Far too many players ignore flop texture when playing Texas hold’em. Why so many players ignore texture continues to amaze me. After all, a flop’s texture is free information when you’re trying to connect the dots by evaluating the board’s composition in conjunction with the range of cards your opponent could be holding. While it’s easy to abstractly assign a range of hands to your opponent, the texture of the flop goes a long way toward delineating the range of hands he is likely holding, along with those potential hands that might have been dashed by a texture that won’t help his hole cards at all.

What Are Good Hands In Texas Holdem

Poker players who bet and call without regard texture are making a costly mistake, and these are the very players you want to play against. When you take board texture into account and are able to assign a more precise hand range to an opponent because his broader range has been modified by the board’s texture, your reads on your opponents will be all the more accurate for it.

Straight Flush Having a series of cards of any one suit in numerical order. Four of a Kind Holding all of the identical cards from each suit. The most common draws that come to mind for most people is the flush draw or straight draw. There are varying strengths of drawing hands ranging from a gutshot straight draw (4 potential outs) all the way up to having a powerful combo draw such as a straight draw that includes a flush draw (up to 15 outs).

Dry and Wet Boards

The first thing that should come to mind when thinking about flop texture is whether you’re looking at a dry or a wet board. While further refinements can be made when examining boards, step one is determining whether the board is dry or wet. Dry boards are those that offer few drawing possibilities while wet boards are rife with drawing possibilities. Boards in between are neutral.

Dry boards generally have one big and two small cards, or three small cards that do not support a flush draw, and while a ragged board might support a straight draw, it’s unlikely that your opponents would be holding cards that connect with such a flop.

Examples of dry boards would include:

Far too many players ignore flop texture when playing Texas hold’em.Why so many players ignore texture continues to amaze me. After all, a flop’s texture is free information when you’re trying to connect the dots by evaluating the board’s composition in conjunction with the range of cards your opponent could be holding.

Look at those flops. There just aren’t many hands that coordinate with them. While someone holding would love the first flop, and an opponent with in his hand would have flopped a set with the latter board, you really can’t assume your opponent has either of those hands. You have to begin assessing your opponent’s hand by assigning a range of hands to him, and when you do, the ranges supported by these two flops are quite narrow.

Playing Into a Dry Board

When examining a ragged, low flop, it’s important to account for whether anyone raised before the flop. If there was a raise before the flop and callers – especially cold callers as opposed to players who called and then called again when the pot was raised behind them – there’s a far less likelihood that a low, ragged board was the answer to anyone’s prayers.

If the raiser was in early position, and most or all of your opponents cold-called the raise, you can discount the possibility of a straight anytime you see a dry, low, ragged board, and anyone who comes out betting is either representing an overpair or bluffing.

A dry board can also contain a pair, and a flop like is dry in the sense that it does not support any draws. That doesn’t guarantee a win for you. After all, someone might have taken a flyer with a hand like and is now sitting pretty with a hand no one suspects him of holding. Even if someone hung around with , he’s probably now in the lead with two pair, even with a somewhat dicey kicker.

Wet Boards

Wet boards are the opposite of dry boards; they’re heavy with draws and well coordinated. Here are a couple of examples of wet boards:

These two flops have two big cards that would pair-up with the kinds of big cards most hold’em players are fond of, plus they support flush draws, along with a couple of straight draws. In fact, if these flops hits someone perfectly, that person already made his straight.

The more coordinated a wet board is in terms of supporting straight and flush draws and the greater the number of players in the pot, the more a wet board makes it difficult to envision winning with a hand like top pair, top kicker.

Boards like this have cards that reside in what’s referred to as the playing zone. The playing zone is just what you think it is: the area of the deck where players find cards they want to play, and it’s usually cards ranging from jack through ace, or ten through ace. When most players are dealt two cards in the playing zone, they’re going to look for a reason to play them, and only a big raise, or a raise and a reraise will dissuade them.

Board Texture and Continuation Bets

Reading the board’s texture is very important when considering whether you should make a continuation bet. It’s not difficult at all to do this. If the flop hit you hard, you’re going to bet; that’s a given. But the flop figures to miss you more often than not. If, for example, you raised before the flop with A-K, you’re only going to like the flop one-third of the time. But by evaluating the board’s texture and the range of your opponent’s likely cards, you’ll have a good handle on whether you should bet when you miss the flop.

Dry boards garner more folds then wet boards because there fewer combinations of hands to connect with them, and when you’re the pre-flop raiser and know that the flop is very unlikely to have helped your adversary, you can make a continuation bet knowing you have a good chance of forcing your opponent to fold. Even if he thinks you might not have connected with the flop, there’s always a chance that you’re sitting there with a big pocket pair. You, on the other hand, know he had nothing before the flop and probably nothing on it.

So go ahead and c-bet into that dry board and watch your opponent fold most of the time. In fact, if your opponent plays hit-to-win, fit-or-fold poker, you’ll take down the pot almost every time. Just remember not to vary your bet size too much when c-betting as compared to when you have a real hand, so your opponent can’t gauge the strength of your hand by the size of your bet.

Using Texture to Raise Aggressive Opponents

Sometimes you can raise an aggressive opponent on the flop based on your own drawing possibilities and the board’s texture. Suppose there was a raise before the flop and you call from late position with a hand like . We’ll assume both blinds folded and the flop is . The flop’s texture does not support a flush draw, so you need not worry about that. And while you don’t have a hand yet, you do have a straight draw along with two overcards that might propel you into the winner’s circle if you pair either of them on the turn or the river. You’ve got lots of ways to win.

Your opponent probably raised in front of you with a pocket pair or two big connecting cards. Based on probability alone, chances are your opponent has big cards rather than a pair and if he does, he whiffed on the flop. If he has A-K, A-Q, A-J, K-Q or a medium pair like 7-7 or 8-8 and comes out betting, he might even fold to your raise, and you won’t have to see the turn or river to win the hand. The flop’s texture, coupled with the equity present in that combination of a big draws plus overcards, along with the likelihood that your opponent didn’t really like the flop, gives you a good chance of taking it down with a raise.

On the other hand, suppose you raised with only to see a flop of . Even if the blinds check to the raiser, you’re staring straight up at two overcards right in the playing zone. You have no draw to speak of, and are probably going to check, hoping that anyone who acts after you will also check so you can see a free card in hopes of turning a set.

Now we’ll assume you open-raised with from late position only to see a flop of . A low-card flop tends to hit callers rather than raisers, so a continuation bet is probably the way to go here, because the flop probably missed your opponents just as it missed you. But if you make a bet and are called, figure your opponent for a pocket pair or a draw of some sort, since these are the very kinds of hands that would call in this situation. When that happens you’ll have to be wary of any turn card that appears to support hands of that nature.

If the turn card is a big one – an ace or a king – it will appear scary to anyone on a draw or holding a small pair, so it presents you with a good opportunity to take a stab at the pot. But if the turn is a low card, you’re better off checking and probably souping your hand if your opponent bets.

Awareness of the flop’s texture – as well as the texture of the board on the turn and the river too – is a powerful tool for assessing the possible strength of your opponent’s hand. Texture, along with betting patterns, the number of players contesting the pot and their playing styles, goes a long way to raising your game far above that of a simple hit-to-win strategy, and gives you a number of ways to identify opportunities to bluff, bet on the come, or check and fold, and each of them can win or save money for you in the long run.

By Lou Krieger

The author of many best-selling poker books, including “Hold’em Excellence” and “Poker for Dummies”. A true ambassador of the game and one of poker’s greatest ever teachers.

Table Of Contents

What is Short Deck Poker?

Short-deck poker (also known as six-plus hold'em) is a new variation of traditional Texas hold'em that mostly follows the same rules albeit with a significant difference.

Short-deck poker uses a smaller 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck.

Most first heard of short-deck poker after it was introduced among the mix in the high-stakes cash games in Macau.

Play Short-Deck Poker Online

6+ Short-deck poker is available online on the following websites:

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Short-Deck Poker Rules

Before we discover how to play short-deck poker, let's see how to get to the 36-card deck needed to play a game of 6+ hold'em.

The 36-card deck in use in poker short deck is created by removing the 2xs, 3xs, 4xs, and 5xs from the deck (16 cards).

That leaves the 6xs up through the Kxs as well as the Axs.

Texas Holdem Wsop

What about the Aces?

As in regular hold'em, in short-deck poker the aces still count as high or low when making straights.

The lowest possible straight in a game of short-deck poker is Ax9x8x7x6x (think of the ace as essentially replacing the missing 5x).

Poker short-deck is played similarly to regular hold'em.

Each player receive two hole cards and use them in combination with five community cards to create the best possible hand.

A game of short-deck poker features four streets of betting:

1. Pre-flop
2. Flop
3. Turn
4. River

However, there are some differences in the poker short-deck poker that you should know about before playing.

Short-Deck Poker Hand Rankings

Short-deck poker can be played according to the exact same rules as regular Texas Hold'em.

The betting can be fixed-limit or no-limit (although most often the game is played no-limit), and the same hand rankings can be used as follows:

Hand Ranking	Hand Name	Poker Hand
Lowest	High card	Kx6x9x8xQx
One pair	K♦K♠5x8xQx
Two pair	K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx
Three-of-a-kind	K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx
Straight	A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦
Flush	K♦J♦10♦6♦9x
Full house	K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠
Four-of-a-kind	K♦K♠K♥K♦6x
Straight flush	6♦7♦8♦9♦
Highest	Royal flush	10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦

For more info about the hand rankings in poker and which hand wins, visit our guide to poker hands.

Alternative Short-Deck Hand Rankings

Short-deck poker is played often employing a different hand ranking system. Here are the alternate hand rankings for short-deck poker (note the differences in bold):

Hand Ranking	Hand Name	Poker Hand
Lowest	High card	Kx6x9x8xQx
One pair	K♦K♠5x8xQx
Two pair	K♦K♠6♥6♦Qx
Straight	A♠6♣7♥8♥9♦
Three of a kind	K♦K♠K♥6♦Qx
Full house	K♦K♠K♥6♦6♠
Flush	K♦J♦10♦6♦9x
Four of a kind	K♦K♠K♥K♦6x
Straight flush	6♦7♦8♦9♦
Highest	Royal flush	10♦J♦Q♦K♦A♦

As you can see, following these alternate poker short deck hand rankings a three-of-a-kind beats a straight (instead of vice-versa), and a flush beats a full house (instead of vice-versa).

Why a Different Hand Rankings?

These changes were introduced the because the removal of cards from the standard deck alter the probabilities of making certain hands.

For example, with only nine suited cards (instead of 13), a flush is harder to make in shord-deck poker than in regular hold'em.

Six-Plus Hold'em Variation — The Deal (Fifth Street)

One other popular variation often introduced in six-plus hold'em has to do with the way the river is dealt.

The game can be played according to the same procedure followed in regular hold'em, with the community cards coming in the same way — flop (three cards), turn (one card), and river (one card) — and betting rounds after each street.

More often, though, instead of a river card being dealt to complete a five-card board, players are each dealt a third hole card instead.

Players then make their five-cardpoker hands by using exactly two of their three hole cards and three of the four community cards.

The building of hands resembles the procedure followed in Omaha poker where players must use two of their four hole cards plus three board cards to make a five-card poker hand.

Short-Deck Poker Basic Strategy

As you might imagine, the removal of low cards and use of the 36-card deck makes it more likely to make higher value hands, a change that tends to introduce more action.

You should adjust your thinking about relative hand values from what they are used to in regular hold'em.

The smaller deck makes it easier to make two-pair hands, which means a hand like top pair-top kicker is no longer as strong in six-plus hold'em as it is in regular hold'em.

Straights and full houses are also easier to make in six-plus hold'em than in the regular version of the game (a reason for the alternate hand rankings).

The odds of hitting certain draws change, too, in short-deck pokr.

Just to highlight one example, filling an open-ended straight draw becomes more likely in poker short-deck.

What Is A Straight In Texas Holdem

While you're still looking for the same eight outs there are fewer total cards in the deck, thus increasing the percentage you'll make your straight.

The smaller deck also affects the likelihood of being dealt certain hands. [∫]You're more than twice as likely to get pocket aces[/B] in short-deck poker than you are in regular hold'em!

Finally, players being dealt a third hole card instead of there being a fifth community card obviously affects hand values as well, making it even more likely that players improve their hands — yet another factor that has to be taken into account when calculating odds and considering your final-round betting strategy.

Conclusion

Short-deck poker / 6+ hold'em introduces several exciting twists to traditional Texas hold'em, creating an action-filled alternative that many players are finding especially enjoyable to play.

The changes from regular hold'em aren't terribly complicated, making it easy to new players to learn and play right away.

Short-Deck Poker FAQ

How do you play Short-Deck Poker?

A game of short-deck poker follows the same rules and gameplay as Texas hold'em poker.

The players receive two hole cards and they need to combine them with five community cards to create the best possible five-card hand.

Short-deck poker, however:

• Uses a 36-card deck rather than the full 52-card deck
• Ranks the hands differently compared to Texas hold'em

All the details to know before playing a game of short-deck poker are in this article.

Why is short-deck poker so popular?

The game of short-deck poker, os six-plus hold'em became famous at the high-stakes games in Macau. Due to the smaller deck, the game makes it more probably for players to hit high-value combinations.

Where is short-deck poker played?

You can play short-deck poker live at most poker festivals. If you are looking for games of short-deck poker online, check out the pokes sites listed on this page.

What's the best short-deck poker strategy?

The removal of some low-value cards from the deck changes the game's basic strategy and the value of different poker hands.

To understand ranges and odds in short-deck poker, have a look at this article.

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