The basics of short deck poker.
Short deck poker is very different from Texas hold'em , cards 2-5 are removed from the game and that changes the whole dynamic of the game. With 36 cards in the deck instead of 52 cards and the use of antes instead of blinds(excluding that button puts on the blind) and antes are 1 big blind everything changes. Raises become more rare, limping becomes normal and it is completely okay to go All in for 100 big blinds seeing 2 limps in front of you.
One hard to adapt change is that flushes beat full houses, due to the fact that it is actually harder to hit a flush then a full house in short deck. The chance to hit a flopped flush draw is roughly 15% to hit on the turn and 30% to hit by the river. That is because there are less cards to actually hit. You have 5 outs going towards the river.
Sets are the opposite, its easier to hit a set in short deck then in hold'em, roughly 13% of the time you can expect to flop a set.
Another thing to adjust to is A6789 is a straight, it brings a lot of fun bluffing opportunities as on a flop like A67 a hand like 87 has 45% odds against AK. Really opens the game up to be more aggressive and avoid trying to trap your opponent.
Calculating odds
An easy way to get adjusted to short deck is to instead of calculating 2% like you do in Texas hold'em instead you calculate 3.5% for every out. While this is not the exact math, it sure helps you out to quickly calculate odds during a hand.
Be sure to put in the work in the
calculator to understand the odds better.
Preflop Strategy
Preflop differs a lot in short deck versus your regular holdem games. Limping is the norm and shoving over limps is common practice. Usually you can see players with a vide variety of styles, since you hit a lot of flops it is common to even limp your whole range from early positions, connectors, pockets and even AA-KK, AKo so you have some protection from getting raised off your hand.
With the percentages changing so drastically if you are used to playing Texas hold'em it will take some time getting used to. For example in a preflop all in AKo is only 56% vs QJo. So just shoving all in with AK if you see a limp or two in front of you , the pot might already be 7+ big blinds so its okay to scoop it up right away and avoid getting into narrow edged flips preflop.
Hands like 87,97,89,T8,T9,J9,JT become a way better hand it is in hold'em because straights, trips, 2 pairs are more common and getting called by a range of AA,KK,QQ,AK your odds are around 40%, hardly dead when called, so it pays to push all in with more then just premiums in short deck and scoop up dead money from the middle, just be careful about players limping from early positions are they might be trapping.
Getting premium hands in short deck preflop is way more common then in holdem, seeing the odds of seeing a good hand like AA,AK,KK,QQ is nearly halved in short deck.
Postflop Strategy
Like we have covered already, aggression will be very important, flopping an open ender vs a top pair will be a coinflip, flopping a set vs a straight is a flip as well, this definitely takes some getting used to. Often times flopping an open ender easily justifies making a big all in against a c bet just to get dead money from the pot.
Do not get too attached to top pairs or even 2 pairs on certain draw heavy flops, often times you are going to have to fold to bad turn cards. Flopped bottom 2 pair can be touch and go , having 97 on a T97 is not as good as it looks, but having 97 on a K97 will be good depending on the preflop action. Bad top pairs are usually in a rough spot, remember there are less cards in the deck so chances of seeing 4 to a straight increases by a wide margin.
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