Open now · By request
Sidehand playtest
by Nicolas Hoffmann
A poker roguelite where folding arms you. Every card you fold joins your Sidehand: drop a 4 on your 9 to make a King (9 + 4 = 13), heal, or power up your next hit. Real Texas Hold'em against fourteen opponents across nine tables. New to poker? It teaches you as you play.
It's free to ask. The developer chooses who gets in.
- Access
- By request
- On playtest since
- Nov 14, 2026
- Planned release
- Coming soon
- Developer
- Nicolas Hoffmann
- Platforms
- Windows
- Players
- Single-player
- Languages
- English, French, German, Japanese and 5 more
How to join the Sidehand playtest
- Open the game's Steam page with the Request access button. Sign in to Steam if it asks.
- Request access to the Sidehand playtest there. It's free and doesn't commit you to anything.
- The developer lets players in, often in batches, so it can take a while. Steam emails you when you're in, and the playtest appears in your library.
New to playtests? How Steam playtests work
How AI is used
Made with generative AI (pre-generated): the painted tables and maps, the animal portraits, the booster-pack and store art, and the music, all directed, selected and edited by the developer. Some text, including the Spanish and Chinese translations, was drafted with AI help. Nothing is generated by AI while you play.
The developer's own words, from Steam.
About Sidehand
In real poker you fold most of your hands. That's the boring part. In Sidehand, every card you fold becomes magic.
Sidehand is a poker roguelite. Win a pot and it hits your opponent's health bar. Fold, and the card you let go joins your Sidehand: a second hand of magic cards you play onto the table.
Fold, and keep the card
You are dealt three hole cards and drop one before the flop. That card joins your Sidehand, and so does a card from every hand you fold. Your Sidehand cards give you strategic moves:
- Attack. Drop a 4 on your 9 and it becomes a King. Power up your next hit. Turn a card wild.
- Defend. Drop a heart on your health bar and it heals you. Change a community card's suit to break an opponent's flush.
Every run is different
- Three acts at three tables you choose, each ending with a boss that resists one hand and fears another.
- Win a fight, choose one of three booster packs, and build a deck that bends the rules: destroy, clone, shift ranks, convert suits and print nineteen enhancements onto your cards.
- Six Stakes of difficulty, six starter decks, and the Daily Deal: the same fight for everyone, every day.
Nine tables, nine ways to play
Three tables play Classic Hold'em. Six play a house game from real card rooms: No-Limp, Bomb Pot, Door Card, Push or Fold, Kill Pot and Fixed Limit. Each has its own painting, its own music and its own boss.
Opponents who play real poker
The Calling Station never folds, so never bluff it. The Rock only raises with a monster. The Shark counts how often you fold. Learn how each of the fourteen plays, and you have met the people at a real table.
Learn real poker, safely
- New to poker? First Steps teaches you at the table, one idea at a time: which hand beats which, the blinds and the bets, then the magic. Already play? Skip straight to the magic.
- A Coach that plays fair: what you hold, which cards would help and what to do, in plain words or with the odds. It only reads what a real player can see.
- No real-money gambling: the chips are pretend, the poker is real.
Solo and offline · No ads · Mouse, keyboard or controller
From the game's Steam page.
