Puzzle PokerBeta

Goal

Score the most points by making melds in a shared grid of cards. Playing alone, score more than 20.

Cards

The Ace to 10 of each suit, 40 cards, and two Jokers. Ranks loop through the Ace: it sits above the 10 and below the 2, so 9-10-A and 10-A-2 are runs too. The Deck option takes out the 10s (36 cards) or adds the Jacks, Queens, and Kings (52).

Setup

The grid is 5 rows of 3 cells. Your side is the two rows nearest you and the shared row in the middle; your opponent’s side is their two rows and the same shared row. Your two front rows are the shared row and the row beside it.

Each player gets 5 cards and a Joker face up in front of them. Who goes first is random.

Play

1. Play a card from your hand, or your Joker, into an empty cell on your side. While your side is empty, play only into your front rows. Once your side is full, play on your opponent’s side.
2. A meld is 3 or more touching cards in a row, a column, or a diagonal, from either side, that are one rank, one suit, or a run of ranks.
3. Bonus. If your card makes a meld, you must play another card. It earns another bonus only if it makes a meld of a different type from your last bonus. A card earns one bonus at most.
4. Score. When you have no bonus left, every meld on the grid scores and its cards leave the grid. Then draw back to 5 cards.
5. The end. The game ends at once when a player can’t draw back to 5, or when a turn starts with no empty cell to play in.

Jokers are wild until they’re part of a meld. When a play makes a meld with a Joker, the player names it, and it’s that card from then on. A Joker nobody names stays wild and counts as no card.

Scoring

• Each meld type scores its points: 2 for three of a kind, 1 for a flush, 1 for a straight, and 0 for an out-of-order straight.
• A kind or a flush scores once for the longest line it fills. A straight scores once for every 3 touching cards that make one, so 10-9-8-7 is two straights.
• +1 if any scored card is in the shared row.
• +1 if you made a meld of 5 cards.

The most points wins. A tie goes to the player who still has their Joker, then to the one with fewer cards on their side, then to the player who went second.

Meld types

Three or more touching cards in a row, a column, or a diagonal:

• Three of a kind one rank: 2 points
• Flush one suit: 1 point
• Straight a run in order along the line: 1 point
• Out-of-order straight a run out of order: 0 points, 1 playing alone

+1 when any scored card is in the shared row, and +1 for a meld of 5 cards. Ranks loop through the Ace, so 10-A-2 is a straight.

Variants

Card persistence. After you score, you may keep one scored card on the grid, if it’s not in the shared row.

Deck. A–9 takes out the 10s for a quicker game, and A–K plays the whole pack for a longer one.

Playing alone uses a 3×3 grid and the A–9 deck. One random card starts in the middle, you hold 5 cards, and both Jokers wait at the side.

1. Draw 2 cards and place one of them at once. The other joins your hand. If the grid is full, first remove any card for −2.
2. Then you may play one more card, or shift one card to an empty cell next to it in any of the 8 directions.
3. If either of those made a meld, you have a bonus, and bonuses chain as in the duel. Only cards played earn them.
4. Every meld scores its type’s points, and an out-of-order straight scores 1. The first meld of the turn scores nothing, and a chain of 4 or more bonuses in one turn scores 5 more.
5. The melds leave the grid and you draw back to 5 cards. Jokers don’t count toward the 5.

The game ends when a turn starts with the deck empty. More than 20 points wins. Easy mode scores the first meld of a turn 1 point less instead of nothing. Hard mode shifts cards up, down, left, or right only. Long mode is the A–10 or A–K deck.

How this version differs

• A meld that’s two types at once, like a straight flush, can count as either for your next bonus, whichever helps you.
• An out-of-order straight is its own meld type for bonuses, as the rules’ table lists it.
• The shared-row point needs a scored card in the shared row.
• A Joker can be named any rank in the deck in any suit.
• Playing alone, the placed card and the extra play or shift earn one bonus between them, and the game ends when a turn starts with the deck empty.

Open the rules page