The world’s leading online poker site, PokerStars has finally launched its own version of the exciting new variant 6+ Hold’em (also known as Short Deck Poker)—a game that has taken the poker industry by storm. 6+ is the operator’s fifth new cash game variant since 2018 and the first this year. It follows PokerStars Fusion, an innovative variant that blended the elements of Texas Hold’em and Omaha into a single variant. Fusion was recently withdrawn from the client after running for more than two months. PokerStars’ 6+ Hold’em rolled out in Denmark, Estonia and in the play-money client (on the dot-net site) on January 15. It launched in the UK, Sweden, and on the global dot-com and dot-EU player pools on January 16.

The poker community in general is aware of 6+ Hold’em or Short Deck as the poker variant has been around for several years. A lot of players and poker fans started to develop huge interest in the game when it first appeared on TV during the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. Jason Koon and Phil Ivey emerged victorious in two separate Short-Deck events during the series. Ivey became the winner of the first live-streamed Short Deck event for $600,000, while Koon took home $3,579,914 after taking down the second Short Deck event at the tournament.

Since then, Short Deck has quickly grown in popularity and featured in a number of major tournaments, both online and live.  The game has now become a staple of some of the world’s high stakes live tournament series. The game is played much like the Texas Hold’em, only that the deck is reduced from 52 to just 36 cards by removing the deuces through fives. As there are fewer cards, the hand rankings are also different from the traditional Texas Hold’em: in Short Deck, a flush beats a full house and three of a kind beats a straight.

Short Deck has been around the poker community for several years. However, the game gained widespread popularity over the past year after it made its first televised appearance during the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. The game is played similarly to Texas Hold’em, except the lower-ranked cards—deuces through fives—are removed, leaving a deck of 36 cards. Due to fewer cards, hand rankings are slightly different. Equities run very close to each other, meaning there is a lot more luck involved; hands like JT and AK are of equal value pre-flop. Moreover, 777chips.com provides Cheap Texas Hold'em Poker Chips for players. As an online in-game currency store for many years, we’ve received great reputation for our reliable service.