Although I’ll forever be a 52-card poker player at heart, it’s always fun to take on the challenge of learning a new poker variant. That’s why I recently decided to take a break from my usual grind to hop into the Short Deck Poker (SDP) streets for the very first time. And while I am the furthest thing from an expert, my ADHD hyper-focus did drive me pretty far down the SDP rabbit hole, helping me learn some lessons that will hopefully be of help to anyone who would like to take a shot at this fun poker variant. Here they are.
The Basics
First, for anyone unfamiliar with the mechanics of the game, rather than the standard 52-card version of No Limit Hold’em (NLH), in Short Deck Poker all cards 2-5 are removed from the deck, leaving 36 cards left to play with. This has the effect of creating far more “made hands” compared to NLH and thus a lot more action.
Two other key differences are that a flush now beats a full house (since it’s much harder to make a flush with 4 cards of each suit being absent) and the ace plays as both high and low (meaning A6789 is the lowest straight possible).
Lastly, instead of the usual small and big blinds of NLH, in SDP every player at the table antes one blind to start, with the button being forced to contribute one additional blind to the pot. This means that in a six-handed game, for example, each pot begins with 7 blinds in the middle, giving players lots of incentive to get in the action.
What To Expect
When playing SDP, prepare to see a ton more preflop limping than you would in traditional NLH. Since hand equities run much closer together, the preflop advantage for all hands is far less significant. This means that if you treat your hands like NLH and do a lot of raising and isolating preflop, you will find yourself in far too many unfavorable scenarios postflop. To illustrate the point, in SDP AK is only a 44 percent underdog to KK, a full 10 percentage points higher than in NLH.
Another key difference you should expect to see at the SDP tables is a lot more overbetting and all-ins. This happens for a number of reasons, including the previously mentioned close-running hand equities, to extract value from inexperienced SDP players who overvalue traditional NLH holdings, as well as one reason I’ll discuss below.
Intro To SDP Strategy
One of the most important considerations for new SDP players is the power of draws.
In fact, one wild statistic to keep in mind is that rather than multiplying your outs by 4 and 2 on the flop and turn to find your likelihood of hitting it, you can multiply them by 6 and 3 in SDP.
With far fewer “bricks” in the deck, draws, and particularly straight draws of the open-ended variety (OESD) are far more valuable than they are in NLH. To put it into perspective, in NLH you have 31.5% odds of hitting your open-ender by the river while in SDP you have a whopping 45%. This is yet another reason you’re likely to see a lot of overbetting in SDP, since you are able to play your straight draws much more aggressively and still be in comparatively decent shape when called.
On a related note, the value of connected hands such as 89, 9T, JT, JQ is significantly higher than it is in NLH since they’ll flop at least an open-ender far more frequently (9T and JT lead the way, flopping an OESD 19% of the time).
As such, these hands make good candidates for limped pots, as well as to potentially balance your raising range in late position. Just make sure not to overdo the latter or you’ll start getting played back at much more aggressively and be forced to fold your valuable equity.
And finally, one thing to note is that with all the big bets and seemingly nonstop action in SDP, it’s easy to get carried away and start flinging your chips around. Similarly to a game like Pot Limit Omaha, with postflop equities running relatively close, getting outdrawn will happen much more frequently than NLH players are used to. And if you think going card dead in NLH is tilting, try being dealt nothing but K8 and Q6 for an hour in a game that’s literally designed for action. In these moments, it’s absolutely critical not to buy into the hype of the game and stay disciplined in your strategy.
Ultimately, my experience with Short Deck Poker has led to some of the most exciting and mentally stimulating sessions I’ve had since I first learned NLH many years ago. So, if you decide to join me in the SDP waters, remember to wade in slowly, get a good feel for the intricacies of the game, and don’t let the wild action pull you away from playing a smart game.
Good luck!

Will Watson is a writer, poker player and enthusiastic student of the human mind.
Contact me at: willwatsonpoker@gmail.com