Poker players on one of the world’s most popular poker network will soon get the chance to enjoy the widely popular Short Deck poker variant before 2019 comes to an end. GGNetwork will introduce its own version of the game, but with additional “perks” that will make it the most appealing version in the market today. This announcement was made by the network’s newly-appointed Head Jean-Christophe Antoine.
Making Poker Fun Again
Antoine recently opened up about the network’s market expansion efforts and software development strategy. He disclosed that GGNetwork had plans to launch the Short Deck poker variant sometime this year. Antoine said they’ve been closely monitoring what the poker world is up to at the moment and are fully aware that Short Deck is rapidly growing in popularity.
While Antoine confirmed that the network will indeed roll out the game before the end of this year, he said that they were happy to wait a bit and go through extensive testing to avoid any pitfalls along the way.
Founded in 2014, GGNetwork’s main goal is to bring back the glory days of poker and make it fun again for both players and fans. The network has been taking steps to achieve this goal and has made a number of key decisions recently including banning third-party tools. While the company was initially focused on the Asian market, it expanded its reach by tying up with a number of operators in Europe and Canada.
Short Deck’s Rise in Popularity
Short Deck’s origins can be traced back to Asia. This poker variant is popular among high-stakes gamblers in Hong Kong, Macau and Manila. Among the early proponents of the game were Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan, who both promoted the game via an online video back in 2015.
Short Deck is also referred to as “Six Plus Hold’em” and is a stripped-deck version of Texas Hold’em. In playing the game, all the deuces through fives are removed, leaving a deck of just 36 cards instead of the normal 52. Because of this, there are a few major differences between Texas Hold’em and Short Deck when it comes to hand rankings. In Short Deck, a flush defeats a full house, while three of a kind beats a straight. Other than that, the rules remain the same.
The game has quickly become popular since it was featured at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro last year. The tournament version of the game appeared for the first time at the same series where three Short Deck events were held. One of the events, with a buy-in of HKD 1 million, was won by Phil Ivey after a heads-up battle with Dan “Jungleman” Cates. Ivey took home $604,977 for his first-place victory.
Interest in the game started to pick up since then, making its way to Vegas where it debuted at the Aria Resort and Casino. It also made its first appearance at the US Poker Open in 2018. Short Deck bracelet events are also included in this year’s World Series of Poker, which is currently underway at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The game was also played at the 2019 WSOP Europe.
Online Operators Join Short Deck Craze
The Short Deck craze also spread to the online scene, with the US-offshore network Winning Poker Network becoming the first online poker network to launch the game in 2018. In January of this year, PokerStars introduced the poker variant across its international player pool, before launching it in its segregated markets in Italy and India. PokerStars launched Six Plus Hold’em which was recently featured at its Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) series.
Partypoker was the latest online poker operator to push the Short Deck poker format. The online poker room introduced its own Short Deck version with the same set of rules, naming convention and blind structures which was adopted by the Triton Series. Phil Galfond, who recently launched his own poker site Run It Once Poker, also expressed interest in adding the game.
The Aconcagua Network which operates in South America, as well as US-offshore poker site Chico Network, also joined the Short Deck trend in April. Several online rooms based in Asia and some poker rooms which support cryptocurrencies such as Coin Poker have also starting offering the game. 888poker, the third biggest online poker room has also made reference to launch short deck poker based on a 2018 blog post. As of now, there is no confirmation as to when 888poker will launch a Short Deck poker game.