Haxton on Short Deck on Poker After Dark: "The Audience Will Love it."

A little over a week ago, at the 2018 Poker Masters, Isaac Haxton played Short Deck for the first time and found himself taking down the $10,000 event for $176,000. Having never played the format before and leaving a field of 55 entries behind him, Haxton joked, “Poker must be all luck, I have no idea what I’m doing!”

Well, it’s clear that Haxton has a sense of what he’s supposed to do, but like with any new game, there will be a learning curve to go through. Before cards get in the air tonight for two thrilling sessions of $100/$200 featuring Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Hold’em and Short Deck on Poker After Dark, we caught up with Haxton to talk about the game that’s taking the poker world by storm.

Looking back on the Poker Masters, albeit it being a small win in the grand scheme of Haxton’s impressive career, the super high roller regular said it was “awesome” to take down the Short Deck event. The turnout of the tournament, however, spoke much louder to him than the $176,000 he added to his bankroll.

“I think the game is going to become quite popular, I think the audience will love Short Deck. It’s a great action game, players are all in before the river often with a lot of big swings.”

Haxton admits to having studied a bit of Short Deck recently and he looks forward to playing it more in the months to come. But at the end of the day, he doesn’t think this game will take over as the prominent poker format.

“I’m not too worried about Short Deck and Pot Limit Omaha taking away from No Limit Hold’em. No Limit may be a little less gambly than the other two but it’s also a great game to watch. If you like watching people play difficult river spots and try to guess whether their opponent has it or is bluffing, No Limit is still the best game for that.”

Short Deck’s Not a Small Stakes Game

On “Big Three” week on Poker After Dark, Haxton faces off against Brandon Adams, Ben Lamb, Jonathan Depa, Ryan Tosoc, and Justin Ligieri at $100/$200 stakes. Short Deck has taken off in the high roller community in particular, and Haxton believes that while it’s likely this game will catch on at lower stakes, it will have limited success at the smallest stakes due to the way the game plays.

“Short Deck may struggle a little to catch on at the smallest stakes, in part just because of the game structure. A  $1/$2 type Short Deck game plays around as big as a regular $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em game, so the smallest game you can play with a standard casino chip set is already mid stakes. Apart from that, though, I expect it to be popular from mid stakes up to nosebleeds.”

Haxton is excited to tangle on the fun Poker After Dark “Big Three” lineup in the PokerGO Studio, so make sure to not miss a minute of the action live on PokerGO.

“Big Three” week on Poker After Dark runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 25-26, live and exclusively on PokerGO starting at 6:00 pm ET. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now. Want to learn more about Isaac Haxton? Watch the Pokerography about his life and career now.