Short Deck Poker has been highly popular among high stakes pros since last year. However, it seems not everyone is happy while playing the game that is the latest development in poker evolution – Daniel “Jungleman” Cates has voiced his discontent on Twitter.
Online poker great “Jungleman” was recently in Jeju, South Korea for the latest stop of the Triton High Roller Series. These days, you’re bound to come across with Short Deck – also known as Six-Plus Hold’em if you are around high stakes poker players in Asia.
Dan Cates recently had an unpleasant experience with the latest variation of Texas Hold’em and he shared it with his followers.
Well yesterday I dusted 750k hkd in < one hour at @tritonpoker in Jeju, South Korea. Going to see if I can lose more faster over the next few days!
— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) 3 March 2019
Dan Cates has one ITM finish to his name in Short-Deck tournaments so far. It comes from an HK$250,000 Triton Short-Deck High Roller held in Montenegro in 2018. He came in second for $407,515. He was defeated by none other than Phil Ivey heads-up for the title.
The Rise of Short Deck Poker
Short Deck Poker took off in the high stakes cash game community in the Far East.
The birth of the new game can be dated to around 2014. It spread to Europe and the US around last year when big-name pros such as Tom Dwan or Paul Phua started publicly talking about their affection towards the new game.
The gameplay is almost identical to regular Texas Hold’em. However, it’s usually played with antes and a button big blind.
Also, most importantly, the 2’s, 3’s 4’s and 5’s are removed from the deck, leaving 36 cards instead of 52. This changes the hand ranking as well as that is based on probability calculations.
“Jungleman” Cates, however, seems to know a little bit more about the origins of Short-Deck Texas Hold’em as he tweeted out this a few days after his complaint.
The origin of short deck holdem: a Chinese businessman lost a huge amount in a game and angrily threw out the 2s 3s 4s and 5s . Everyone played, and right there short deck was born.
— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) 11 March 2019
Evidently, this is just an urban legend at best. More likely, it’s still just Dan Cates channeling his frustration about the 6+ Poker.
The Real Short Deck Crusher – Jason Koon
Although Cates may not be very fond of Short-Deck, there’s someone among the high stakes poker pros who have every reason to be. Jason Koon has been absolutely crushing the Short-Deck tournaments.
Recently, he won the HK$1,000,000 6+ event in Jeju for $2.841 million. Only a few days earlier, he came in 4th in the HK$500,000 event for $437,674.
Koon’s biggest tournament cash of his career also comes from a Triton Short-Deck championship.
He took home $3.580 million for winning the HK$1,000,000 Short-Deck event in Montenegro last year. On top of all that, he finished 3rd in the HK$500,000 Short-Deck tourney in Jeju and cashed in the Short-Deck event at last year’s Poker Masters.
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