According to a March 27 press release, partypoker has launched on their site the variant of Texas Hold'em called Short Deck, a cash game format quickly gaining popularity in today's poker scene, and it has become a favorite amongst high-stakes players.
Also called "Six Plus Hold'em", the format offers a unique and exciting variation on the conventional Texas Hold'em with only few vital differences. First of all, the game is played with a decreased deck of cards. All cards from 2 through 5 are removed, so there are 36 cards overall. Each player is dealt two cards face down and seeks to make the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards. An Ace can either be used as high or low, making the low end of the straight ‘A-6-7-8-9', while ‘A-6-7-8-9' of the same suit subsequently becomes a straight flush. The other main difference sees a regular flush beat a full house in the order of hand rankings.
The game is available on 2-Max, 6-Max, 8-Max, and 9-Max tables and it compels every player to place an ante pre-flop, which results to bigger opening pots when compared to Texas Hold'em. For instance:
- $100 buy-in at 6-Max Hold'em table with blinds of $0.50/$1, the pot money is at $1.50 prior to any voluntary money is placed into the pot.
- For the same buy-in at 6-Max Shortdeck table, the amount rises to $7
Add to that the concept of a reduced deck, the game will usually be played with great intensity from the get go, and it also favors a loose-aggressive style of play, perfect for high-stakes players who love that extra adrenaline rush.
Of course we see other versions being offered everywhere, but right now only partypoker offers the exact same ‘Ante-Only' game used by the highly-popular Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, and they also follow the same set of rules, naming convention and blind structures.
Short deck poker became popular in the East Asian high-stakes cash game circuit. Big names in the poker world attracted the high stakes tour and so it is obvious that partypoker should offer the same exact excitement by offering Triton Poker's popular version of the game to its own online players.
Another nice feature to know is that partypoker is the only poker site that will allow players the choice to remove chips from the table once their stack reaches a certain amount, but still allow them to continue playing at that same table. The partial removal of funds is only applicable to its short deck tables. This is most likely the online poker operator's way of protecting players from losing too much cash at a time.
Players will be able to find these new games in the SHORTDECK ‘quick lobby' in the partypoker client and it can also be found within the main Cash Game lobby.
Just this month, team partypoker pro Timofey Kuznetsov won $1.8 million at the Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea. He said, "SHORTDECK is the most action-packed poker game out there! Enough of boring waiting and folding, here you can play half the cards dealt in a cash game and still do just fine. I'm a big fan of the format (my ante is posted even while writing this), and can't wait to play my first hand on partypoker. See you at the tables!"
party poker is still not avaiable in Portugal so I´M STILL CUT OFF 
