Rules of Poker · Chapter 22 · 2026 edition
Short Deck, also called Six-Plus Hold'em or 6+ Hold'em, is Texas Hold'em played with the twos, threes, fours and fives taken out of the deck. With fewer cards, some hands get easier to make and others harder, so the hand rankings change, and the game is usually dealt with antes instead of blinds. One part of the ranking still differs from room to room: whether a straight beats three of a kind. Settle that before you deal.
Anything not covered here is as in Texas Hold'em (Texas Hold'em).
All the 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s are removed before the shuffle, leaving the six to the ace in four suits, 36 cards in all. The ace is still both the highest card and, in a straight, the lowest (22.11).
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck structure sheet and rules; GGPoker, "6+ Short Deck".
Because those cards don't belong in the game, finding one in a Short Deck deck means the deck is wrong. Under the TDA's rules a deck holding a card that isn't standard for the game is fouled, and the TDA names the 2 to 5 in short deck as the example: play stops and the bets are returned, however far the hand has gone. What happens to a fouled deck in general is The deal and misdeals.
Source: TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 37-E.
Big games spread Short Deck at six-player tables. The 2021 World Series of Poker short-deck event played six-handed, with a seven-handed final table, and GGPoker's tables seat six. With 36 cards, a nine-player table uses 18 hole cards and five board cards, so a full ring is possible but uncommon.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck structure sheet; GGPoker, "6+ Short Deck".
An earlier form called Manila was played in Australia and among high-stakes players in Asia. The modern game took off in Macau's high-stakes cash games around 2014, was promoted by Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan, and reached television through the Triton Poker series in 2018. The WSOP added a short-deck event, and online rooms followed. Card Player reports that its popularity peaked in the late 2010s.
Source: Wikipedia, "Six-plus hold 'em"; Card Player, "How to Play Short Deck Poker" (Ricky Davies, 2025).
Each player gets two cards face down, and the board is dealt three, one and one with a betting round after each, exactly as in Hold'em (20.2, 20.3).
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules, "The play of the game".
The usual structure has no small or big blind. Every player posts the same ante, and the player on the button posts twice that. The WSOP's example: at 200-400, each player antes 200 and the button puts in 400. Six-handed that is 1,400 in the pot before anyone acts. PokerNews describes this ante-only format as the most popular, and Card Player says blinds are rare outside casual home games. Some games are still dealt with ordinary blinds, or blinds and an ante (22.16).
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules, "The play of the game"; PokerNews, "Short Deck Poker Rules: How to Play" (Mo Nuwwarah, 2019); Card Player, "How to Play Short Deck Poker".
With no blinds, the first player to act is the one to the left of the button, and the button acts last. Calling means matching the button's double ante. On the flop, turn and river the order is Hold'em's (20.6).
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules, "The play of the game"; PokerNews, "Short Deck Poker Rules: How to Play".
No-limit is the usual structure: the WSOP's short-deck event, for example, was no-limit. We found no published rules for a pot-limit or fixed-limit version, though nothing in the game prevents either. Betting structures in general are Betting structures.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck structure sheet.
Your hand is the best five cards from your two and the five on the board, using two, one or none of your own (20.10). Only the ranking of the result is different.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules; GGPoker, "6+ Short Deck".
With only nine cards of each suit, a flush is harder to make than a full house. The WSOP, GGPoker, PokerNews, pokerfuse, and pagat.com's note on stripped decks rank a flush above a full house. Four of a kind and straight flushes rank higher.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules, "The rank of hands"; GGPoker, "6+ Short Deck"; pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Short pack".
With no 2 to 5, the ace connects to the six: A-6-7-8-9 is a straight, and it is the lowest one, counting as nine-high. So 10-9-8-7-6 beats it. There is no straight with a five in it. The same goes for a straight flush: A-6-7-8-9 of one suit is the lowest.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules; pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Short pack"; PokerNews, "Short-Deck Poker: How to Play 6+ Hold'em".
This is the one ranking question without a single answer.
Why both exist: with five cards from a 36-card deck a straight is rarer than three of a kind, but with seven cards to choose from, three of a kind is the rarer hand. Example: the board is 9-9-8-7-K. One player holds A-9 for three nines, the other 10-6 for a ten-high straight. Under (a) the straight wins; under (b) the three nines win.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules, "The rank of hands"; pokerfuse, "Short Deck"; Card Player, "How to Play Short Deck Poker"; PokerListings, "How to Play Short Deck Hold'em" (2025); PokerNews, "Short Deck Poker Rules: How to Play"; Wikipedia, "Six-plus hold 'em".
With seven cards you sometimes hold both a straight and three of a kind. Your hand is the best five cards under the order in force, so under (a) of 22.12 it is a straight, and under (b) it is three of a kind. Example: you hold 8-7 and the board is 8-8-9-10-J: you have three eights and a seven-to-jack straight. The showdown order, ties and the odd chip are as in Hold'em; see Showdown and Pots.
Source: WSOP, 2021 Event #29 $10,000 Short Deck rules; pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Standard poker hands".
The common showdown mistakes come from reading the hand by Hold'em rules:
As in every game the cards speak (Showdown): a hand is read by the table's ranking, not by what its player announces.
Source: pagat.com, Poker hand ranking, "Short pack"; TDA 2026 (Version 1.1), Rule 13; PokerListings, "How to Play Short Deck Hold'em".
Since rooms differ on the straight and trips, a home game should state its order in its house rules, along with the ante (or blinds) it uses. Both PokerListings and Card Player tell players to check the house's rankings before playing.
Source: PokerListings, "How to Play Short Deck Hold'em"; Card Player, "How to Play Short Deck Poker".
Some games keep Hold'em's small and big blind, or blinds plus an ante, rather than the button ante. pokerfuse notes that many sites have used traditional blinds, and Card Player that home games often do. With blinds, the betting order is Hold'em's (20.5).
Source: pokerfuse, "Short Deck"; Card Player, "How to Play Short Deck Poker"; PokerNews, "Short Deck Poker Rules: How to Play".
Rules of Poker, 2026 edition, by MyHomeGame. Free to copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. How to cite and reuse.