With all the craziness going on in the world with the novel coronavirus pandemic, one thing is, for the most part, business as usual: online poker. After all, if people are going to stay inside, what better way to pass the time than online poker? And to keep things interesting, PokerStars launched a new novelty cash game on Tuesday called Swap Hold’em.

• No Limit Swap Hold'em
• Swap Hold'em Strategy
• Swap Holdem

On Tuesday, PokerStars unvieled its latest game called Swap Hold'em, a game which allows players to swap cards at any point during the hand. Hold’em with a difference. Swap hold’em is played like regular hold’em, but with one key difference. At any point in the hand, and when it’s your turn to act, you can swap one or both of your hole cards for new ones. You can do that for free, once per hand. Either pre-flop or post flop. And on any street.

Pitch your cards

Swap Hold’em is a Texas Hold’em game and can be played with no funny business whatsoever. Where it gets its name from, however, is the twist. There’s always a twist. In Swap Hold’em, players can toss away one or both of their hole cards and draw new ones.

The hole card swap can take place any time in the hand, but only once. Players can swap out their cards before the flop or on the flop, turn, or river. Yup, if you get all the way to the river and want one or two new hole cards, you can go for it. And you don’t have to bet in the betting round until after you swap your cards. Thus, if you missed your draw, but nobody has bet, you can always swap a card out and see if you get lucky before committing any chips.

The mechanics of Swap Hold’em are easy. Just click on one or both hole cards to highlight them and then click the big “Swap” button to the left of the traditional betting buttons to complete the trade.

At that point, the new hole card or hole cards are in your hand and you can proceed as normal. Players who have swapped have an icon next to their table placard with the number of swapped cards displayed. It is also possible to view the cards you got rid of if you want to torture yourself or, preferably, if you want to verify for odds purposes. To do so, just hover your mouse over the swap icon.

Sometimes I just want to fold

I took Swap Hold’em for a whirl on PokerStars.net (it is only available right now on the .NET and .UK clients, but will roll out to others) and it works just fine except for one quirk. If you have not bet in a round, you cannot fold until you swap a card.

It’s weird. Say, for example, you are on the button pre-flop and everybody folds to you. You need to call the big blind or raise in order to stay in the hand. In this case in Swap Hold’em, there is no “Fold” button. It is only until you choose at least one card and exchange it that the Swap button changes to a Fold button.

This does not happen if checking would keep you in the hand. You can still check. But if you haven’t acted yet and need to call or raise to say in the hand, the software makes you swap before you can fold. If you have already bet in the betting round and someone raises, you can fold when the action gets back to you.

Leading online poker room PokerStars has added yet another new innovative cash game variant to its game offerings dubbed Swap Hold’em.

The game follows the long list of innovative limited-time cash game variants that the operator has been developing over the last three years in an attempt to keep players engaged.

It is currently available as a cash game with its own lobby, sitting right next to 6+ Hold’em and Tempest in the main lobby. The game is played 6-handed and is available at nearly a dozen stakes starting from the micro stakes $0.02/$0.05 and going up to $10/$20.

How Swap Hold’em is Played?

Swap Hold’em plays exactly like regular Texas Hold’em but with a twist that lets players swap one or both of their hole cards for new ones from the deck. Players must swap at least one hole card before they can fold.

Swapping of hole cards can be done once per hand and at any point during the hand, be it pre-flop, or post-flop at turn, or even at the river. However, once a player goes all-in, he or she loses the ability to swap cards.

As soon as a player swaps, their opponents will immediately know how many hole cards have been swapped. There is no obligation to swap cards as players can proceed with the hand by either checking, calling a bet or making a bet.

Some of the key points of Swap Hold’em:

• Players can swap either one or both of their hole cards for free
• Swapping of cards is only allowed once per hand
• Players must swap their cards before they can fold
• Swapping can be done at any stage of the hand (either pre- or post-flop) except when a player is all-in

Swap Hold’em Takes Inspirations from PokerStars’ Power Up

The novelty of swapping hole cards is seemingly inspired by PokerStars’ esports poker title Power Up—a game no longer available that allowed players to influence their hand by using special powers. One of the powers of the game was “reload” that allowed players to replace one or both hole cards with a new one from the deck.

Power Up was withdrawn from PokerStars’ game offerings in November last year after running for two years.

Another free-play esports title Hands of Victory, which dates back to early 2015, has a swap ability option.

Swap Hold’em Follows PokerStars’ Tradition of Launching Limited-time Cash Games

Swap Hold’em is PokerStars’ eighth novelty variant that has been launched in the last three years.

No Limit Swap Hold'em

From Split Hold’em to Showtime, from Unfold to Fusion, the operator has been releasing these new game titles consistently since 2018.

In November last year, PokerStars launched another two action-packed new cash game variants in tandem, Deep Water Hold’em and Tempest Hold’em.

Most of these lasted just a couple of months except for 6+ Hold’em and Tempest Hold’em—the operator’s first-ever Push or Fold game—both of them continue to run even today.

Deep Water Hold’em was withdrawn from the lobby in January only to be replaced with Fusion which returned after over a year. In February, PokerStars added 6-Card Omaha cash game tables. However, unlike other games, 6-Card Omaha, in contrast, is listed in the regular lobby along with other Omaha variants. This suggests that the game is a permanent addition to their game offerings.

PokerStars Cash Game Novelties

Swap Hold’em was first spotted by Poker Industry PRO, premium news and data analytics platform for poker industry insiders, six months ago after the game made its appearance in the “tournament” filter of the PokerStars’ main lobby.

Swap Hold'em Strategy

The game was launched for real money earlier today in the international dot-com and dot-eu clients. It is also available to UK, Belgium, Estonian, Russian clients which have their own dedicated PokerStars platform. The game is also accessible in the play money (dot-net) platform.

Swap Holdem

However, the game is only visible to players that have enabled PokerStars’ new game engine called Aurora.