Short Deck Online Cash Game Now Available on PokerStars

PokerStars is joining the latest craze in the world of poker.

The online poker giant has just rolled out its own version of online short deck hold’em, a poker variant that is rapidly becoming popular among players due to new strategies and a lot more action involved in playing the game.

Six-max tables of 6+ hold’em can now be played at the .NET, .EE and .DK clients. Those playing at other PokerStars sites will not be left out as the game will also be available at .EU, .SE, .UK and .COM from January 16.

In playing short deck, all cards numbered two to five are removed leaving the total deck at 36 cards. This results in a number of changes to the game’s hand frequencies and rankings. It also adopts a different blind structure along with new strategy and dynamics.

The most notable difference of short deck from the regular no-limit hold’em games is in the hand rankings where a flush beats a full house. Flushes are harder to hit in 6+ hold’em in the absence of deuces and fives. Sets also happen more often with only nine card ranks.

An ace can be high or low in both short deck and regular hold’em, but when played low, aces act as a 5 and thus in short deck, the lowest straight is A-6-7-8-9.

Due to its structure, short deck is being widely played in the high-stakes community. Among famous high-rollers who play the game are Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. The game is also featured in tournaments, such as the Triton Super High Roller Jeju.

Making Short Deck Available to Everyone

While short deck initially attracted high-stakes players, there have been efforts to make the game available to players of every bankroll. That is what PokerStars did as it launched the new poker variant, giving players the opportunity to enjoy the game at affordable stakes.

Chris Straghalis, Director of Poker Product at PokerStars, said they are offering a wide range of stakes that will hopefully draw more players, not just the high rollers. With 6+ inducing more action and often producing big hands, PokerStars is excited to add the new poker variant to its offerings. The company is looking forward to receiving feedback from players on the new game.

The new short deck games can be found on the lobby’s 6+ tab and PokerStars ambassadors will hold streaming sessions on Twitch to give players some tips and advice in playing the game.