Ahead of Lex Not Live, a quick 6+ hold’em refresher

May 17, 2021

Events

by admin

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It’s almost here — Lex Not Live 2021 gets underway tomorrow (!) with the first three events of an 18-event schedule that will be playing out May 18-23.

Click here for details about the series and the full Lex Not Live 2021 schedule.

Among those first three events on Tuesday is a 6+ hold’em event, starting at 14:00 CET. If you haven’t played 6+ hold’em before — or haven’t played it lately — here’s a quick reminder of the differences between 6+ hold’em and regular hold’em.

It’s about fun (and action!)

6+ hold’em can be a lot of fun. It’s a favorite variant among high rollers, in part because it does tend to encourage a lot of action. That can certainly be true, although it depends a lot on the players and their styles.

Having just a bit of knowledge and experience with the game can give you a big edge in 6+ hold’em. As happens with a lot of non-standard games, you’ll encounter a decent number of new players who perhaps aren’t as familiar with the rules and/or strategy.

On the surface, 6+ hold’em looks a lot like regular Texas hold’em. To an observer watching a table on PokerStars, it might seem like the same game.

But that’s hardly the case.

Understand the differences

There are quite a few differences, and those differences make the game quite different from regular hold’em.

First off, 6+ hold’em only uses 36 cards rather than the full 52-card deck. All the fives, fours, treys, and deuces are tossed out — hence the name “6+” referring to cards ranked six and higher being retained.

There are a few other big differences, rules-wise.

You should know that in 6+ hold’em, A-6-7-8-9 makes a straight. If you think about it, that’s similar to regular hold’em in which an ace can be low or high when making a straight (thus the A-2-3-4-5 straight). Here, since there are no cards below the six, the lowest possible straight in 6+ hold’em is A-6-7-8-9.

Also, and more importantly, be aware that in 6+ hold’em a flush beats a full house, and not the other way around as in regular hold’em. This is because in 6+ hold’em, it’s actually harder to make a flush than it is to make a full house.

Here are the full hand rankings in 6+ hold’em:

Regular hold’em, except for…

Finally, you should know in 6+ hold’em everyone posts an ante and only the button actually posts a blind which is called the “button blind.” That is to say, there are no small or big blinds in 6+ hold’em.

Other than that, the game plays just like regular hold’em with four betting rounds (preflop, flop, turn, river).

As you might imagine, these changes in the rules also change what constitutes a winning strategy in 6+ hold’em.

Hand values change considerably in 6+ hold’em. Because of the smaller deck, you’ll find everyone making full houses, flushes, and straights a lot more often.

Pocket pairs change in value, too, as you might guess. Flopping a set is easier to do in 6+ hold’em, but it’s a bit less exciting when it happens since it’s also easier to make better hands than three of a kind.

Where to find out more…

For a more detailed overview of the rules with some added discussion of the math of the game and a bit of strategy help, too, check out this article from PokerStars School.

You might also jump into some play money 6+ hold’em games first before playing tomorrow’s Lex Not Live 2021 event, just to get a feel for how 6+ hold’em is different from regular hold’em.

See you tomorrow at the 6+ hold’em tables!