Short Deck Poker to be Introduced at APT Vietnam 2018

As popularized by the poker world’s nosebleed high stakes players, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) introduces a “Short Deck Poker” event to the upcoming APT Vietnam 2018 festival at Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City on October 5 to October 11.

Short Deck Poker is an exciting new variant of Texas Hold’em with only 36 cards in the deck. The deck is shortened by removing the following cards: all 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s making the game much more exciting.

It is played with antes and single blind on the button. Players begin with three bullets and have the option of starting with 1, 2, or all 3 bullets at once. Redemption of bullets can be done only in between hands. Once registration closes, all remaining bullets are now in play.

As written below, a flush beats a full house. Though not reflected, the ace can be used to form both high end and low end straights. For the low, the ace can act as a five – A 6 7 8 9 to form the lowest possible straight. It is then played just like traditional Hold’em with a slight difference in hand rankings:

  1. Royal Flush
  2. Straight Flush
  3. Four-of-a-kind
  4. Flush
  5. Full House
  6. Straight
  7. Three-of-a-kind
  8. Two pair
  9. One pair
  10. High card

Game mechanics:

  • Tournament is 7-handed
  • Final Table is 8-handed with Shot Clock
  • Action will start with the player to the left of the dealer button
  • All players will post the required ante for each hand of play
  • For table balancing, the button position is deemed as the worst position
  • The dealer button can be moved back a spot to compensate the balancing of tables and maintain worst position

The APT “Short Deck” event runs on the final day of APT Vietnam 2018 – October 11, with a buy-in of VND 7,700,000. Full APT Vietnam 2018 schedule