6+ Hold’em Poker is the "short deck" poker format, and the clue is in the name: every card below a six has been quietly shown the door, leaving a leaner 36-card deck on the table.
It is offered as an exclusive online poker variant, and it has a following among players around the world. If you already know your way around Texas Hold’em, most of it will feel familiar: the betting rounds, the button and the community cards are all present and correct. The differences sit in the deck, the blinds and two of the hand rankings.
Bets, Payouts & Rules
Every hand is dealt from the trimmed 36-card deck, which is shuffled before each hand. From there, play follows Texas Hold’em structure.
- All cards lower than a six are removed from the deck.
- Every player posts an ante, and only the player on the button posts a blind. This is the button blind structure, so there is a single blind per hand instead of the traditional small and big blind setup.
- Action begins with the player seated to the left of the button.
- Betting rounds run pre-flop, flop, turn and river.
- A flush beats a full house in this format.
- Ace, 6, 7, 8, 9 in any suit is classified as a straight.
- All other hand rankings remain the same as standard Texas Hold’em.
In 6+ Hold’em cash games there may be a minimum number of hands to play before you can sit out or leave without picking up a time penalty. Penalties are cumulative and are in place to discourage seat selection by repeatedly joining and leaving many tables.
Features & Bonus Rounds
Button Blind
With every player posting an ante and only the button posting a blind, each hand takes a different shape from the usual two-blind arrangement. The button position carries that obligation every time it comes around.
Adjusted Hand Rankings
Two rankings change in this variant. A flush ranks above a full house, and the five-card holding of Ace, 6, 7, 8, 9 in any suit counts as a straight. Everything else in the ranking order is unchanged.
Familiar Hold’em Flow
Beyond those adjustments, the framework is standard Hold’em, with pre-flop, flop, turn and river rounds to work through in the usual order.
Taste & Feel
This is poker with the low cards politely excused from duty, and the shorter deck gives the table its own personality. The rhythm is stripped back, and the two ranking changes are the things worth keeping front of mind.
For anyone who has played Texas Hold’em, the rules are straightforward to follow, so there is no need to rush the learning part. Take your time with the rankings, and the rest of the table tends to make sense. If short deck is not your thing, plenty of other poker variants sit alongside it.