Copyright: (c) Ubi Soft


Poker Nights help file

Poker Nights is Ubi Soft's multiplayer online poker game.  You can only play it on our Game Service.  For those of you who are already used to play poker, you'll find this version very easy to play and complete with all the standard elements of poker.  And for those of you who haven't really been into poker, maybe you should check the rules before you begin to play, or else you could get quickly washed up by some pokermaniac.

Here is what we will be discussing in this document :

•	Poker Nights interface

•	How to play Poker Nights

•	Scores

•	Poker rules

•	Credits


Poker Nights interface

The poker interface is divided into three (3) main parts : the chat window, the opponents section and your own section.

The chat window lets you talk with other players while you play.  This is where you'll be able to bluff your way to victory or to know how your opponents try to mislead you and each other out.  Of course, you don't have to use it exclusively for that kind of “ poker-talk ”.  Every player's writing will be in a unique color to help you differ from one another.

The opponents section can have one, two or three other player's hand.  It also displays the number of chips they have left as well as all the moves they make during the game.

In your section, you'll have all your cards, the number of chips you have, the amount you bet, the overall (betting) pot and all the buttons that you need to play.

You'll notice that you can turn off the game's sounds by pressing the “ Sound ” button on the title bar (little sound icon).


How to play Poker Nights

First, to get your cards, you have to push the ANTE button.  You will obtain five cards and it will cost you five chips (everybody has to make that initial bet just to get cards).  You then have to make a bet before you're able to draw new cards.  The maximum bet before that is 50 chips (5 chips when you ante and 45 more).  After you got new cards, you can bet up to 50 more chips for a total of 100.  This maximum bet is to prevent players from betting an amount that others can't afford and therefore win by default.

So after you anted and someone raised his bet, you can either call or raise again (if you want to continue).  If you want to raise, choose a number of chips (multiple of 5) in the drop-down list and then press the RAISE button.  The number of chips you bet will be added to the pot and other players will have to call or raise again if they want to continue.  On the other hand, if you just want to bet the same amount as the current bet, just press the CALL button.  Your number of chips will be reduced of the amount you bet to match the current bet.  If someone bets a number of chips that you don't want to risk, just press the FOLD button.  You will withdraw from the current hand but you'll be able to get back on the next one.

When everybody has called or folded, you can discard some of your cards.  Just press the HOLD button below the cards you want to keep.  All the others will be discarded.  You cannot discard all your cards, only from 0 to 4 cards.  When you've selected the cards you want to keep, press the DRAW button.  All the cards you didn't hold will be replaced by new cards.

Then begins the final betting round.  It works the same way as before you discarded but when everybody has called or folded, the player who has the highest ranked hand wins the pot.

How do you know whose turn it is to play?  A hand appears beside the player's name with the time he has left to make his move.

You can leave the game anytime by pressing the EXIT button.


Scores

Your number of chips will be saved and displayed in the Scores section of your personal profile in the Game Service.  Every time you play, it will be updated.  Therefore, you can accumulate an impressive number of chips by playing a lot.  That way, people will always be able to see what kind of a poker player you are.

On the other hand, you may lose a lot in Poker Nights.  Therefore, whenever your number of chips reaches zero, you won't be able to play in this game anymore.  But if this happens, just leave the game and the next time you'll play, you'll have 250 chips to start trying to regain your fortune.

Hey, we have to give everybody a chance…


Rules of poker

The very basics

Poker is played from a standard pack of 52 cards (some variant games use multiple packs or add a few cards called jokers).  The cards are ranked (from high to low) Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace (Ace can be high or low, but is usually high).  There are four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs); however, no suit is higher than another.  All poker hands contain five cards, the highest hand wins.

How the hands are ranked

Hands are ranked as follows (from high to low):

•	Straight Flush

•	Four of a Kind

•	Full House

•	Flush

•	Straight

•	Three of a Kind

•	Two Pair

•	Pair

•	High Card

Click here to see the description of hand ranks.

Click here to see how to bet.


Description of Hand Ranks

Straight Flush

A straight flush is the best natural hand.  A straight flush is a straight (5 cards in order, such as 5-6-7-8-9) that are all of the same suit. As in a regular straight, you can have an ace either high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-1).  However, a straight may not 'wraparound' (such as K-A-2-3-4, which is not a straight).  An Ace high straight-flush is called a Royal Flush and is the highest natural hand.

Four of a Kind

Four of a kind is simply four cards of the same rank.  If there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the higher-rank four of a kind wins.

Full House

A full house is a three of a kind and a pair, such as K-K-K-5-5.  Ties are broken first by the three of a kind, then pair.  So K-K-K-2-2 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A, which beats Q-Q-Q-J-J.

Flush

A flush is a hand where all of the cards are the same suit, such as J-8-5-3-2, all of spades.  When flushes ties, follow the rules for High Card.  General rule: when hands tie, the cards outside break ties following the High Card rules.

Straight

A straight is 5 cards in order, such as 4-5-6-7-8.  An ace may either be high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-1). However, a straight may not 'wraparound' (such as Q-K-A-2-3, which is not a straight).  When straights tie, the highest straight wins (AKQJT beats KQJT9 down to 5432A).  If two straights have the same value (AKQJT vs AKQJT) they split the pot.

Three of a Kind

Three cards of any rank, matched with two cards that are not a pair (otherwise it would be a Full House ).  Again, highest three of a kind wins.

Two Pair

This is two distinct pairs of card and a 5th card.  The highest pair wins ties.  If both hands have the same high pair, the second pair wins.  If both hands have the same pairs, the high card wins.

Pair

One pair with three distinct cards.  High card breaks ties.

High Card

This is any hand which doesn't qualify as any one of the above hands.  If nobody has a pair or better, then the highest card wins.  If multiple people tie for the highest card, they look at the second highest, then the third highest etc.  High card is also used to break ties when the high hands both have the same type of hand (pair, flush, straight, etc).


Betting

Poker is a gambling game so you have to know how to do bet.  First, you must 'ante' something (amount varies by game, our games are 5 chips), just to get dealt cards.  After that, players bet into the pot in the middle.  At the end of the hand, the highest hand (that hasn't folded) wins the pot.  Basically, when betting gets around to you (betting is typically done in clockwise order), you have one of three choices :

Call

When you call, you bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (for instance, if you bet a dime last time, and someone else bet a quarter, you would owe fifteen cents).

Raise

When you raise, you first bet enough to match what has been bet since the last time you bet (as in calling), then you 'raise' the bet another amount (up to you, but there is a limit).  Continuing the above example, if you had bet a dime, the other person raised you fifteen cents (up to a quarter), you might raise a quarter (up to fifty cents).  Since you owed the pot 15 cents for calling and 25 for your raise, you would put 40 cents into the pot.

Fold

When you fold, you drop out of the current hand (losing any possibility of winning the pot), but you don't have to put any money into the pot.

Betting continues until everyone calls or folds after a raise or initial bet.

Betting rules of Poker Nights

In order to give everybody a chance to win even if they don't have much money, we put a limit on the amount you can bet.  The maximum bet before you discard is fifty (50) chips.  After that, you can raise another fifty (50) chips for a maximum (total) bet of a hundred (100) chips.  That way, you can't bet an unlimited number of chips which would make you win automatically if your opponents didn't have enough chips.


Credits

Project manager : 	Nicolas Pajot

Jr project manager : 	Frédéric Pinard

Game designer : 	Louis Lamarche

Graphists : 	Louis Lamarche

Patrick Sirois

Programmers : 	Frédéric Blais

Stéphane Mouchel-Vichard

Guillaume Borgia

Testers : 	Bruno Paradis

Éric Martineau