Haha... no.

Here are the rules: https://www.pokerstars.com/powerup/guide/

As long as you're too lazy to even learn the rules, you definitely won't beat the game.

Thanks c oon!

Oh, thanks for the heads-up, they're indeed coming.

I wouldn't be too much against real-money 'freakout SNGs' (or 'frenzy SNGs' named after the 1M play chip Friday Frenzy) if they had reasonable rake, like 5% at the midstakes, but that's an unrealistic dream (For those who haven't deduced it from the picture - in every hand, the big blind player will be put all-in automatically, and each opponent will have only one decision - whether to fold or call all-in.)

That said, the ROIs would be lower in freakout SNGs than in any existing SNG format because the former can be solved rather easily and thus will attract too many regs.

Not gonna lie its fun as hell and I'm only using playchips

How many mana do you have to tap for an Ace of Spades?

I guess you missed the part where LOADS of the Higher Stakes Pro's play Hearthstone...

I can't wait for the dNegs and ElKy promo video.

I think $25-50 will be the top buy-in like for Beat The Clock and super-KOs; these stakes won't be very popular but they'll still be in the lobby. Still, the $10s-25s are going to have a high profit-to-study ratio, considering the current toughness of higher stake online poker.

I've tried this format and it is surprisingly interesting and entertaining. I can see this format similar to Spin and Go with 3 handed but can't see this going 6-9 handed. Would be funny to see 5 players use the disintegrate card and completely take out the board.

I haven't asked the support about this, but I'm pretty sure that, after 2 players use Disintegrate in the same hand, the 3rd player automatically loses the ability to use it in that hand. Otherwise no one would be able to form a 5-card hand n showdown, which would violate the basic rules of poker.

I think the card would be good if it revealed both hole cards. As you say, you can always ensure its ability is not canceled out when combo'd with EMP. Could be very useful for river decisions.

Alternatively, I wonder how it would play if it could be used when someone is all-in, maybe the only card that has that exception. It's value would go up a lot when facing a river all in, seeing a single card can detect a flush/straight bluff.

Random other thought after playing 15 minutes - I wonder what a game like this would be if it had deck drafting. i.e., at start of tournament you select say five of the nine cards to make up your "deck" (which could be either finite, like in hearthstone, or infinite). Maybe you can select some cards that can be dealt at double-frequency.

The big strategy component of games like hearthstone, and why I think there is so much community and livestreaming around it, is imo the skill in deck drafting, finding nice combos, and the "meta" of the game - cards go up/down in value depending on what most people are playing at your level (stake). Knowing that you're playing against players who frequently runs a deck focused on "x-ray" could be countered with scanner/upgrade decks, etc.

if a player is all in, the board is protected from powers. could give some interesting take on the "I raise 90% instead of shoving" strat


want to try out the playmoney version but can't find it on 18132 ps.eu version?

Right, what I'm saying is I wonder how much stronger X-Ray would be if it was exempt from this rule.

either filter options (PM filtered) or you're not "selected" (#Freizeitspieleronly ) or market restricted ... I can play (Ireland) and a friend in Germany could test it as well


@ game ... played only on match. Obv it's a pain for 'real grinders', but i see, how this could be appealing for some random fun players. Not sure how many ppl from the esports community find this good enough, though. like hood pointed out, a deck creation might be more interesting. On the other hand, it's only alpha and a public test should give PS enough data to tweak and fine balance.

edit:

@ cards:

position gets more important imo ... opponent choose next street and i was on button and changed the card again and quickly ended the round

Fwiw, on Lex Velduis' stream yesterday, he had on Head of PokerStars Product team, who explicitly says that a max of 2 cards can be disintegrated [35m12s, in case anyone is a Lex subscriber and wants to listen. He joins the stream around the 30m mark.

Edit: Also goes on to discuss the exact case of X-raying 2 holecards. Dismissed because "thats no longer poker" - you have perfect information.

X-ray actually seems really good to me for it's cost of 2 energy. Holding EMP when you're likely to get in all preflop is a must. The game is really interesting in my opinion, it changes strategies drastically depending on what powers you have, I feel like you almost never want to be raising the pot too much preflop unless holding EMP.

Thanks for watching and retelling that Lex's stream, Hood! What did the Head of Product tell about the maximum stakes and the ETA of the real-money Power Up?

As for drafting - it doesn't happen initially, but you have an opportunity to assemble a better deck as the game progresses by getting rid of weak powers fast and holding on to those powers that will be more useful when the blinds grow. I find it fascinating enough already and think that an initial draft would only complicate the game. It would be necessary if there were a lot of powers in the deck, but with only 9, it's very possible to get your favourite power during the game, either by being dealt it or by cloning it.

Speaking of, EMP appears to be the most valuable power because, by its very definition, it can't be cloned if the action in the hand ends on the same street where it's used (which is usually the case because EMP is usually immediately followed by a shove), which limits its circulation dramatically.

Raising to a bit less than the entire effective stack is going to be a more common move than shoving (I've already seen a few Power Up regs use it habitually), but for another reason - if you go all-in immediately, the opponent(s) can still use all the powers except X-Ray (?) and Disintegrate, and you have no opportunity to counter them.

That said, I don't think that such a big non-all-in raise is GTO: if one of the opponents EMP-shoves, Hero is committed to a large pot with no opportunity to boost his equity with a power.

I can't find it in the EU lobby. I am using MACos tho. Can you tell me where specifically it is located?

He avoided any questions about ETAs and plans for stakes/games. He just said they don't want to box themselves in to a specific plan - they're open to all possible game types, formats, structures in the future, they've designed it so there's lots of flexibility (MTTs, more power cards, tweaking the energy amounts and costs).

He said definitely, real money was the plan. But again, no schedule.

He also kept repeating that this was just the "tip of the iceberg", lots of other cards have been designed and could come out, among other innovations and changes.

Also one other thing that I didn't realize until listening to the stream - this test period will only be up for a limited time. It's going to get pulled down again soon, presumably once they have some customer play data they want to go behind the curtain again and develop it further.

Yeah you're right, listening to Lex's stream there was a lot of talk about deck construction and the game meta, on first play I didn't appreciate the depth.

Desktop PC only right now. Mac and mobile will come.

Therefor I won't go allin and bet 90%. It is a huge advantage if someone shoves and you are still able to change hole cards or pick a card for the flop.

If you have a few chips behind, you keep the chance to use powercards when the action is back to you (either calling a allin) or on the flop

Right, the 90% raise combined with the use of Scanner / Engineer after the opponent shoves is a tremendous exploit in the current game dynamics, however, it will only be good until regs and most regfishes start EMP-shoving over 90% raises whenever they have that power, or, even worse, applying their own Scanner / Engineer before the EMP.

Let alone that a clever opponent owning Engineer / Upgrade / Reload will just flat your 90% raise to see a flop and possibly a turn, which will give you both a better idea about which cards to keep / discard but will benefit the player in position.

I think I heard Lex said it is only available on Windows as of now. I can see it on the EU Windows version fwiw.

I wonder if this alpha test is using the same RNG as Stars' real-money games. Power Up will have to use the same RNG when it goes live for real money, but I'm not sure if it's mandatory for the play money preview

Hero (4480 in chips, 3 energy, Scanner)
[at the start of the hand: 11 energy, Scanner, Intel and Upgrade]
Villain (1520 in chips, 9 energy)

Hero: posts small blind 60
Villain: posts big blind 120

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Q J]

Hero plays Intel (3) and sees the next card from the deck is 5.

Hero: raises 120 to 240
Villain: calls 120

*** FLOP *** [5 J A] (pot: 480)

Hero sees the next card from the deck is 7 (from Intel).

Villain: checks
Hero: bets 240
Villain: calls 240

*** TURN *** [5 J A] [7] (pot: 960)

Hero sees the next card from the deck is 5 (from Intel).
Villain: bets 120
Hero: calls 120

*** RIVER *** [5 J A 7] [5] (pot: 1200)

Hero sees the next card from the deck is J (from Intel).

Villain: bets 920 and is all-in (and freezes the current board cards)

Hero plays Upgrade (5); draws another holecard and then chooses one to discard.

Hero receives J.
Hero discards Q.

Hero sees the next card from the deck is K (from Intel).

Hero: calls 920

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [8 9] (a flush, Jack high)
Hero: shows [J J] (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)

Intel needs more love Note that, had I had Reload instead of Upgrade, I would have discarded the queen only because Intel was showing that I was about to draw J The reason why I called the turn bet was that I had huge implied odds and, even against a flush, I essentially had 4 outs on the postriver (J, J, 5, 5) because Intel was showing that the river would pair the board with 5 and I'd get to see the next card in the deck ('the postriver card') and be able to draw it into my hand using Upgrade.

Wow, Amaya continues to use the extra rake money their grabbing on stupid new games and a new rewards system that reduces rakeback.

Increase Rake + Decrease Rackback = Bigger Profits for Amaya (the company who bought pokerstars under shady inside trading scandal and also donated money in the US Election violating US Election Laws. I've lost count how many people have been charged with insider trading.)

The game is very funny, but it is the type of the game i would like to play against my friends, and you cant choose lobby, or cant because it is real money and against 2 players.

Really want to see that feature for home games.