Poker Patience

Introduction

Poker patience is a card game for one player in which cards must be placed, one at a time, to form a five by five square. Once a card has been placed, it may not be moved. Each row and column is then treated as a poker hand (ignoring the order of the cards) and scores according to this table:

Combination                       Score
                       English           American

One pair                   1                  2
Two pairs                  3                  5
Triplet                    6                 10
Straight                  12                 15
Flush                      5                 20
Full house                10                 25
Four of a kind            16                 50
Straight flush            30                 75
Royal flush               30                100

As you will have noticed, there are two scoring systems: English and American.

The English system is the more accurate, as it takes into account the difference in probabilities when compared to ordinary poker. However, poker players may find the American system more natural, as hands are ranked as in conventional poker.

The target score is 70 by the English system or 200 by the American.

Poker combinations

For anyone not familiar with poker, the possible scoring combinations are explained below:

One pair: any two cards of the same rank, eg. 2 2, J J or A A
Two pairs: two pairs of cards of the same rank, eg. 2 2 3 3 or 7 7 K K
Triplet: three cards of the same rank, eg. 9 9 9, Q Q Q
Straight: five cards of consecutive rank, regardless of suit. Aces can be high or low (but not both). eg. A 2 3 4 5, 3 4 5 6 7, 10 J Q K A, but not K A 2 3 4
Flush: five cards of the same suit, regardless of rank
Full house: a triplet and a pair, eg. 5 5 8 8 8, 4 4 4 J J
Four of a kind: four cards of the same rank eg. A A A A, 3 3 3 3
Straight flush: five cards of consecutive rank, all in the same suit
Royal flush: a straight flush consisting of 10 J Q K A

The order of the cards does not matter, and any odd cards are irrelevant.

Playing the computer version

Click the iconbar icon to open the main Poker Patience window. The first card to be played is shown in the top right hand corner. Click in the blank part of the window to position the card. Cards can be placed in any of the five rows and columns, and need not be next to any card already played. To undo the last move made, click the adjust (right hand) mouse button.

When a row or column is completed, the combination and its score appear, and the total is updated. At the end of the game, if your score is high enough, you may be asked to enter your name for the high score table. (There is a different table for each scoring system.)

The menu

The main menu can be accessed by clicking the menu (middle) button over the iconbar icon or the window. The options are as follows:

Info - Leads to the usual program information
New game - Leads to a submenu with two options: English scores and American scores. Clicking on one of these starts a new game with the chosen scoring system (Clicking on New game itself starts a new game with the same scores as the last one.)
Scores - Displays a table with the scores for the combinations under the current system
High scores - Displays the high score table
Cloth colour - Leads to a choice of window background colours
Quit - Exits the program and removes its icon from the iconbar

Note to users of older monitors

When the game is played in modes 12 or 15, the bottom of the window is chopped off. This does not affect the functioning of the game. Alternatively, switching to mode 35 allows the whole window to fit on the screen.

The card sprite files

These sprite files are © Jonathan Rawle 1997. They may be used in other non-commercial products, as long as I am credited in Info boxes, help files etc.

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