Most Exclusive Poker Games in 2022

Trying new varieties of poker is a trend in recent years. Moreover, attempts to update the range of online poker games are made by many developers. What formats have we already seen by the end of 2021? And can regulars make money on new games? Let’s try to figure it out and explore the most exclusive poker games.

Why Introduce New Formats?

The answer is obvious – to increase the profit of the room. New poker formats are important to online poker sites in the USA for several reasons. Firstly, they increase the dynamics of the game, which leads to a larger average pot and more hands played. Secondly, they increase the chances of newcomers against regulars. Since no one has calculated the new games yet. You can only guess about the required opening ranges, about the pot odds in the new conditions, and so on. All in all, unusual formats attract new players as they are difficult or impossible to find in offline clubs or offline casinos. They also give an advantage over other poker rooms due to the uniqueness of the format. 

For example, one of the first experiments with poker formats was Rush Poker at Full Tilt, which morphed into Zoom at PokerStars, Snap at 888poker, FastForward at partypoker. Now in almost all poker rooms we can find analogs of Spin & Go. Rooms were gradually realizing the benefits of new formats for their earnings. PokerStars put a lot of money into promoting Duel, but the idea failed. Only Beat the Clock gained some popularity, but regulars stubbornly ignored it. Indeed, it is very difficult to beat a 10% rake. The iPoker network spied on the idea at Macau casinos for their Holdem 6+, but could not get it going. Some formats do not take root (Duel). However, others are gaining popularity and are deeply studied by regulars in search of big fish. Now let’s find out more about the most exclusive poker games. 

Most Exclusive Poker Games: Power Up 

In mid-2017, game developers introduced Power Up, a mixture of poker and the famous Hearthstone game. Overall, the game was decently similar to Hold’em X introduced a year earlier. Indeed, Power Up is a classic Sit & Go Holdem that includes “magic” cards that change the deal. For example, Disintegrate removes any card on the board, and Intel shows the next card to be revealed from the deck.

There are 9 “magic” cards in the game in total.  However, prospects for making real money here are vague. There are even more variables to consider in this game, and it is very difficult to multi-table. In terms of income dollar/hour, standard Hold’em in the Intertops Poker will bring more. Rather, Power Up should be viewed as entertainment, not a way to make money.

Flopomania 

Flopomania is a standard Hold’em game where preflop is completely skipped and players see the first three community cards immediately. At first, the game caused a certain stir, but then the number of tables dropped and the company closed Flopomania. However, the bitter experience of 888 Poker did not prevent Winamax from introducing a similar game – Flop. All in all, the entire basic NLHE strategy does not work here, and you will have to play the banal “true or false”. The position of the blinds becomes even weaker as they have to act first, and against a large number of opponents, their combination must be very strong. Read more about the Poker Skills That Improve Your Life in 2022 to improve your chances of winning.

Unfold is One Of The Most Exclusive Poker Games

In Unfold, players who folded pre-flop can still compete for a side pot. When they see a flop that suits the discarded cards, they can bet on the side pot and win it. Of course, online poker sites in the USA remained in the greater profit, because in each hand two pots were played, which means that the rake doubled. However, the game received a lot of negative feedback, and the format had to be closed quickly. Therefore, you will try hard to find this format online. 

Fusion&Pick’em8

Fusion is an explosive mix of Hold’em and Omaha. PS took Irish Poker’s work from Full Tilt and refined it. Preflop is played like NLHE. However, on the flop and turn, each player in the hand gets another card, and the river goes by Omaha rules. Like many previous formats, Fusion makes the game completely unpredictable and difficult to calculate. Based on player comments, many believe that, at its core, Fusion is an incomplete Omaha. Given that there are a lot of newbies at first, the Omaha format can be a decent profit for regulars.

Pick’em8 is a game that can hardly be called skillful. This is a pure lottery, where players need to collect the best combination by first choosing two starting cards from the eight offered. Due to its simplicity and speed, it will find its players. However, it is hardly possible to win here over a long distance, especially considering the horse rake. Most likely, Pick’em8 will face the same fate as Flopomania – complete oblivion.

Most Exclusive Poker Games in MTT

Rooms have been experimenting with multi-table tournaments a long time ago. In an attempt to surprise the players and attract them to the game, they came up with the following formats. For example, the Escalator tournaments were launched back in 2013 by Full Tilt Poker. Their essence was in the uneven growth of the blinds – they started like turbines, and became “slow” in the later stages. This idea was used by PokerStars three years later for another new format.

Bubble Rush – in fact, the same “escalators” only with more precise points for changing the rate of growth of the blinds. Before the prize zone, they go in a hyper-turbo format, and after the bubble, they become deep tournaments with 12-20 minute levels. Meanwhile, Wild West tournaments were at one time an experimental format in the field of rebuy tournaments. The very small buy-in compared to the guarantee, the short initial stack, the ability to produce an unlimited number of rebuys regardless of the current stack size, made them wild. Now they are available in just a few small European rooms.

Multi-entry tournaments have become another way to diversify the possibilities of additional entries to the tournament. Instead of making consecutive rebuys, the player from the beginning of the tournament could play simultaneously on several tables. The number of such inputs is usually limited to four. For the first time, multi-entry MTT appeared in FTP. In 2015, the Stars offered their players the following opportunity to purchase additional chips during the tournament. The initial stack is divided into several parts and you can decide how many to take at the beginning of the tournament, as well as how and when to use the remaining parts.

What Else is There To Consider?

Survivor is a very familiar MTT format invented on the Microgaming network. It provides a limited number of blind levels, after each of them 10-20% of the players with the shortest stacks are automatically eliminated. At the end of the tournament, the remaining players will split the prizes equally. Meanwhile, Time – were available in both SnG and MTT format. All of these tournaments just had a fixed time to play. After it ended, the prize pool was divided based on the size of the stacks of the players remaining at the tables.

Also, there is the Phase – multi-stage tournaments at first simply copied the structure of live events with their several starting days, then they began to be used to attract players with a limited bankroll to expensive MTTs. Each stage had its buy-in size, which gradually increased. A certain part of the participants moved to the next stage with their stacks and so on until the last stage. Besides, in the Win The Button MTTs, the player who wins the next hand starts from the button position, that is, the one who plays the most aggressively of all the blinds most often and has a more advantageous position at the table pre-flop.

Finally, Progressive Super-Knockout – the idea of ​​rewarding players for a knocked-out opponent in tournaments was first implemented more than 10 years ago, but only relatively recently has this principle been fully developed. Now players do not just collect money for the heads of opponents. Those of them who do this most successfully increase the bounty size for their departure from the table. Find out more information in our article Online Poker Tournaments Explained.

What Most Exclusive Poker Games Can We Expect in 2022?

Intertops Poker will continue to test new formats to continue winning the competition. We will almost certainly see the Short-Deck format that Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey are trying to popularize. It didn’t last long on iPoker and Pokerdom in 2016 (it was called Holdem 6+ then), but in 2022 that could change. Of course, many formats will never take root, and some will work great only in certain markets. In our opinion, in the new year, rooms will be more focused on the mobile market, priority will be given to games that can be completed in a few minutes. However, standard Hold’em and Omaha will still be far ahead in popularity.

Nevertheless, the main poker room can hardly count on a long-term positive effect: the success of any format will immediately force others to adopt it for themselves, changing only the name. At the same time, relatively unsuccessful projects like Unfold can easily hit conditional poker. In 2022, online poker needs games that will be interesting for a hobby player, it is easy to figure out the rules, and the regular will work at the same time. To improve your skills learn more about the Table Selection in Online Poker 2021. Good luck!

Click here to stay tuned with Intertops Poker