PartyPoker Follows Other Poker Sites to Short Deck
It is all the rage right now in poker circles, both live and online. Short deck is a hold’em poker variant, sometimes called six-plus hold’em, and it is appearing everywhere that poker players demand it.
The game is played with a shorter deck than hold’em and its 52 cards. Short deck poker requires a 36-card deck, which is created by removing twos, threes, fours, and fives. With a slight change to hand rankings and a lot of changes to strategy, it provides a challenge to players who frequently seek new variations to keep the game interesting.
This week, PartyPoker introduced short deck poker games on its site, following several other operators in past months. The games are called SHORTDECK, and they are now available on the dot-com site for all players with an ante-only version, something that PartyPoker believes sets it apart from its competitors.
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Whirlwind of Short Deck Action
Short deck poker began to take hold with players in Asia in 2017. And when Tom Dwan released a video explaining the game in early 2018, players were inspired to learn it and devise strategies for it.
As the game’s popularity soared, sites like PokerStars teased its release as a new game. Those teasers began to appear in mid-2018, so Americas Cardroom on the Winning Poker Network took the reins. It led to the September release of Six Plus Hold’em on Americas Cardroom, and a limited release for cash games only increased the demand for more action. Months later, it is a popular variant on the site.
PokerStars continued to tweak its game and decided not to release it until mid-January 2019. Under the name 6+ Hold’em, PokerStars rolled it out on most platforms, including real-money and play-money action, along with some strategy articles. The site’s pros began to stream games on Twitch, and the game’s popularity was contagious.
PartyPoker Joins with SHORTDECK
This week, at the end of March 2019, PartyPoker released its version of the game as SHORTDECK. The entire dot-com market around the world saw the option in the online poker cash game lobby and in the “quick lobby.” At launch, the game was offered on 6-max tables, 8-max and 9-max tables, and in heads-up games.
The ante-only option for SHORTDECK was adopted rom the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, which has become a part of the PartyPoker LIVE series. This interpretation eliminates blinds and relies only on antes to spur action on each hand, whereas other formats require a blind on the button and antes on each hand.
According to Team PartyPoker Pro Timofey Kuznetsov, the new addition to the cash game lineup “is the most action-packed poker game out there! Enough of boring waiting and folding; here you can play have the cards dealt in a cash game and still do just fine.”
Simple Rules, New Strategy
Gameplay in short deck poker is relatively simple. All two, three, four, and five cards are removed from the deck, leaving just 36 cards in play. The aces remain and can be low or high, such as low in a A-6-7-8-9 straight or high in a T-J-Q-K-A straight.
Hand rankings are also tweaked in short deck games, as flushes beat full houses.
–Royal flush
–Straight flush
–Four of a kind
–Flush
–Full house
–Straight
–Three of a kind
–Two pair
–One pair
–High card
If you prefer cash games that have plenty of action at the table, you're going to love Short Deck. Twos through fives are removed from the deck to leave you with only 36-cards! It has an ante-only structure too, leading to bigger pots! https://t.co/X4FlUXVIPt 18+. begambleaware pic.twitter.com/Ki24QZk8Zd
— PartyPoker (@partypoker) March 28, 2019
