Exchange Poker 2026

Exchange Poker is a 2–4 player drafting and hand-building game using a standard 54-card deck, including 2 Jokers. Over a series of drafting phases, players exchange cards from their hand with cards in a shared face-up market, gradually assembling multiple poker hands from an expanding pool of drafted cards.

At the start of each phase, each player receives a private hand and a row of face-up center cards is revealed. Players then take turns exchanging cards: taking one card from the center row and replacing it with a card from their hand, or passing. Because exchanged cards remain available in the center, the shared market continually shifts as players improve their own hands while disrupting opponents' plans. After each phase, the center row is discarded and a new phase begins with fresh cards.

Once all phases are complete, players construct their final poker hands from their drafted cards. In a two-player game, each player builds three 5-card poker hands; in three- and four-player games, each player builds two. Hands are ordered from strongest to weakest and compared positionally against opponents’ corresponding hands.

—description from the publisher