Short Deck?????

In some places, especially in continental Europe, poker is sometimes played with a deck of less than 52 cards, the low cards being omitted. Italian Poker is an example. As the pack is reduced, a Flush becomes more difficult to make, and for this reason a Flush may be ranked above a Full House in such games. Can someone elaborate more on short deck?

My family is Italian and play a version they call "French Poker" with a short deck. The rules are as follows:

- 5 Card draw.

- Pot limit.

- Only 4 players can play - you must have 4, no more, no less.

- All cards from 6 and below are taken out of the deck. (If you have 5 people, you can make an exception and just take out from 5 and below but the true game is usually only played with 4 people).

- You must have at least a pair of Jacks or better to open the betting after the cards are dealt. If you need to discard a card from your opening qualifier then you can put it aside b/c you will be asked to show your opening hand if everyone folds to you. If you cannot show your opening hand and cannot prove you had at least a pair of Jacks or better then you forfeit the hand and pay the pot.

- A flush beats a full house.

- The Ace can go below the 7 for the fool's str8.

- In the case 2 players have flushes in identical numerical order then the stronger suit wins in the following order: Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades.

- A royal flush is beaten by the lowest possible str8 flush. Example: A str8 flush of 7,8,9,T,J of any suit will beat a royal flush of any suit.

- The middle str8 flush beats the lowest str8 flush.

- The Royal Flush beats the middle str8 flush.


The neat thing about this game is that there is no "unbeatable hand".

I sure couldn't play other versions of Poker like that, I would be extremely confused. I like our way of playing poker, sounds much better.

NeverFold said:

In some places, especially in continental Europe, poker is sometimes played with a deck of less than 52 cards, the low cards being omitted. Italian Poker is an example. As the pack is reduced, a Flush becomes more difficult to make, and for this reason a Flush may be ranked above a Full House in such games. Can someone elaborate more on short deck?

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Different countries had their own way of playing poker. As for Italian Poker,
it is usually played with a variable number of cards from a standard 52-card pack dependent upon the number of players sitting at the table. The lowest card is the equal to the number obtained by subtracting the number of participants from 11. Therefore:

• 6 players play with 40 cards: from 5 to ace
• 5 players play with 36 cards: from 6 to ace
• 4 players play with 32 cards: from 7 to ace

I can tell you one thing. This isn't a game for me.

i would be confused as fk with a short deck. who the heck came up with these variations? i do know how to play poker with a wild card, but that's about it.

Sounds like a nightmare.

Weregoat said:

Sounds like a nightmare.

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I agree with that. I would never be able to fully learn how to play this game. Doesn't sound too cool anyway.

I wondered why it was called french poker... now i know.. its ridiculous