it takes a little re-orienting yourself to realize that's three-two suited - that's a really bad hand,' Haxton points out. It's also important to keep in mind that small suited connectors are not nearly as attractive as they may look. Since making flushes is harder, suited hands go down in value. Meanwhile connected hands like jack-ten go up in value because the chances of making two pair, trips and straights to crack big pairs are much greater. Pairs in general, Haxton notes, go down in value in short deck relative to regular hold'em, particularly pairs lower than kings. Pocket aces, while still the preferred hand in an all-in situation, aren't nearly as big of a favorite against a decent connecting hand - J ♠ 10 ♠ for example - as is the case in 52-card hold'em. As PokerNews outlined in part two of this series, preflop equities run much closer than in regular hold'em. He shared some of the lessons he learned in his first foray into the game.įor starters, Haxton says, 'It's still hold'em.' As in, you're still largely looking for the same things: big pairs and cards are good, small unsuited combos not so much.

Haxton faced plenty of preflop decision-making as he navigated to a first-place finish in the Poker Masters $10,000 Short Deck event last fall for $176,000, overcoming a field of 55 entries. Seeking to outline some basic tenets of the preflop game, PokerNews spoke with renowned poker theory expert Isaac Haxton on the subject. Short deck strategy is still in its early stages, as the community as a whole is certainly very far from reaching the level of understanding that's been attained in regular hold'em. For an inexperienced player, playing horrible starting hands kills any chance of making money on jump street, while using good starting hand selection gives the novice a solid foundation from which to build a winning strategy. Of course, it isn't quite that simple, as there are times when hands like ace-king offsuit are far superior to something like nine-eight suited, and there are times when the latter becomes just as playable in certain situations.īut in general, the first and most crucial lessons involve starting hand selection. When it comes to learning how to play Texas hold'em, the most basic lessons begin at square one: the starting hands.

Top short deck hands