Andrew Robl is a well-known fixture on the international poker scene. He has been a regular player for more than a decade and has accumulated over $5.3 million in live poker action. His go-to game has always been No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE), but he, like several other high rollers, has been making a switch to Short Deck Poker, calling NLHE “boring.”

Robl found Short Deck Poker about three years ago in Asia, where the version has been popular for a number of decades. Since first being introduced to the game, he has shown a preference for the alternative and considers it to be a nice change of pace from the slowness of NLHE.

In an interview with Poker Central, Robl explained, “A lot of the Chinese gamblers come from a Baccarat background and they don’t have the patience to play regular No Limit Hold’em. They don’t want to just sit there and fold, and I think one of them just got the idea to remove the small cards to make it more exciting, and ever since it’s been growing in popularity quickly.”

He further stated, “I love it because there is no hand that’s a big favorite against another. This also makes it great for tournaments because there’s a lot of gambling in the game. Because many of the players in Asia have already played No Limit Hold’em in the past, I don’t think that they’ll come back to the game. I think that because of this there will only be more Short Deck tournaments in the future.”