Strip out the 2s through 5s and you get a 36-card deck. Flush beats full house, A doubles as a 5 — but what really hooks people is this: almost every hand connects, and two or three players is enough for a great game.
Chips have no cash value and cannot be exchanged for money or prizes. Entertainment only.
Also known as 6+ Hold'em or Six Plus Hold'em
Short Deck is a Texas Hold'em variant with the 2, 3, 4 and 5 removed. That leaves nine ranks (6 through A) across four suits — 36 cards. Fewer cards means the entire probability structure shifts: hands connect more often, and the game plays faster and wilder.
It grew out of high-stakes cash games in Macau and Manila before reaching a global audience through Triton Poker Series broadcasts. Awareness is far higher in Asia than in the West, yet systematic teaching material remains thin — which is why this site exists.
Nine ranks × four suits. Sixteen cards are gone, so made hands arrive far more often — you hold at least a pair by the flop 65.8% of the time (standard Hold'em: 49.3%).
Most Short Deck games use an all-player ante instead of blinds, so there's a pot to fight for on every hand.
Strong hands get overtaken far more often — that's the thrill of Short Deck. Accept it and the game is a blast; fight it and it will tilt you.
Sixteen fewer cards, and every hand has something going on
Short Deck grew out of high-stakes games in Macau and Manila, and the motive behind it was blunt: folding isn't fun. Take 16 cards out and what's left is the half of the deck that connects —
65.8%
Chance you hold at least a pair by the flop (standard Hold'em: 49.3%), rising to 92.9% by the river. A pocket pair flops a set 17% of the time instead of 12%.
65 : 35
AA versus KK preflop. In standard Hold'em that spot is 80 : 20. Short Deck compresses the gap, so the underdog always has a live path — every hand demands real attention.
2–3
The ante structure puts a pot out there before anyone acts, so you don't need a full table to start. Short-handed games stay busy because the cards keep connecting.
Flush and full house trade places — the single difference from standard Hold'em
The logic is straightforward: shrinking the deck makes a flush harder to complete than a full house, so the two trade places.
Short Deck's own wheel
With the 5 gone, A-2-3-4-5 can't exist. The lowest straight is A-6-7-8-9, with the 9 playing high. In Short Deck the ace is both the highest card (10-J-Q-K-A) and the lowest (A-6-7-8-9).
Short Deck vs standard Hold'em, item by item: cards, rankings, the ace, antes and betting.
The mental shifts that matter: why hand values get reordered, why you chase more straights.
Short Deck Home × Emerald Six Plus
Short Deck Home explains the rules. Emerald Six Plus is our own free play-money room — it lets you sit down the moment you finish reading. Put together, that is one promise: learn it, and you can play it.
Rules, hand rankings, terminology and beginner strategy. Every page here exists to get you fluent in ten minutes.
A free short-deck room running inside Telegram. No sign-up, instant play. Coins carry no cash value — they exist only to keep score.
Open it and play — no sign-up, no download. Coins have no cash value and cannot be exchanged for money or prizes. Entertainment only.
Short Deck