PokerStars Appears Ready to Introduce Short Deck Poker Soon

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When a game starts to become really big amongst high stakes live pros, odds are that you will start seeing it soon at online poker rooms. That’s what happened with games like Badugi and now it appears that Short Deck Hold’em will be making its way to PokerStars. According to an article on PokerFuse, it appears that PokerStars may be launching 6+ Hold’em sometime in the near future.

PokerStars Pushing 6+ Hold’em Elements to Clients

According to an article released by PokerFuse on Friday, it appears that PokerStars is beginning to push out elements for a 6+ Hold’em game, likely a new addition to the novelty games offered by the website. PokerStars is already famous for releasing games such as Showtime Hold’em and Unfold Hold’em. Now it appears that Short Deck Hold’em is making its way to the World’s Largest Poker Site.

It is unclear at this time where the games will available or whether this is a short-term addition or a permanent feature. Considering the popularity of the game amongst pro players and that several casinos are now experimenting with the game, we wouldn’t be surprised if this game became a permanent addition to the PokerStars lineup.

If it is released like other novelty variants, it will probably appear in a limited market to start with before being released globally. Regardless, this will now give players a chance to play the game at limits they can afford rather than only at the highest stakes.

Refresher on Short Deck Poker

If you have been following along with all the latest poker news in recent months, you probably have heard about Short Deck Poker. For the rest of you, Short Deck Hold’em is Texas Hold’em played with a 36 card deck as opposed to a full 52 card deck.

All deuces through fives are removed from the deck and the ace swings to make both Broadway and a A6789 straight. Since sixteen cards have been removed, hand rankings for this game are different than standard poker games.

Looks like #shortdeckholdem is making its way online. Who wants to find a way to get these hands working with HEM2 and PT4?

— James "Pman" Urbanic (@jurbanic95) September 4, 2018

For example, three of a kind is higher than a straight in this game. Also, a flush is the fourth most powerful hand in this game, beating a full house. Odd also change dramatically in this game. For example, the odds of flopping a set with a pocket pair increase to 18% rather than 12%. Also, the odds of completing an open-ended draw by the river is 48%, meaning that you’re almost flipping when you play an open-ended draw after the flop.

Is Short Deck Poker The Next Big Thing?

Poker is ever-evolving and change is inevitable. For example, in 2006 it was hard to find a Badugi game outside of the highest stakes. As the game became more popular in higher stakes, players at lower stakes started to demand it and soon online poker sites started carrying it.

Now that short deck holdem is hyping we’ll rename our ”limited decks” innovation to ”gradually shorter decks holdem”

— Kim Lund (@InfiniteEdgeKim) May 19, 2018

That’s what is what’s beginning to happen with Short Deck Poker. Various high stake tournament series are beginning to offer the variant, including the upcoming Poker Masters at the Aria starting this weekend. Phil Ivey won over $2 million in Short Deck poker tournaments earlier this year, including the taking down an event at Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro for his first victory in three years.

The game is definitely popular amongst pro players, with many trying out the game and praising it as being a fun change of pace over standard Texas Hold’em. It now appears that PokerStars is going to give everyone the chance to try out this exciting new game. If it proves popular, then this is probably just the beginning of what could be a Short Deck Poker Boom.