Holdem Poker Starting Hand Rankings
- Poker Hand Notation. Let’s first become familiar with the common poker starting hand notations you’ll often see in articles from the Upswing Poker Strategy section and elsewhere. All Texas Hold’em starting hands can be separated into two categories: “suited” and “offsuit”.
- Feb 06, 2004 Types of Starting Hands. By Rich McComas (updated Feb 6, 2004) Below, I have categorized thirteen types of starting hands, in order of their value. The statistics are borrowed from www.pokalyzer.com which has ran 700 billion simulated hands to produce their results. High Pairs (80%ers) A high pair is a pair of Aces, Kings, or Queens.
- Texas Hold'em Starting Hand Rankings In this article, we ranked starting hands in Texas Hold'em by the winning chance. Using our poker odds calculator engine, we first calculated the 'fixed-preflop, post-river' winning probability of all 169 types of starting hands.
Table Of Contents
What is Short Deck Poker?
Short-deck poker (also known as six-plus hold'em) is a new variation of traditional Texas hold'em that mostly follows the same rules albeit with a significant difference.
Texas Holdem Heads-Up Preflop Odds. This table was created by enumerating through every possible board and opponent hole card combination for each of the 169 texas holdem preflop starting hands. The numbers are exact to the rounding I used, which was.
Short-deck poker uses a smaller 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck.
Most first heard of short-deck poker after it was introduced among the mix in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.
Play Short-Deck Poker Online6+ Short-deck poker is available online on the following websites:
'>Short-Deck Poker Rules
Before we discover how to play short-deck poker, let's see how to get to the 36-card deck needed to play a game of 6+ hold'em.
The 36-card deck in use in poker short deck is created by removing the 2xs, 3xs, 4xs, and 5xs from the deck (16 cards).
That leaves the 6xs up through the Kxs as well as the Axs.
What about the Aces?
As in regular hold'em, in short-deck poker the aces still count as high or low when making straights.
The lowest possible straight in a game of short-deck poker is Ax9x8x7x6x (think of the ace as essentially replacing the missing 5x).
Poker short-deck is played similarly to regular hold'em.
Each player receive two hole cards and use them in combination with five community cards to create the best possible hand.
A game of short-deck poker features four streets of betting:
- Pre-flop
- Flop
- Turn
- River
However, there are some differences in the poker short-deck poker that you should know about before playing.
Short-Deck Poker Hand Rankings
Short-deck poker can be played according to the exact same rules as regular Texas Hold'em.
The betting can be fixed-limit or no-limit (although most often the game is played no-limit), and the same hand rankings can be used as follows:
| Hand Ranking | Hand Name | Poker Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | High card | Kx6x9x8xQx |
| One pair | K♦K♠5x8xQx | |
| Two pair | K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx | |
| Three-of-a-kind | K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx | |
| Straight | A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦ | |
| Flush | K♦J♦10♦6♦9x | |
| Full house | K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠ | |
| Four-of-a-kind | K♦K♠K♥K♦6x | |
| Straight flush | 6♦7♦8♦9♦ | |
| Highest | Royal flush | 10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦ |
For more info about the hand rankings in poker and which hand wins, visit our guide to poker hands.
Alternative Short-Deck Hand Rankings
Short-deck poker is played often employing a different hand ranking system. Here are the alternate hand rankings for short-deck poker (note the differences in bold):
| Hand Ranking | Hand Name | Poker Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest | High card | Kx6x9x8xQx |
| One pair | K♦K♠5x8xQx | |
| Two pair | K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx | |
| Straight | A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦ | |
| Three of a kind | K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx | |
| Full house | K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠ | |
| Flush | K♦J♦10♦6♦9x | |
| Four of a kind | K♦K♠K♥K♦6x | |
| Straight flush | 6♦7♦8♦9♦ | |
| Highest | Royal flush | 10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦ |
As you can see, following these alternate poker short deck hand rankings a three-of-a-kind beats a straight (instead of vice-versa), and a flush beats a full house (instead of vice-versa).
Why a Different Hand Rankings?
These changes were introduced the because the removal of cards from the standard deck alter the probabilities of making certain hands.
For example, with only nine suited cards (instead of 13), a flush is harder to make in shord-deck poker than in regular hold'em.
Six-Plus Hold'em Variation — The Deal (Fifth Street)
One other popular variation often introduced in six-plus hold'em has to do with the way the river is dealt.
The game can be played according to the same procedure followed in regular hold'em, with the community cards coming in the same way — flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — and betting rounds after each street.
More often, though, instead of a river card being dealt to complete a five-card board, players are each dealt a third hole card instead.
Holdem Poker Starting Hand Rankings Printable
Players then make their five-cardpoker hands by using exactly two of their three hole cards and three of the four community cards.
The building of hands resembles the procedure followed in Omaha poker where players must use two of their four hole cards plus three board cards to make a five-card poker hand.
Short-Deck Poker Basic Strategy
As you might imagine, the removal of low cards and use of the 36-card deck makes it more likely to make higher value hands, a change that tends to introduce more action.
You should adjust your thinking about relative hand values from what they are used to in regular hold'em.
The smaller deck makes it easier to make two-pair hands, which means a hand like top pair-top kicker is no longer as strong in six-plus hold'em as it is in regular hold'em.
Straights and full houses are also easier to make in six-plus hold'em than in the regular version of the game (a reason for the alternate hand rankings).
The odds of hitting certain draws change, too, in short-deck pokr.
Just to highlight one example, filling an open-ended straight draw becomes more likely in poker short-deck.
While you're still looking for the same eight outs there are fewer total cards in the deck, thus increasing the percentage you'll make your straight.
The smaller deck also affects the likelihood of being dealt certain hands. [∫]You're more than twice as likely to get pocket aces[/B] in short-deck poker than you are in regular hold'em!
Finally, players being dealt a third hole card instead of there being a fifth community card obviously affects hand values as well, making it even more likely that players improve their hands — yet another factor that has to be taken into account when calculating odds and considering your final-round betting strategy.
Conclusion
Short-deck poker / 6+ hold'em introduces several exciting twists to traditional Texas hold'em, creating an action-filled alternative that many players are finding especially enjoyable to play.
The changes from regular hold'em aren't terribly complicated, making it easy to new players to learn and play right away.
Short-Deck Poker FAQ
A game of short-deck poker follows the same rules and gameplay as Texas hold'em poker.
The players receive two hole cards and they need to combine them with five community cards to create the best possible five-card hand.
Short-deck poker, however:
- Uses a 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck
- Ranks the hands differently compared to Texas hold'em
Poker Hand Ranking Printable
All the details to know before playing a game of short-deck poker are in this article.
The game of short-deck poker, os six-plus hold'em became famous at the high-stakes games in Macau. Due to the smaller deck, the game makes it more probably for players to hit high-value combinations.
You can play short-deck poker live at most poker festivals. If you are looking for games of short-deck poker online, check out the pokes sites listed on this page.
The removal of some low-value cards from the deck changes the game's basic strategy and the value of different poker hands.
To understand ranges and odds in short-deck poker, have a look at this article.
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Holdem Poker Starting Hand Rankings For Texas Hold Em
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6+ Hold’em is a popular ‘short deck’ poker format that plays much like Texas Hold’em, but with a few exciting differences:
- All cards lower than a six are removed from the deck
- Everyone posts an ante and only the button posts a blind – known as the ‘button blind’
- A flush beats a full-house
Available in cash games, exclusively at PokerStars, 6+ Hold’em is your chance to play an action-packed variant loved by high-stakes players around the world.
Let’s face it – fives, fours, threes, and twos got in the way a little bit in regular Holdem. They were consistent contributors to dry boring flops, blank turns, and no one ever making a hand. 6+ Hold’em (known conventionally as ‘Short Deck’) has been taking the poker world by storm and giving jaded long-term players a fresh breath of life as they gamble it up in this wild format of the game played with a 36-card deck. Six Plus is exactly as it sounds. There is no card in the deck below a six. As you can imagine, this leads to a lot less discoordination and makes it far easier to make a strong hand. When I first saw this game, I recall my first thought being:
‘Wait a second…it’s almost impossible not to make a straight!’
While this is a huge exaggeration. I think it captures the instinctive reaction of most players. Regular Holdem players must adapt quickly in 6+ Hold’em, migrating from a world where good hands are relatively rare, to one where they come along much more frequently. We shall get into the strategic effects of this shift in a future article. Today’s job is to get our heads around what hand rankings and rules have changed and why these changes were necessary to make 6+ Hold’em the harmoniously enjoyable game that it has become.
Blind & Antes
6+ Hold’em uses a ‘button blind’ structure: every player posts an ante, and the player seated at the button position is the only one who posts a blind – meaning there is only one blind per hand, rather than traditional small/big blind format.
The action starts with the player seated to the left of the button. Each hand then plays out according to Texas Hold’em rules, with pre-flop, flop, turn and river betting rounds.
If you’ve played Texas Hold’em games before, the rules of 6+ Hold’em are easy to follow.
Hand Rankings
The table below illustrates how the hand rankings have changed in 6+ Hold’em to accommodate the shorter deck:
Holdem Poker Starting Hand Rankings Chart
The Top Hands
There is no change at the very top of the hand ranking chart. While you will make a straight flush and a royal flush more often in 6+ Hold’em than in Holdem, it is still very hard to make these hands relative to the other hands. Four of a Kind is a hand you will see much more often than in Holdem since there are now 9 ranks of card instead of thirteen but is still rare compared with other 6+ Hold’em holdings.
Flushes vs. Boats
The main change to the hierarchy is that Flushes now beat Full Houses (boats). This makes sense and to see why think of it this way.
In regular Holdem, there are four 9s in the deck, but there are also four of twelve other ranks of card. One in thirteen cards is a nine in regular Holdem. In 6+ Hold’em, there are only nine ranks of card and so one in nine cards is a 9. If you are dealt 99, any card in the deck goes from having a 2/50 = 4% chance of being a 9 to having a 2/34 = 6% chance. In 6+ Hold’em, it is 50% easier to find those set making cards. In fact, in 6+ Hold’em you will fail to flop a set (32/34 x 31/33 x 30/32) = 83% of the time. This means that we flop a set 17% of the time! After we have done the hard part, and hit one of our two cards to make a set, it is much easier for the board to then pair since sixteen of the cards that would prevent it from pairing in regular holdem (the deuces through fives) do not exist. Those cards really did spoil all the fun.
As for flushes, they are sadly no easier to make and come along less often than a full house does. While there are less ranks of cards in the 6+ Hold’em deck, there are still the same number of suits. Had we also removed all of the diamonds from the deck, we would have made flushes more likely. As it is, every card still has a one in four chance of being a spade (13/52 = 9/36).
One thing that has changed about flushes in short deck is that when a you hold a card that blocks an opponent from making a flush, you will block a greater portion of his possible flush cards. The board is J♣8♣6♣10♠Q♥ and we hold A♥K♣. In regular Holdem, we would remove one of ten remaining clubs, leaving Villain with nine clubs to instead of ten to form a flush. In other words, there are 10% less clubs in the deck for him to make a flush with when we hold this blocker. In 6+ Hold’em, there were only six possible clubs and we reduce this number to five due to our K♣ blocker. We have now made it 17% harder for Villain to hold a flush by removing a sixth of the clubs in the deck. Blockers matter more in 6+ Hold’em in just about every way due to the smaller deck, not just when it comes to blocking flushes.
Straights vs. Trips
While it is easier to flop three of a kind in 6+ Hold’em than it is to flop a straight, it is easier to make a straight by the river. There are only 9 ranks of cards remaining in the deck so if the board doesn’t double-pair, there will be straights everywhere. A board like K♠J♠10♣8♥6♥ is scary at the best of times in regular Holdem. In 6+ Hold’em, there are no deuces through fives to dilute the number of straights in each player’s range. The result is that it is incredibly easy to hold a straight in 6+ Hold’em. Pre-flop you will be dealt [97, Q9, AQ] 48/630 times. In Regular Holdem you will be dealt these hands 48/1326 times. While there are some versions of short deck Holdem where three of a kind beats a straight, this is not the case in 6+ Hold’em and so connected cards are very powerful. This format of the game encourages action by providing an incentive to play connected cards, which come along very frequently.
We should also note that there is a rather unconventional looking straight available in 6+ Hold’em. A6789 is a low straight in 6+ Hold’em just as A2345 is a low straight in regular Holdem. Look out for this one, it can really tak you by surprise if you are not careful.
Conclusion
6+ Hold’em is a different game. Some of the rules are very different, but as we have seen, these adaptations have been necessary to ensure that the game is fair and balanced. Now that we are acquainted with the different hand rankings and hand formation rules, it is time to get stuck into some strategy. In my next article on 6+ Hold’em, I will be discussing pre-flop hand selection.
Hold'em Starting Hand Rankings
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