Intermediate Strategic Comparisons Between Short Deck and Pot-Limit Omaha URL has been copied successfully! Both reward creativity, but mastering each requires adapting to unique structures and tendencies Short Deck (also known as 6+ Hold’em) and Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) are two popular poker variants that offer fast-paced action and deep strategic elements. While both games reward aggressive play and big hands, players’ approaches to them can be very different due to how the deck and hands are constructed. In Short Deck, the game is played with a 36-card deck, with all twos through fives removed. This changes hand values significantly—flushes are harder to make and rank higher than full houses in some rule sets. Straights are also more common because the gaps between cards are narrower. Players in Short Deck often lean toward playing suited and connected hands, with an emphasis on post-flop aggression due to the narrower range of possible outcomes. PLO, on the other hand, uses the full 52-card deck but gives each player four hole cards instead of two. This increases the number of potential combinations and leads to much stronger hands being required to win. A key difference in strategy is that in PLO, you must use exactly two cards from your hand and three from the board. That makes hand construction more complex, and players must be more cautious about overplaying draws or top pair-type hands. Another major strategic difference is variance. Both games are swingy, but PLO generally involves more multi-way pots and deeper equity runouts, making bankroll management critical. Short Deck sees more frequent all-ins and chop pots, especially pre-flop, because of the closer odds between hands. Position matters in both, but perhaps even more so in PLO, where the extra cards allow for greater control over pot size and bluff potential. In Short Deck, the high frequency of strong hands often forces action regardless of position.