A full house loses the first showdown below. The cards are legal in a standard deck, yet the published rules for PokerStars' 6+ Hold'em give the other player's flush the higher rank. Remembering the usual poker chart would award this pot to the wrong hand.
This is one named version of Short Deck. PokerStars' English 6+ Hold'em rules, checked on 4 November 2026, specify a 36-card pack. Remove the four twos, threes, fours and fives from a standard 52-card pack and 16 cards leave. The remaining ranks are six through king, plus ace, in all four suits.
That page changes two hand-ranking rules: a flush beats a full house, and A, 6, 7, 8, 9 counts as a straight. It says the other rankings remain the same. The two fictional deals here apply those stated rules to cards from that reduced pack. Both players have live, properly shown hands, betting is complete, and both qualify for the same pot. No fees, stakes or profit are calculated.
Example one: the flush takes the pot
Deal K♥ Q♥ Q♣ 7♥ 9♠ on the board. Player A holds A♥ J♥. Player B holds Q♦ 9♦.
A's best five cards are A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 7♥: an ace-high flush. Five hearts are available across A's private cards and the board. The missing ten prevents that selection from also forming a straight flush.
B can choose Q♥ Q♣ Q♦ 9♠ 9♦. Three queens and two nines form a full house, queens full of nines. B has only three hearts among the seven available cards, so there is no competing flush. Nor can B make four queens: only three queens appear in B's available cards.
Under the traditional high-hand rankings, the full house beats the flush and B wins. Under the named PokerStars 6+ rule, the flush ranks higher and A wins instead.
The winner changes while every card stays in place. It is the order of the categories that changes, rather than the ace winning a kicker comparison against a queen. The hands belong to different categories, so a comparison within one category never begins.
Our standard Hold'em showdown article follows the ordinary ranking and five-card comparisons. Its full-house-over-flush order must be replaced for this specific 6+ example.
Example two: the ace completes a different straight
Use an independent deal. The board is A♠ 6♥ 7♦ K♣ K♥. A holds 8♣ 9♦; B holds K♦ Q♣.
A can select A♠ 6♥ 7♦ 8♣ 9♦. PokerStars' 6+ rules expressly recognise this sequence as a straight. It uses the ace before the six, across the gap left by the removed ranks.
B's best hand is K♣ K♥ K♦ A♠ Q♣, three kings with ace and queen. In this version, a straight still beats three of a kind: the source preserves the other rankings. A therefore wins this second 6+ showdown too.
A standard Hold'em chart cannot recognise A, 6, 7, 8, 9 as a straight. On that reading, A's strongest hand would instead be K♣ K♥ A♠ 9♦ 8♣, a pair of kings. B's three kings would win. Here the changed rule affects which category A can make, rather than reversing the order of a flush and a full house.
These examples do not establish a universal Short Deck chart. The published PokerStars rule supplies both the reduced pack and the ranking changes used here; a 36-card count alone cannot establish another game's category order. This article also makes no claim about access to the product from a particular country or account.
For a recorded showdown, retain the precise game name and its applicable ranking text alongside the board and private cards. The first deal needs evidence that a flush outranks a full house. The second needs evidence that the ace-six sequence is a straight and that straights still outrank trips. A screenshot of the winning cards alone cannot supply those rules.
