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The 5 Irresistible Reasons to Play Shorthanded Poker (and 3 big negatives) Shorthanded poker games have become very popular with online and offline players, so you need to be aware of necessary strategy modifications. Shorthanded poker is a popular variation used in.
All-in – 'betting' or 'calling' with all of your chips. After going 'all-in', you can't participate in the next rounds of betting for that hand. If any more bets are placed after someone calls 'all-in', a side pot is created.
Ante – chips put into the pot before a hand is dealt. 'Ante' is usually used in tournaments to speed up the game.
Back Door – a hand that is made using cards drawn from the 'turn' or 'river'. If you use both the 'turn' and 'river' cards, then your hand is called a 'Runner-Runner'.
Bad beat – losing a hand (when someone was thought to be the favorite) before or after the flop has been dealt.
Bankroll – the amount of chips that you have in your account. The size of your 'bankroll' determines how high of stakes you can bet.
Broadway – a deal that could potentially complete 'a nuts straight' (AKQJT), for example: KQ.
Big Blind – a forced bet that's placed by the player who sits to the left of the dealer. It also determines the stakes for the table, the maximum 'buy-in', and the minimum raise amount.
Big stack – a player with at least 100 BB in the cash games or that has an above average stack in the tournament.
Big stack bully – the player with the biggest stack at the table that uses it to his advantage to bully the other players
Bluff – betting with a very weak hand but implying that you have a monster hand so that you can win the pot without a showdown.
Board – all of the community cards on the table.
Button – the button (a small, round disk) is given to the player who bets last after the river is dealt (in other words, the dealer), therefore he/she has the best position at the poker table.
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Buy-in – the amount of chips paid for entering the game, both in tournaments and cash games.
Call – calling the bet and putting the same amount of chips into the pot.
Calling station – a passive player that wants to see the flop and other streets as often as possible, even if his hand is very weak.
Check – if no one bets before you, you can check and pass to next player, without betting.
Check Raise – a play in which after checking on your turn, someone raises the next bet. Usually used to bait players to put more into the pot, while holding a very strong hand.
Coin flip – a situation in which both players have very similar odds of winning the hand, for example AK vs QQ.
Combo draw – drawing for multiple hands at the same time, for example: a flush and a straight.
Community cards – the cards that are face up on the table and belong to all of players.
Connectors – two cards that are one apart in rank, for example: 8 and 9.
Crying call – a desperate call when you are almost certain you have the worst hand.
Cut off – the position at the table that is to the right of the dealer. One of the last positions taken.
Dominant hand – a hand that is dominated by your opponent, usually by holding one of your outs and a higher kicker, for example: AK dominates KQ.
Donkey – a very weak player that is mostly losing.
Draw – the possibility of greatly improving your hand and creating a monster hand with certain cards that might be dealt on later streets.
Drawing Dead – a player that can't possibly improve his hand and win the pot.
Early position – usually the first three positions at the table, the worst positions to be in.
Fish – a very weak player that can only win with luck, not skill.
Flop – the first three community cards.
Flush draw – whenever a player can improve his hand to flush on the later street, he has a flush draw.
Fold – giving up the pot after a bet and mucking your cards.
Freeroll – free-to-enter tournament, a great way to build up your initial bankroll.
Freeze-out – a type of tournament without re-buys. When you lose all of your chips, you are eliminated.
Full ring – tables with 9 or 10 players.
GF – good fold. Used whenever one of the players makes a very good fold.
GG – good game, a greeting used to thank others for the game.
Gutshot – a draw in which we need exactly one card to complete a straight. For example: AKQT needs one of the jacks to complete a 'broadway'.
Heads-Up – a 'one-on-one' poker game.
Isolating – raising to minimize the amount of players involved in a hand, making it more likely to able to play 'Heads-Up'
Kicker – one of the cards in your hand that isn't used to complete your hand, but it could determine whether or not you win the pot.
Late position – 'button', 'cut-off', and the position to the right of these two, which makes them the best positions the table.
Leak – making the same mistake over and over that causes a player to lose more chips in a long run.
Limp – calling the 'big blind', a very passive play.
Loose – a term used to describe a player that plays a lot of hands, even the weak ones.
Maniac – an overly aggressive player.
Middle position – one of the middle positions at the table.
Monster – very strong hand that is a heavy favorite to win the pot.
Muck – A pile of all the folded cards, or to not show your hand at the showdown when you have been beaten.
Nh – nice hand.
Nuts – the best possible hand in certain situations.
Offsuit – pocket cards of different colors.
Open Ended Straight Draw – a hand that can complete a 'straight draw' using higher or lower sequential cards, for example: 'KQJT' can have either an 'ace' or a '9' added to them to form a 'straight draw'.
Out – a card that could come up on the table which would greatly improve your hand and let you win the pot.
Overbet – betting a very high amount that greatly exceeds the pot.
Overcards – pocket cards that are higher than any other card on the table, for example: AK with the 6,4,5 flop.
Overpair – a pocket pair that is higher than any pairs on the table, for example: JJ with the T74 flop.
Passive – a way of playing in which the player is mostly checking and calling, allowing the others to take the initiative.
Pocket Cards – two cards dealt to you by the dealer.
Pot limit – a type of poker game in which the maximum bet is the same size as the pot.
Pre-flop – the first round of betting, before the first community cards are shown.
Rags – worthless cards, usually after the flop or during later streets.
Rainbow – community cards that are different colors and make it impossible to form a 'flush draw'.
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Re-raise – raising a raise. A very aggressive tactic, usually used when a player has a strong hand.
Rebuy – adding chips to your stack after losing some.
River – the final and fifth community card.
Satellite – a tournament in which the prizepool are tickets to better tournaments.
Short stack – a player who doesn't have very many chips at the table.
Showdown – the final stage of the game, when players reveal their cards to determine the winner.
Sit and go – a tournament that begins when the required amount of players registers.
Sit out – taking a break from the game.
Short handed – tables with a maximum of 6 players.
Slowplay – a passive play used by a player with a very strong hand to bait other players into putting more in the pot and to get more value.
Small Blind – a forced bet, equal to half of a 'big blind', placed by player to the right of the player who executed a 'big blind'.
Suited – pocket cards of the same suit. For example: AJ of diamonds.
Suited connectors – connectors of the same suit, for example: the 8,9 of clubs.
Stack – the amount of chips you have on the table.
Steal – raising from a late position with a weak hand to force 'blinds' to fold.
Straight draw – a hand that can be improved to form a 'straight'.
Tight – a way of playing where the player 'raises' and 'calls' with only strong hands and folds his/her weak ones. This is one of the most effective strategies.
Tilt – a player's mental state after losing one or more hands in a very unlucky way. Having the 'tilt' can cause you to play much worse and taking a break to cool off is strongly advised.
Top Pair Top Kicker – a hand in which you have the possible pair on the table with the best kicker. For example: AJ on J28 flop.
Turn – the fourth card put on the table by the dealer.
Ty – thank you.
Under The Gun – the first player to act 'pre-flop'.
Underdog – a hand that is dominated by another hand and has very low odds of winning. For example: KK vs AA.
Value bet – a bet in which the goal is to increase the size of a pot and take more chips from other players while holding a very strong hand.
Wheel – the lowest straight possible: A2345.
WP – well played.
What’s Short-Deck Poker?
Poker has a problem.
Short-Deck is the answer.
Also known as, Triton Hold’em, Short-Deck has its roots in Asia, where successful businessmen, and poker lovers, Paul Phua and Richard Yong, experimented by removing a few cards from the standard 52-card deck, increasing the likelihood of strong pre-flop hands.
Out went the 2s.
Then the 3s.
Then the 4s.
Finally, the 5s.
The net result, was a 36-card deck – a Short-Deck – and the outcome was incredible.
One of the problems that amateurs have when playing superior players, especially professionals, is they play with a broad range of starting hands because their primary focus in the game is to enjoy themselves, and you can’t do that if you fold. The better player begins with a narrower range of hands, and this disparity means the amateur ends up with the worst of it more often than the pro.
Folding isn’t fun.
Neither is losing all the time.
Paul and Richard found that by removing the lower half of the cards, they increased the likelihood that an amateur would receive two very playable starting hands.
As the former World Series of Poker (WSOP), Player of the Year, Ben Lamb, mentions during his first experience of Short-Deck during a 2018 Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea.
“The first thing you notice when you sit down to play Short-Deck is the equities run much closer than No-Limit Hold’em.”
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And the closer you get, the more often a weaker player wins, and the more likely he or she is to remain in the game. At a time when poker’s ecosystem is under pressure from advancements in technology and available poker resources, with players getting improving at a rate never before witnessed, Short-Deck is fixing a leak that is in danger of drowning the game.
The Rules of Short-Deck Poker
The variant featured in Triton Poker Series events is called Short-Deck, Ante-Only. There is no small or big blind, and instead everyone has to post an ante that increases each level in the same way blinds do in a standard game of No-Limit Hold’em. The player on the button posts a double ante.
Each player begins with three bullets.
Stack sizes can vary, but in the early events at Montenegro and Jeju in South Korea, each bullet was worth 100,000 in chips. And loading these three bullets into the chamber is important, as Ben Lamb explains.
“You have to put your stack in more often than the other games. That’s why they give you three bullets, that’s smart.”
Like No-Limit Hold’em, the player to the left of the button begins the action by calling the size of the double ante, raising or folding. The action continues in sequence as per No-Limit Hold’em rules. Post flops actions plays the same.
Here’s Ben Lamb again to give you a few tips.
“You need to see a lot of flops. There are more passive ways to play the game, like limping, but this an action game. Stay away from dominated hands. Recognise the difference between shallow and deep-stacked play.”
During the early action, you can be forgiven for thinking you have walked into a game of deuces wild. All-in and calls are common, the action is crazy fast, and there is a lot of laughing and joking around the tables. But once the game gets deep, you need to switch gears, and this is why the game suits both skilled and weaker players alike.
And the best thing about Short-Deck is it’s a new game. It’s perfect for local home games where you can experiment with the rules and formats, while keeping an eye on the Triton Livestream to see how the Godfathers of the game continue to evolve.
Short-Deck Poker Hand Ranking (Best to Worst)
Royal flush
Straight flush
Four of a kind
Flush
Full house
Straight
Three of a kind
Two pair
One pair
High card
It’s important to remember that a flush beats a full house. That’s the only hand ranking difference when compared to No-Limit Hold’em.
One of the features of Short-Deck, is unlike Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) where players have to learn to use four hole cards, Short-Deck is more suitable for people who have grown up playing the more familiar No-Limit Hold’em.
A few things to note:
Pocket aces come along 1 in 105 hands, not one in 220, but they are cracked way more often.
Straight draws arrive on the flop 48% of the time, not 31%.
The odds of flopping a set are 18%, and not 12%.
The other change to be aware of is the role of the ace. As in No-Limit Hold’em the ace plays both low and high when creating straights, meaning it becomes a five when 6,7,8,9 is on the board.
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Triton Poker Series Spearheads Short-Deck Poker Trend
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After playing Short-Deck in their local home game, and seeing the improvements in sociability and joy firsthand, both Paul and Richard decided to test the new variant at a professional level.
The Triton Poker Series was born.
Taking place in some of the most salubrious destinations around the world, the Triton Poker Series is a high stakes series that pits some of the wealthiest amateurs against the very best professionals in the game.
In 2018, at the Triton Poker Series at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Montenegro, Paul and Richard hosted a HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) and a HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only event, put the word out, and hoped they would come.
Come they did.
The most feared and respected poker player in the modern game, Phil Ivey, beat 61 entrants to win the HKD 4,749,200 (USD 604,992) first prize in the HKD 250,000 (USD 32,000) version, and Jason Koon defeated 103 entrants to bank the HKD 28,102,000 (USD 3,579,836) in the HKD 1,000,000 (USD 127,000) version, in only his second ever Short-Deck event.
Not only did the amateurs love the game, so did the pros, and so did the poker community, who tuned in to watch the livestream in their droves. There had not been this much buzz over a format of poker since the Texas Road Gamblers decided to add the words ‘All-In’ to the game of Limit Hold’em.
Paul Phua and Richard Yong had achieved the remarkable.
Short Deck became the antidote to a game that was in danger of turning into a robotic, emotionless, and dull experience.
“People who fold too much are going to get eaten up, you have to be prepared to gamble,” Ben Lamb.
But how do you play this game?
The Future of Short-Deck Poker
The Triton Poker Series Livestream numbers show that this is a variant of the game that the poker community adores. It turns quite a boring spectator sport into one of the most illuminating.
All sports and games have their magic moments.
The goal.
The punch.
The all-in and call.
There are more swings than a kid’s playground, and for this reason, Short-Deck poker is going to be here to stay, but where does it take it’s seat in poker’s landscape.
Back to Ben Lamb.
“It will grow, especially in America. I am going to try and help that happen by running games at ARIA and my local game in LA,” says Lamb, who played the variant in Jeju, for the first time, and fell in love with it. “It fits a niche. Amateurs want to enjoy themselves. Pot Limit Omaha cash games tend to be more fun for amateur players, but Short-Deck takes it to another level. More gambling. More fun. The edges are smaller, and that’s a great thing for the long term ecosystem of poker. Just because your a pro it doesn’t mean you don’t like to gamble. I love to flip and gamble.”
Poker’s purpose is to enthrall, enlighten and entertain.
Somewhere along the way we forgot that.
Short-Deck won’t let us make the same mistake twice.
Suddenly, it feels like poker has no problem at all.