However, Jack-Ten does poorly against Queens, since Queens blocks a lot of the straights it can make. It still has a fantastic 42% equity against AJ, a hand which has it dominated. Even against Aces it still has a whopping 35% equity and it’s also basically a coin flip with AK. Jack-Ten is never really in a bad position preflop. Jack-Ten Preflop Equities – NLHE & Short Deck Matchup It sees massive jumps in preflop equities against a variety of different hands. Jack-Ten Becomes a Versatile, Powerhouse Handĭue to it’s ability to make a variety of nut straights, Jack-Ten becomes a borderline premium hand. But overall, it’s strong enough to push All-In preflop and even call other All-ins pretty comfortably. However, it’s advantage versus other unpaired hands, like Ace-Queen and Jack-Ten are reduced. It’s now at a smaller disadvantage against Kings, and actually a tiny favorite against Queens. Ace-King Preflop Equities – NLHE & Short Deck MatchupĪce-King is only ever in a bad position preflop against pocket Aces exactly. See the table below to understand how Ace-King’s equities improve from NLHE versus common match-ups. Though already a powerful hand in No Limit, Ace-King actually becomes even stronger overall in Short Deck Poker. Ace-King Becomes Relatively Stronger Against Pocket Pairs It’s important to understand the new hand equities to help guide your decision of raising All-In before the flop, or knowing whether you have the rights odds to call another player’s All-In. This how the match ups look now.Though pocket Aces and Kings are still the best preflop starting hands, there are notable changes in preflop strength in other common playable hands, especially in Ace-King and Jack-Ten. In the end, the BTN0 folds preflop and UTG then completes his original plan by jamming all-in. Usually, the results wouldn’t look like this. So J9s is actually a favourite over pocket rockets in a four-way pot.

The CO calls with Js9s and while the BTN considers his move we get to see what the equities are. UTG limps with pocket aces and the HJ raises it up to 25,000 with AcQd. The antes are 3,000 each hand,except the button who pays 6,000. It comes from the recent Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea, during a Short Deck Ante Only tournament. This hand illustrates the wildly different pre flop equities we witness when playing short deck hold’em. So, if decent hands are actually the norm in this game - similar to post flop in PLO - we must be extra vigilant to not get carried away.

Best starting hands in short deck poker