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Visitors since 11 August 2001

Nothin' ain't worth nothin',
but it's free.

Poker Square

Here is a new version of a game you may have seen elsewhere on the web.

It's called Poker Square because you play it on a square and it's based on the card game Poker.

The basic principle is very simple. You are presented with a 5 by 5 square grid. You are then given 25 cards, one at a time. You place the cards on the grid, trying to create high-scoring poker hands in the five rows and the five columns of the grid.

So what makes a good hand? Well, generally cards of the same value, or the same suit, or in a sequence. Here is a list of the 8 scoring hands, with examples (in these examples, S=Spades, H=Hearts, D=Diamonds and C=Clubs; and T=Ten, J=Jack, Q=Queen, K=King and A=Ace):

Pair

2 cards of the same rank, with 3 unconnected cards, eg
5S 5D 3C 8D AH

2 Pairs

2 sets as above, with 1 odd card, eg
5S 5D 3C 3D AH

Flush

5 cards of the same suit, eg
5S 7S 8S TS KS

3 of a Kind

3 cards of the same rank, with 2 unconnected cards, eg
5S 5D 5C 8D AH

Full House

3 of a Kind, plus a Pair, eg
5S 5D 5C 8D 8H

Straight

5 cards in ascending order. In this version of the game, an Ace can be either high (above King) or low (below 2), but not both high and low in the same hand, eg
5S 6D 7C 8D 9H

4 of a Kind

All four cards of the same rank, with any other card, eg
5S 5D 5C 5H AH

Straight Flush

A Straight, where all the cards are of the same suit, eg
5S 6S 7S 8S 9S

The points you score for each hand are displayed on the opening screen. You can change these to your own favourite scoring method, for example to encourage seeking flushes, but the standard scoring will be applied again when you restart the program.

You can add a timer to put the pressure on if you think the game is too easy, and finally you can select a game number (this is useful if you want to play a duplicate game against a friend).

I suggest you start by selecting ">New Player" from the Players list, entering your name, and clicking "Play a random game...". You should soon get the hang of it.

Programs are freely distributable as the unamended self-extracting archives found on the site.
© 1995-2001 Gavin Regnart & GJR Computing