diff -Naur mysql-5.6.15/sql/mysqld.cc mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/mysqld.cc
--- mysql-5.6.15/sql/mysqld.cc	2013-11-17 19:02:54.000000000 +0100
+++ mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/mysqld.cc	2014-01-09 17:08:40.813406330 +0100
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@
 ulong specialflag=0;
 ulong binlog_cache_use= 0, binlog_cache_disk_use= 0;
 ulong binlog_stmt_cache_use= 0, binlog_stmt_cache_disk_use= 0;
-ulong max_connections, max_connect_errors;
+ulong max_connections, max_connect_errors, max_super_connections;
 ulong rpl_stop_slave_timeout= LONG_TIMEOUT;
 my_bool log_bin_use_v1_row_events= 0;
 bool thread_cache_size_specified= false;
@@ -6093,12 +6093,12 @@
 
   /*
     Don't allow too many connections. We roughly check here that we allow
-    only (max_connections + 1) connections.
+    only (max_connections + max_super_connections) connections.
   */
 
   mysql_mutex_lock(&LOCK_connection_count);
 
-  if (connection_count >= max_connections + 1 || abort_loop)
+  if (connection_count >= max_connections + max_super_connections || abort_loop)
   {
     mysql_mutex_unlock(&LOCK_connection_count);
 
diff -Naur mysql-5.6.15/sql/mysqld.h mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/mysqld.h
--- mysql-5.6.15/sql/mysqld.h	2013-11-17 19:02:54.000000000 +0100
+++ mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/mysqld.h	2014-01-09 17:08:45.693444095 +0100
@@ -191,6 +191,7 @@
 extern ulong table_cache_size, table_def_size;
 extern ulong table_cache_size_per_instance, table_cache_instances;
 extern MYSQL_PLUGIN_IMPORT ulong max_connections;
+extern MYSQL_PLUGIN_IMPORT ulong max_super_connections;
 extern ulong max_connect_errors, connect_timeout;
 extern my_bool opt_slave_allow_batching;
 extern my_bool allow_slave_start;
diff -Naur mysql-5.6.15/sql/sys_vars.cc mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/sys_vars.cc
--- mysql-5.6.15/sql/sys_vars.cc	2013-11-17 19:02:54.000000000 +0100
+++ mysql-5.6.15-patch/sql/sys_vars.cc	2014-01-09 17:08:57.542535790 +0100
@@ -1748,6 +1748,16 @@
        /* max_connections is used as a sizing hint by the performance schema. */
        sys_var::PARSE_EARLY);
 
+static Sys_var_ulong Sys_max_super_connections(
+	"max_super_connections", "The number of simultaneous connections "
+	"reserved for use by accounts that have the SUPER privilege",
+	GLOBAL_VAR(max_super_connections), CMD_LINE(REQUIRED_ARG),
+	VALID_RANGE(1, 100000),
+	DEFAULT(1),
+	BLOCK_SIZE(1),
+	NO_MUTEX_GUARD,
+	NOT_IN_BINLOG);
+
 static Sys_var_ulong Sys_max_connect_errors(
        "max_connect_errors",
        "If there is more than this number of interrupted connections from "