Short deck is a different game, and the numbers prove it
Take the twos, threes, fours and fives out of the deck and you have Short Deck, also sold as 6+ Hold'em and the game the Triton high-roller series made famous. Thirty-six cards instead of fifty-two changes everything that an ordinary Hold'em odds calculator assumes. There are more straights, because any five ranks in a row are closer together; there are fewer flushes, because each suit has only nine cards; and the hand ranking is adjusted for it, with a flush beating a full house. Pocket aces are still the best starting hand, but they are a 75% favourite over kings rather than 82%, and against a suited connector they are closer to a coin flip than most people believe until they see it.
This calculator deals from the real 36-card deck, scores every hand under the short deck ranking, and enumerates every possible board. With four cards known there are 32 left and 201,376 boards, so every preflop match-up here is exact, in well under a second.
The ranking this calculator uses
From the top: straight flush, four of a kind, flush, full house, straight, three of a kind, two pair, pair, high card. The flush moves above the full house because with nine cards per suit a flush is harder to make than a boat. The ace plays low in the A-6-7-8-9 straight, which replaces the A-2-3-4-5 wheel and is the lowest straight in the game; it loses to 6-7-8-9-T.
One rule varies by room. The original Asian cash games ranked three of a kind above a straight, on the grounds that straights are so common; PokerStars 6+, GGPoker and the Triton series kept straights above trips, and that is the default here. If your game uses the other rule, tick Three of a kind beats a straight above the hands field and every result on the page is recomputed with it. The difference is not cosmetic: AKs against JJ moves by more than two points.
Worked examples, computed by this engine
| Match-up | Equity | Method | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA vs KKAhAs vs KhKs | 75.02% / 24.98% | Exact · 201k deals | Load → |
| AKs vs JJAhKh vs JcJd | 53.52% / 46.48% | Exact · 201k deals | Load → |
| AKo vs 98sAcKd vs 9h8h | 53.81% / 46.19% | Exact · 201k deals | Load → |
| JTs vs AAJhTh vs AcAd | 37.45% / 62.55% | Exact · 201k deals | Load → |
| Set vs flush draw on the flopQcQd vs AhKh on Qh7h9c | 64.78% / 35.22% | Exact · 406 deals | Load → |
| Open-ender vs top pair, flopJhTh vs AcKd on Kc9d8s | 51.97% / 48.03% | Exact · 406 deals | Load → |
Compare these with the Hold'em figures and the shape of the game shows itself. Aces over kings drops seven points. Ace-king suited against jacks becomes a genuine favourite rather than an underdog. A set against a flush draw on the flop is 65-35 instead of 75-25, because the flush draw has fewer outs but the deck is smaller, so each out is worth more, and because the flush beats a full house if the board pairs.
Using it
The syntax is the same as the Hold'em calculator: two cards per hand separated by spaces, a board of up to five cards, dead cards for anything exposed. Type a 2, 3, 4 or 5 and it tells you the card is not in the deck. Ranges work in brackets; combos that use the missing ranks are simply absent, so [22+] means sixes and up and the combo counts reflect the 36-card deck. Hand distribution shows how often each hand ends as a flush, a straight or a full house, which in this game is the thing to look at before you commit with a set.
Why short deck odds are so counter-intuitive
Three effects stack up. First, straights: in a full deck a hand like J-T can make a straight with 5 different five-card rank combinations; in short deck every one of those combinations still exists but the deck has 16 fewer cards to miss with, so straights arrive about twice as often. Second, pairs are weaker because every unpaired hand has more live overcards and more straight draws against them. Third, the flush-beats-full-house rule means a set is not a lock on a paired board. The practical result is that suited connectors and broadway hands close the gap on big pairs, and preflop all-ins are far more often 60-40 than 80-20. The calculator will show you the exact number for any two hands, and after a few dozen you will stop being surprised.
Frequently asked questions
The one used by PokerStars 6+, GGPoker and the Triton series: a flush beats a full house, and a straight still beats three of a kind. Some rooms and most of the original Asian cash games rank three of a kind above a straight. Tick the box above the hands field and every number is recomputed under that rule.
Fewer cards and more straights. With the 2s to 5s gone, the deck is 36 cards, any two connected cards have far more straight combinations, and the ace counts as a five for the A-6-7-8-9 wheel. Pairs hold up less, suited connectors gain, and AA vs KK falls from 82% in Hold'em to 75.0% here.
Yes. The ace plays low in place of the missing five, exactly as it does in A-2-3-4-5 in regular Hold'em, and it is the lowest straight in the game. The calculator ranks it below 6-7-8-9-T.
Yes, with the same bracket notation as the Hold'em calculator. Combos that contain a 2 through 5 are simply absent from the deck, so [22+] means 66+ here, and the combo counts reflect the 36-card deck.
With four cards known there are 32 left and 201,376 possible five-card boards, every one of which is evaluated. That takes well under a second, so every short deck preflop number here is exact rather than simulated.
