New Type of Poker Game is In Development

 PokerStars has finished Alpha testing a new kind of poker game called “Power Up”. Very little is known about the project, but the teaser video looks very similar to HoldemX developed by Global Poker League.

On Tuesday PokerStars gave their users a peculiar Valentine’s Day present: they announced they have finished Alpha testing their new product, “Power Up”. It is a NL Hold'em poker game which allows the players to have special cards that can influence the hand: one can add a third hole card to the player, one may take a card down from the board, and other ones have other special “powers” like those. The gameplay took concepts from turn-based strategy games. They also released a 35-second teaser.

“Power Up” is one of the many new developments PokerStars is experiencing with. These include “Beat The Clock”, “KO Poker” and “Pin & Go”. All of these are aimed to bring in new, recreational players rather than appease their loyal user base, especially the pros. 

Controversially, the gameplay footage looks a lot like HoldemX, a new poker game which also introduced special cards called “xcards” with similar powers to the ones in Power Up. HoldemX was thought up by Mediarex CEO and director of Global Poker League, Alexandre Dreyfus back in 2015. The game was released online but failed to gain popularity. HoldemX creators had no connection to the development of Power Up.

Here are PokerStars’s teaser for Power Up (top video) and game footage of Jonathan Little playing HoldemX for comparison.