Orsino to the rail in fifth place ($23,730).

Konopelko fell to the bottom of the leaderboard during four-handed action. He ultimately got all-in ahead, with AQ against the KQ of Shah. The board gave Shah a king-high straight on the turn, though, and Konopelko was eliminated as the fourth place finisher ($32,373).

Michael Watson came within a couple of knockouts from earning his first gold bracelet, but ultimately had has run at the title ended in brutal fashion. He got his last chips in preflop with JJ against the 1010 of Teoh. The A98 flop and Q turn meant that Teoh could only win the hand with one of the two remaining jacks in the deck, as a ten would give Watson the straight. The J appeared on the river and Watson ended up earning $44,166 as the third-place finisher.

With that Teoh took roughly a 5:2 chip lead into heads-up play against Shah. He was able to extend that advantage even further by the time the final hand was dealt. Teoh picked up QJ and raised to 3.6 million . Shah shoved for around 16.5 million with the AJ and Teoh called. The board ran out KQ898 and Teoh made queens and eighths to secure the pot and the title. Shah took home $60,254 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the 'Crushing Shortstackers' concept video.

There are always going to be times in your poker career where you will find yourself as the short stack at the table and probably having a smaller stack than the rest of your opponents.

It may be because you are in the middle of a tournament and had a bad run of cards, or because you simply enjoy to buy in to cash games with a short stack.

But for whatever reason you are playing with a relatively small amount of chips, it is good to be able to understand and employ a good short stack strategy.

What is a short stack in no limit Texas Hold'em?

The typical short stack in any cash game or tournament will have 40 Big Blinds or less.

However, there are varying degrees of short stack poker as a 10BB stack will require a slightly different strategy than a 40BB stack, and it is important to be aware of these differences.

You may have noticed that the term ‘short stack’ is determined by the size of your stack relative to the blinds, and not relative to the stack sizes of your opponents. Therefore even if you have 30BB and your opponents have 20BB, you are still considered to have a short stack, and so you should continue to utilize a good short stack strategy.

How to play with a short stack.

Having a short stack means that you have less room to make plays at the poker table. Bluffs and advanced moves (like float plays) are formed from being able to make educated checks, bets, calls and raises on each round of the hand, so having a short stack will reduce and sometimes eliminate any room for special maneuvers by both you and your opponents.

Furthermore, the general structure of a no limit Texas Holdem game is that the bigger bets will be made on the turn and river, as the preflop and flop rounds are usually set-up rounds that build the pot and prepare the hand for action. The fact that we have a short stack means that we will rarely be making it past the flop in terms of betting as we will not having enough chips to continue.

With a short stack, most (or all) of the action will be taking place on the preflop and flop betting rounds.

Hands to play when short-stacked.

The fact that we have little room for movement and that our betting will cease at the flop means that we should be playing big heavy hitting hands that will make strong hands at the flop, rather than smaller hands that have ‘potential’.

We should avoid hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs, as these hands are profitable when we have a deep stack, as our implied odds are there to compensate for the likely event that we miss the flop. In general we are best entering pots with are big suited cards that can make top pair or better at the flop, although we should exercise some flexibility in starting hand selection depending on the size of our short stack.

Below is a table of the hands we should be looking to play depending on our situation:

Starting hands chart.

Note: This starting hands chart is designed for tournament games where you are pressured to make more moves as the amount of chips left in your stack decreases. This table is not designed for short stack cash game strategy where you have the option of reloading again and again.

40BB or less.

• AA
• KK
• QQ
• AKs
• AQs
• JJ
• AK
• AQ
• AJs

30BB or less.

• AJ
• TT
• ATs
• KQs

20BB or less.

• AT
• KQ
• KJs
• KJ

10BB or less.

• AXs
• AX
• QJs
• QJ

As you can see, a lot of emphasis has been placed playing big cards that can make top pair or better, which will often be the best hand on the flop. As you should remember it is unlikely that we will make any more bets past the flop betting round, so we should be more than happy to be making a good pair and get our money in on the flop.

You may notice that hands that include aces have been given a lot of weight, especially if you are a very short stack. This is because of the fact that as a extremely short stack, it is more than likely that you will be pushing or calling an all in on the flop regardless if you have caught a piece of it or not. Therefore if we are holding an ace, we will have a better chance of winning with a high card against an opponent in the event that they did not make a pair either.

How to play these hands.

When we are dealt any of the above cards that are within our range depending on the effective stack sizes, we should always be raising when entering the pot. It may seem like a good idea to limp and try and catch a good flop for cheap, but it is more profitable to raise and build the pot for when we hit our hand, which we are more likely to do if we are holding a strong starting hand.

With a stack of 10BB or more we should be looking to raise around 3 or 4BB if we are first to enter the pot. However, if we have 10BB or less, it will not be too bad of a play to push all-in straight away, as any call from a 4BB raise will leave us completely pot-committed anyway. With 10BB or less, you can think about using the stop and go play also.

On the flop we are usually reduced to going all-in or folding as a short stack. The smaller the size of our stack, the more inclined we should be to calling or pushing all-in as we are more likely to be committed to the pot. The shorter the stack, the less the flop will matter to us. However, if we have around 30/40BB, we can be a little more selective because we will not be pot committed and have the opportunity to wait for a better spot.

The shorter your stack, the less post-flop action you are going to deal with. So it's important to have a strong hand that has a good chance of winning after all 5 community cards have been dealt.

Nevertheless, if we are pot committed and will be moving all-in regardless, it is always better to make the all-in bet rather than calling if possible. This is because by betting we are giving our opponent the opportunity to fold the best hand or a potentially winning hand, which is something that is not available to us if we are calling the all-in bet.

• Short stack tips overview.
• Play simple ABC poker. Avoid attempting to bluff and just bet when you have a strong hand.
• Only enter pots with premium hands.
• Fold small pocket pairs and suited connectors as you have do not have implied odds.
• Make strong 4BB raises before the flop.
• Be prepared to move all of your stack in to the middle before or on the flop.
• Leave the table if you win a big pot (and intend on playing short-stacked).

Short Deck Poker Book

Short stack strategy evaluation.

Good short stack strategy is all about pushing every little edge that we have. Just because we have a smaller stack, it does not mean that we have less chance of winning any individual hand, it just means we have to adapt our play a little differently to each situation.

Nevertheless, we will be facing an up hill battle if we are in a tournament as each pot we enter is more likely to involve putting our tournament life on the line. At some poker sites, the structure of the faster tournaments will mean that you will spend the majority of the game as a short stack, which is a good way to learn how to play good short stack poker.

We should always look for the most profitable situations and get our money in when we think we have the best of it, and we should always prepare for luck to play its part in each outcome. Playing a good, sound short stack strategy does not guarantee to save a tournament life or secure a double up, but it will improve your chances of coming out on top in the long run.

Play Short Deck Poker online, free

In cash games, you cannot expect to win every all-in, but you can still play a profitable game by picking the right situations and trying to get your money in with the best hand.

Play Short Deck Poker online, free

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Short Deck Poker Strategy

Comments