Top 10 Beginners Tips for 6+ Holdem / Short Deck Poker
The tips below are general guidelines for the game Six Plus Hold’em / Shortdeck to get you started.
Volume 1 (First-in)
Beginners and experienced players alike are often unsure of what hands should be played preflop. In Six Plus Hold’em where hand equities run close it’s not so obvious if a hand is strong enough to be played or not.
Poker HUD and tracking for 6+ Holdem / Short Deck Poker
If you’ve given Six Plus Hold’em a shot at e.g. PokerStars you might have noticed that your software for tracking like Hold’em Manager 2 or PokerTracker doesn’t support the new game properly. If so, it might be a good time to change to one of the next generation of HUD and poker tracking software.
Raise Sizes Pre-Flop
Since Six Plus Hold’em is usually played in such a different format, beginners can often make the mistakes of using their opening sizes of a regular NLH game in 6+. A solid strategy for raise sizes isn’t too apparent. How big should you raise first-in or when 3-betting? When to limp/shove?
Shortdeck rules and tips: What you need to know
Before you sit down to play, you should find out which rules and gameplay the poker room offers. Rarely applied is the rule of trips beat a straight, but since its not very popular, you will have a hard time finding a poker room that goes by this rule.
Preflop Starting Hands adjustment
When choosing the hands you play and how to play them, you need to pay attention to the changes of the relative hand strengths.
Play your draws aggresively
In Texas Hold’em you often run into the problem of still being a clear underdog even when holding a good draw on the flop. In 6+ Hold’em, you are in a much better position with strong draws.
Don’t overplay top pair/top kicker
Of course, top pair/top kicker is often still the best hand, but nonetheless it will be more likely now a) that you are already beat and b) that your opponent has more outs.
As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t move all-in anymore with a top pair on the flop and you usually shouldn’t bet it for value anymore on the river.
With a 36 card deck, there are simply more higher value hands possible such as two pair and straights occur in almost every hand especially if it’s multi-way. This being said, your top pair will be stronger if you are heads up, opposed to when its three or four way to the flop.
You will have to pay attention to the boards run-out if you are going for value with top pair on the river.
Let’s have a little Quiz to find out in which scenario we should go for value on the river, considering all hands are a heads up pot.
Hero has AQ and there are no flushes possible.
Board 1: A-9-T-9-7
Board 2: A-J-9-6-T
Board 3: A-9-J-8-K
Mouse over for the answer:
The answer is Board 1! While its not always this simple, its a more easy decision to value bet your top pair when the board pairs to the 2nd or 3rd lowest card, since it’s not very likely that our opponent called us down with 2nd or 3rd pair. Also on Board 2 and 3 there are very few hands that we beat with our top pair, making this a more easy check back scenario.
