The games · Coolhand Poker

Six-Plus Hold'em

Hold'em with the twos to fives removed. Big hands come often, a flush beats a full house, and A-6-7-8-9 counts as a run.

18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.

Players: 2 to 6
Family: Short Deck
App: Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

You hold two cards nobody else sees, and five more come face up in the middle for the whole table to share. The deck is short: thirty-six cards, sixes up to aces. Everyone puts in a small entry before the cards come, and one seat, the lead, also puts in the opener, a forced first offer that the others must match to stay in. Then the rounds of offers run: tokens in, match, or pass. At the end you make the best five cards from your two and the five in the middle. The short deck changes the order: a flush beats a full house, and the ace can sit below the six, so A-6-7-8-9 is the lowest run.

A good hand

With the low cards gone, made hands arrive constantly. Pairs, runs and better are the ordinary outcome here, not the exception, so the bar for a good hand is higher than it looks. A single high pair, strong in the full-deck game, is often a weak holding here. Runs and full houses win. Hope for two cards that fit together, and for a middle that fits them.

The usual mistake

Trusting a flush draw the way you would in the full-deck game. Only nine cards of each suit exist in this deck, so four of a suit with one to come is a thinner hope than it feels. That's why a flush is rarer than a full house here and outranks it. Meanwhile this deck keeps handing out runs, to you and to everyone else. Read the middle for runs first and your flush draw second.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Six-Plus Hold'em goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.

The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.