Power Up - Powers explanation

There are ten Powers available in the game today:

• Clone

Clone allows you to copy the previous Power played in the hand. Note that it does not carry over between hands, so if no Power was played in the current hand, Clone cannot be activated.

Clone cannot be activated if the previous Power was also Clone (as that would be a waste of energy).

Clone works only on the previous Power. If two or more Powers were played, you will always Clone the most recent one.

Clone can be used to get multiple copies of a Power (i.e. a player can wind up holding two Disintegrates in his hand even though he couldn’t be dealt two of them normally).

The new Power also costs energy to play and acts as that Power in all other respects.

• Disintegrate

Disintegrate removes a poker card dealt during the current street from the board.

Only two Disintegrates can be played per hand. This can be at any point in the hand (two cards can be removed on the flop, for example) but players must still be able to make a five-card poker hand at showdown.

On the flop, you can choose which card is removed.

A Disintegrate played on the turn can only be used to remove the turn card. The same rule applies on the river.

• EMP

EMP prevents future Powers from being played on the current street.

This effect only works on the street it is played. If EMP is played on the flop, you can still play Powers on the turn.

It has no effect on Powers that were already played. For example, a card that was Disintegrated before EMP was played will still be gone.

• Engineer

All players see the next three poker cards on the top of the deck. The person who played Engineer then picks a card, which becomes the next card on the deck. The other two cards are discarded.

The poker card remains visible to all players after it’s selected until it’s dealt or until the hand is over.

Only the next card is shown. Once it’s dealt out the Engineer effect is over.

The poker card will not necessarily be dealt to the board (or dealt at all). If another Engineer, Reload or Upgrade is played after Engineer, the card could wind up in a player’s hand or be discarded. Engineer simply lets everyone know what the next poker card off the top of the deck will be and does not determine what happens to it.

• Intel

The player who plays Intel sees the next poker card off the deck for the remainder of the hand.

This Power persists through any number of Powers or dealt poker cards. When the card is dealt out (and no matter where it’s dealt) the player sees the next poker card in line and so on.

• Reload

Reload allows you to discard one or both hole cards and get new ones from the top of the deck.

You pick whether to discard one or both cards.

• Scanner

Scanner shows you the next two poker cards on top of the deck and you can then choose whether to keep or discard them. Opponents know whether you kept or discarded them, but they do not know what the cards are.

Like Engineer, Scanner lets you know what the next two cards are if you keep them, but it doesn’t determine what happens to them.

Unlike Intel, this Power does not persist after the two cards are dealt out.

• Upgrade

Upgrade deals you a third hole card. You pick one of your three hole cards to discard.

Note that depending on the Powers played earlier in the hand, either you, or one, or more opponents may already know what those poker card(s) are.

• X-Ray

X-Ray forces all your opponents to reveal one hole card to the entire table.

This card is chosen at random.

Note that, because of the special “no forcing both hole cards to be visible” case, this Power will not work if someone is already showing a hole card.

• Deploy

Deploy lets you add the card from the top of the deck to the board. The card added is visible and usable for all players in the hand.

This Power can be played at any point during the hand, is capped at 2 and can be played a maximum of twice in a single hand, creating a board with seven cards total.

The final hand is not affected. The best hand made by a combination of five cards, from hole cards and board cards, will determine the winner of the hand.

For more information on how to play, visit our Power Up guide.