Claudio Elizalde had more than just the 2024 World Series of Poker on his mind when he made it to the sunny and sweltering Las Vegas in late May. He had prototypes for a deck named ‘Hold’em For Dear Life’ that he designed to take poker up a notch.

The Global Poker Streamer and PokerNews Live Reporter hoped his design stayed true to the spirit of No-Limit Texas Hold’em while making it a more social and interactive experience. He wanted poker to feel more like a board game without hurting the pace of the game. Two years of development and playtesting led to the product he has now.

What is ‘Hold’em For Dear Life

Hold’em For Dear Life is a not-so-typical, 52-card, four-color deck. All you need to be able to play with this deck is a set of poker chips and some competition. Every card in the deck, except for the aces and deuces, has additional abilities – we’ll get more into these in a bit. The deck currently has two different colored cardbacks available to pledge for on Kickstarter. The art for the deck was done by an artist named Megan Mecseji (@meowgan.art), who worked closely with Elizalde to capture the essence of each suit in the deck. Mecseji also did the art for the custom, limited-edition tuck box.

Like any other deck of cards, Hold’em For Dear Life can be used in cash games or tournaments, from heads-up to a multi-table tournament.

How It Works

The rules for this game were built for flop games and the creators recommend playing No-Limit Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, or Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo with the deck. Any costs listed on cards are assumed to be paid to the pot unless otherwise stated in the rules.

Adding more movement to an already action-packed game might seem chaotic, but the game was designed to be balanced. Some cards, like the fives, tens, and queens only do something if they come out on the community board. Other cards, like the threes, sixes, and nines only do something if they’re in the hole. This allows the game to not be too busy while still keeping the table more engaged than a regular poker game.

Some Cards and How They Work

Queens - The queens all have an ability called ‘Sift’. Sift lets an active player look at one of the burn cards and they may choose to trade one of their hole cards for the card they looked at. This ability only activates if a queen emerges on the flop, turn, or river. The easiest way to tell that the queen does nothing in the hole is that there is nothing extra in the corner of the card or what the game creators refer to as ‘The Peel Zone’. The only difference between all the queens is who gets to use the effect – spades go to the biggest stack in the hand, hearts is first to act, diamonds go to the player on the dealer button or best position in the hand, and clubs go to the shortest stack in the hand.

Nines - The nines have an ability called ‘Victor’ and you’ll notice that these cards do have a symbol in the peel zone, indicating that the nines interact in the hole, unlike the queens. Victor rewards a player for winning with a nine in the hole, whether at showdown or by revealing it as the pot is rewarded. The only difference between all the nines is what that reward is. Spades let you pick an opponent at the table to pay you five big blinds; Hearts make it so that all your opponents at the table have to pay you two big blinds. Diamonds win you the button (yes, the dealer button gets pushed to you); Clubs let you draw/discard an extra card at the start of the next hand.

Sevens - The sevens are the only cards with an ability that doesn’t require text. Every single one of the sevens counts for two suits, whether in the hole or on the board. The seven of spades also act as a diamond; the seven of hearts also act as a club; the seven of diamonds also act as a heart; the seven of clubs also act as a spade. There is a rule that specifies you cannot have a qualifying flush with a pair, meaning that you can’t use two sevens to complete a flush.

Aces and Deuces - The ones and twos being left with no abilities allows the deck a nice balance, especially if you’re playing hi/lo. Between the cards with no text and the fact that some abilities only interact at certain times, the pace of the game is pretty close to a regular poker game.

How to Get a Deck

If you’d like to get your hands on one of these limited-edition decks, you’ll have to head over to Kickstarter and pledge. They have a goal to raise $20,000 to fund their first run. As of the posting of this article, they are X% from reaching their goal with 20 days left to fulfill it.

The cards are poker-sized and 100% high-quality plastic. Their Kickstarter offers a single deck for $33, all the way up to the $777 Founder’s Flagship Pack that comes with seven decks, a mega bundle, an autographed playing card, and a custom chipset.

You can follow Hold’em For Dear Life on X or Instagram to learn more about the art, design, and gameplay. They’re posting a new video every day until the Kickstarter is over to help bring this exciting deck to as many people as possible.

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