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Short Deck (6+) Poker Rules: A 36-Card Game with Its Own Ranking

Short Deck poker rules (also written 6+) take Texas Hold'em and put the deck under the scissors: every 2, 3, 4 and 5 leaves the game, leaving 36 cards that run from 6 up to ace. Players keep two hole cards, the board deals three, then one, then one, four betting streets run, and the showdown compares five cards by the poker hand rankings list. What the stripped deck changes is how often each hand shows up, so the game reorders itself around ante structures and two ranking flips. Treat this page as a chapter of our poker rules hub, where the shared frame lives.

The risk note first: fewer cards mean stronger average hands and bigger swings. Budget for the variance of the 36-card game, not the stakes you were used to in Hold'em.

Players must be 18+. Online poker from Saudi Arabia sits in a legal grey zone; our KSA player guide covers the situation and the safety checklist.

The 36-card deck and what it does

The deck loses 16 cards (four ranks of four suits) and keeps 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Three consequences follow immediately:

1. Straights get denser. Nine ranks instead of thirteen squeeze the numbers together, so connected cards make straights far more often. In a five-card read, a straight shows up about 4× more frequently than in the full deck (1.62% versus 0.39%).
2. Flushes get scarcer. Each suit shrinks to 9 cards, so a flush in a five-card read lands roughly two-thirds as often as in the full deck (0.13% versus 0.20%).
3. Low cards stop existing. Bottom-end straight dreams like A-2-3-4-5 lose their fuel; you will learn a new lowest straight in the rankings table.

These shifts rewrite the hand list and are the entire reason 6+ is a discipline rather than a Hold'em re-skin.

Ante structure and table formats

Most Short Deck tables manage forced bets differently than blinds games:

Both formal rules exist online, so check the table label before you sit. With button-ante tables the button anchors both streets: he posts 2× ante and still acts last after the flop, while preflop the seat after him speaks first.

The formats show up online in a small grid; knowing the label up front avoids every surprise:

Bet doctrine: with antes feeding the pot, common opening sizes sit near twice the pot, and raise increments stay the same as no-limit Hold'em: a raise must at least match the previous raise, and an all-in for less does not reopen betting for players who already acted.

Tournament notes for Short Deck

Tournament 6+ keeps the ante structure and turns the dials: ante levels climb per level, stacks shrink against the ante, and the double button ante grows with the level in many schedules. Play reading stays in ante multiples rather than big blinds, and the compressed ratios are why our tournament strategy page treats 6+ structures as their own section when rooms run them.

Short Deck hand rankings: the two flips

The frequencies above rewrite two rows of the hand list, and one row grows a bottom end:

Mark the two flipped rows before your first 6+ session. Players arriving from Hold'em miscall flush-over-boat more than anything else, and that misread leaks money every session.

Betting rounds table for Short Deck

Starting hands: beginner notions

Dense ranks promote connected cards. A tighter chart serves beginners better than the loose Hold'em spread:

Begin with raise-first discipline: enter pots as the aggressor, play fewer hands than the game tempts you into, and let the ranking flips decide which hands chase.

A fully worked example hand

Format: everyone antes $1, button posts a double ante, no-limit betting, four seats. Pot starts at $5 (three single antes, one double). Hero sits on the button with A♠ K♠; villain, two slots earlier, opens with Q♦ Q♣.

Showdown: hero's five cards are A♠ K♠ Q♠ 7♠ 9♠, a flush. Villain's five are Q♦ Q♣ from the hand + Q♠ 7♦ 7♠ from the board, queens full of sevens. In Hold'em the boat wins that pot. In Short Deck the flush outranks the full house, and hero's draw pays on the exact river card.

Investment math: hero staked $2 in antes + $10 + $15 + $40 + $100 = $167, villain $1 ante + $10 + $15 + $40 + $100 = $166, and $2 lay dead from the two folds. The $335 pot nets +$168 for hero and −$166 for villain, with the $1 difference coming from the button's double ante.

The turn call deserves the honesty reading: five remaining spades over 30 unseen cards gave hero 16.7% to hit by the river, while the $40 price needed 29.6%. The direct odds disagree; the implied odds argue differently, because a river spade beats villain's boat and a boat pays off the flush. That asymmetry is drawn straight from the ranking flip, and it is the difference between Hold'em discipline and 6+ discipline.

The pot pattern of the hand deserves its own note: $5, then $25, $55, $135, $335. With no blinds dragging a fixed price, each street's build comes from bets on the cards themselves, which is why sizing discipline matters more in 6+ than the rankings table suggests. A careless turn call in a blinds game costs a fraction of a big blind; the same carelessness against an ante-built pot compounds through the runout.

Equity notes in the short deck

• Flush draws shrink but pay better. With four spades visible (A♠ K♠ + Q♠ 7♠), five outs give about 30% to complete by the river, below the 35% of a nine-out Hold'em draw. The payback sits one ranking higher: flush beats boat.
• Three spades visible match the classic nine-out pace. Two cards in hand plus one on the board leave six outs over unseen cards, roughly 35% to complete by the river, the same mark a Hold'em flush draw asks.
• Sets beat straights. Hold'em straight-hunting instincts leak here; three of a kind rides above the straight and turns up far more often relative to it.
• Board pairs build boats late. A turn or river that pairs the board lifts trips into full houses, which the flush draw behind them now outranks. The boat loses its fortress status in this deck.
• Straights arrive in packs. Nine ranks sitting together make open-ended runs common; expect bigger pots on running streets and expect straights to chop more often against each other.

Comparison against Texas Hold'em

Common rule mistakes

1. Betting a full house against a completed flush in Short Deck
2. Hunting the old wheel: A-2-3-4-5 cannot exist in a deck without the 2s through 5s
3. Folding three of a kind against an obvious straight in 6+
4. Sitting in button-ante tables and waiting for blinds that never post
5. Importing Hold'em raise sizing without reading the seeded ante pot

FAQ — marked for FAQPage schema

Q1: Why does a flush beat a full house in Short Deck? Because each suit keeps only 9 cards. The math makes flushes rarer than full houses in the 36-card deck, so the rankings swap those two rows.

Q2: What is the lowest straight in 6+? A-6-7-8-9. The ace runs low through the bottom of the deck; the wheel of A-2-3-4-5 cannot exist where the 2s through 5s are gone.

Q3: How do antes work in Short Deck? Either blinds plus a flat ante from everyone, or pure antes with the button posting a double ante. In the button-ante format the seat left of the button acts first preflop and the button still acts last postflop.

Q4: Is Short Deck played no-limit online? Yes, no-limit is the default online. Some rooms run pot-limit or fixed versions; the table label states the ceiling.

Q5: Is three of a kind really stronger than a straight in Short Deck? Yes. Straights arrive about four times as often as in the 52-card deck, so the rankings promote trips above them.

Q6: Should I play more hands in Short Deck than Hold'em? No. The improved hand density tempts everyone; disciplined 6+ play stays selective and puts the surplus action on the ranking flips.

Related reading

• Poker hand rankings — the standard order this variant rearranges.
• Poker rules hub — blinds, streets and showdown rules shared by every game.
• Texas Hold'em rules — the base game 6+ strips its 16 cards from.
• Omaha poker rules — the other variant that reshuffles hand worth.
• Poker strategy for beginners — position thinking that survives every variant.
• Best poker sites — rooms where our tests ran 6+ tables and checks.

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How we verify guides: rules here are checked against operator rulebooks and published tournament regulations, then refreshed each content cycle. Method on our about page.

18+, play sensibly: Short Deck runs hotter than the 52-card game. Fix a session budget before your first 6+ hand; the bankroll management guide sizes it.

Last updated: November 2026 · Editorial review: Saudipoker team