CoolhandThe games · Coolhand Poker
Sviten Special
Five cards, a shared middle and one swap. The pool splits between your five alone and two of yours with three from the middle. Swap one card and it shows.
18+ · Nothing to win but the hand.
- Players
- 2 to 6
- Family
- Draw
- App
- Coolhand Poker · iOS and Android, soon
How it goes
You're dealt five cards, and a shared middle goes face up in stages for everyone to use, the way a flop game does it, with one swap after the first three shared cards. The pool splits in two. Half goes to the best five-card hand from your own cards alone. Half goes to the best hand made from exactly two of yours with three from the middle. The swap has a catch: if you swap exactly one card, the new one is dealt face up for the whole table to see. Keep it, or refuse it and take an unseen card instead, which you must keep. One hand can take both halves, and that's what you're aiming for.
A good hand
Five cards that make a hand on their own and also pair up with the middle. A made run whose cards connect to the shared ones takes both halves. Look for cards that do two jobs: strong enough to stand alone and close enough to the middle to fit with it. A hand that only works one way is only ever playing for half.
The usual mistake
Throwing away a card that serves the middle to improve your five-card hand, or the other way around. Every card you hold counts twice here, once alone and once with the shared cards. Throw the one that helps neither, and think hard before you throw one that helps only one. With a single swap there's no way back from the wrong choice.
Played differently where you are?
Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Sviten Special goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.
The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.