PokerStars have been changing the world of the namesake game for a fair while now. Through free-passes at grand tournaments to introducing varied and interesting variations of poker, the host has been doing its best to popularize what appears to be a favorite past-time, give it an official competitive status, and overcome all the unpalatable hurdles along the way. Today, PokerStars is pondering yet another new game.
A Bash at Innovation
Enhancing the poker experience has been at the core of PokerStars. The Unfold initiative has definitely done a fair bit to improve upon the variety of products it introduces. And if some have been rather self-serving initiatives, such as Unfold, PokerStars have also invested over $8 million in free passes for their upcoming The Caribbean tournament event in January, 2019.
However, PokerStars may now be preparing to introduce a version that will entertain customer and business alike. The short-deck poker may finally be coming to one of the world’s best-known poker hosts. According to reports, the PokerStars’ version is called Six Plus Hold’em.
In this iteration of the game, you will only play with a deck of 36 cards, and the 2-5 will be removed from the deck. Of course, a new game will take some getting used to, and not every pro will be automatically able to switch to the new game style. With flushes nearly eliminated for the lack of cards, they will be a desired combination. Not to mention that now a flush will be higher than a full house, for example.
The Shot-Deck Origins
Just as any other quirky version of a product, be that in a world of poker or beyond, the short deck originated in China where the game’s popularity has been steadily going up. With this in mind, we have already witnessed a number of pros join competitions and take a pot shot at it, including Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. Dwan also have issued his recommendations about No Limit Hold’em Poker.
Despite failing to achieve significant results in both games, both players have agreed that the game stands out to be a riveting iteration of poker. The game has been adopted by multiple venues, including Vegas, Montenegro, and Manila, with varied poker pros attending.
Meanwhile, PokerStars has been tinkering with yet another version of theirs, namely Fusion. However, Fusion has not yet seen the light of day and the game has been put on hold as per what is known so far.
Fusion, as the name tellingly suggests, may be a mixture between the two most common iterations of the game, to name Hold’em and Omaha. Some refer to the game as Irish Hold’Em. Here, each user is dealt four cards, but two cards need to be discarded as soon as the Flop is revealed.
This adds for more strategic decisions amongst players, although some may argue that this way the “chance factor” is greater, meaning that players stand lesser chance to shine based on their merits alone.
For better or for worse, poker will be changing. PokerStars’ initiatives may not always be a success, but they certainly try.
