Poker Drop - Help

Contents

1. Overview
2. Stacking Cards
3. Swapping Cards
4. Levels
5. Scoring
6. High Scores
7. Game Options
8. Controls
9. FAQ

Overview

The instructions for Poker Drop are quite simple:

• Use the arrow keys to maneuver your card above the stacks.
• Use the space bar to swap your current card for another one.
• Score points by stacking cards that form a valid poker hand.
• Valid hands are: flush, straight, full house, 4 of a kind, and straight flush.
• The game is over when there's no room for the next card to appear.

But of course, the cards aren't always dealt the way you'd like them to be!  The challenge is to make the most of whatever cards you get.  Playing the odds, building versatile stacks, and making judicious use of the space bar are the keys to success!

Stacking Cards

Unlike Klondike and other forms of Solitaire, in Poker Drop you can stack cards of all suits and ranks on top of each other.  You do not need to alternate colors, go in ascending order, or stick to a single suit.  However, the only way cards will collapse is if you stack up a valid 5-card poker hand.  The valid hands for Poker drop are given in the table below.  Note that the lesser poker hands (e.g. three of a kind, two pair, one pair) are not included in this list, and will NOT cause the stack to collapse (they're just too easy :-).

Valid hands for Poker Drop

As long as they're consecutive, cards can be stacked in any order and still collapse.  That is, you can stack the 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Spades in ascending order -- or you can stack them mixed up as 8, 7, 10, 6, and 9 -- and either way the five cards will collapse.  For example, all three of these stacks will collapse:

All three stacks will collapse as a "Straight Flush"

Swapping Cards

A crucial, strategic aspect of Poker Drop is the ability to swap your card for another one.  By pressing the space bar, you can exchange the card that's currently falling for another one from the deck.  Each swap costs another $2 from your total, but it's often well worth it!  The Game Options dialog offers several different modes of swapping, each lending a different flavor to the game. 

For instance, in "Draw Poker" mode, hitting the space bar will exchange your card for a randomly selected one.  You get an entirely different card, and there's no limit on the number of times you can swap.  That may sound like a perfect cheat, but remember there's no guarantee that you'll ever see your original card again.  And there's no guarantee that the future cards will be any better than the current one!  Many's the time that I've gotten stuck with a card I hated because I kept swapping up until the very end...

Another common form of poker is 7 Card [Stud or Draw], where you're dealt 7 cards and get to choose two to throw away before showing your hand.  In Poker Drop, this is mimicked by letting you cycle through your current card and the next 2 cards in the deck.    Each time you hit the space bar, the next card in the deck appears in place of your card.  Using this scheme, if you hit the space bar 3 times, you end up right back where you started.  And no matter how many times you hit the space bar, you'll keep seeing the same 3 cards until you finally drop one of them onto a stack.  At that point, one more card is added from the deck to the "3-card cycle" and play continues.  This method of swapping is sort of like the preview mode in many Tetris games, because you get to see what the next 2 cards will be.

Finally, if you're a "Stud Poker" enthusiast, you can disable swapping entirely.  In this case you have to play the cards exactly as they're dealt to you -- and you have to be very careful or you'll lose quickly! 

Note that only one of the swapping modes described above can be in effect for a given game (i.e. you can't change them in the middle of a game).  Changing one of the modes will simply cause a new game to begin automatically.

Levels

When you begin a game of Poker Drop, your card starts dropping at a rate of once per second.  However, the more you play, the faster it drops.  After every 52 cards, you reach a new "level" and the rate of dropping increases by 100 milliseconds or so.  If you're still learning the game (or you just can't take the pressure!) you can use the Game Options dialog to keep things at a leisurely pace by un-checking the box labeled "Drop cards faster as level gets higher".  In any case, the score you receive for collapsing a stack is multiplied by the current level.

Scoring

In Poker Drop, you lose $2 for every card that falls (thus a single 5-card poker hand costs you $10).  But you make that money back every time you collapse a stack, with the size of the payoff depending on the value of your hand.  The base payoffs are given by the table below:

Payoffs for each hand in Poker Drop

These base payoffs are further modified by the rank of the cards in the hand, and by the current level of play.  Low cards (e.g. 2, 3, 4) are worth less than high cards (e.g. Jack, Queen, King), so a full house with 2's and 3's will payoff less than a full house with Jack's and Queen's.  And hands that you build in the early levels are worth less than the same hands during later (i.e. faster) levels of play.

Examples of scoring in Poker Drop

You can also lose points in Poker Drop.  If you're playing with the ClearStacks option turned on (e.g. you've checked the box labeled "Clear stacks at the beginning of each level" in the Game Options dialog), then Poker Drop will subtract points for every card that is currently on the board when you reach the next level.  Single-digit cards cost you $5, face cards cost you $10, and Aces cost you $15.  Ouch!  

High Scores

To help you gauge your progress, Poker Drop keeps track of the top 10 high scores it has encountered.  You can see the current top ten by selecting High Scores... from the Game menu.  If you have registered your version of Poker Drop, your own scores will be added to the list whenever your score exceeds one of those already on the top ten.  For the unregistered version, you will be notified whenever your score would have made it into the top ten; however, you won't be able to add your own great name and comment.   :-)

Game Options

There are many different ways to play Poker Drop, and you can use the Game Options dialog (shown below) to control the way you'd like to play.  We've already discussed the various Swap Modes in the Swapping Cards section.   Of equal importance are the Rules, which combine with Swap Modes to determine the characteristics of game you play. 

The Game Options Dialog

By default, Poker Drop will deal from a single deck of 52 cards.  Every time you collapse a stack, the collapsed cards are simply recycled and returned back to the deck in a random location.  This is the most intuitive way to play, since cards are never repeated (i.e. there's only one King of Clubs) and you can keep playing forever without having to reshuffle.

For something a bit different, try turning ON the "Clear stacks at the beginning of each level" option after turning OFF the the "Stuff collapsed cards back into deck".  In this case, every time you make it through the deck, all cards on the table are cleared off and you start over with empty stacks.  This is a lot like a solitaire game -- in a single pass through a 52 card deck, build as many poker hands as you can.  For the greatest challenge, do this with "Stud Poker" and check the "End game when deck is emptied" checkbox.  See just how high a score you can get with 1 pass through 1 deck!  It's merciless!

And of course, these aren't the only combinations.  You can start with them, then click on the various items in the Game Options dialog to specify your own set of rules for the game you like best!

Controls

The controls for Poker Drop are even simpler than the rules.  And they're very similar to most of the Tetris games out there.  You can either use the arrow keys and space bar to manipulate your card or, if your keyboard has a numeric keypad, you can use it to move and swap the card.  Check out the table below for a list of each key and its function.

Keyboard Controls for Poker Drop

FAQ

Q:  Sometimes pressing the space bar doesn't swap my current card.  Why?
A: If you are using one deck and there's only one card left in the deck, it is simply not possible to swap your card for another one.  There aren't any left!   In this case Poker Drop just leaves you with your current card. 

Q:  When I run Poker Drop, I get an error message about CARDS32.DLL.  What's up?
A: The file CARDS32.DLL contains the images of all 52 playing cards.  Clearly, Poker Drop needs this file in order to play a game, but if you're getting an error message, chances are that Poker Drop simply cannot find it.  CARDS32.DLL should have been included in your download of Poker Drop, and should have been installed when you extracted the rest of the Poker Drop files from POKEZIP.EXE.   So the first thing you should do is check to be sure it is located in the same folder as your POKEDROP.EXE file.  If it's not, try downloading and installing Poker Drop again.  However, if CARDS32.DLL and POKEDROP.EXE are in the same directory, but Poker Drop still doesn't work, try copying CARDS32.DLL to your Windows System directory (e.g. C:\Windows\System).   This works for most people.  But if it still doesn't, send email.

Q:  Why should I register my copy of Poker Drop?
A: Because it's the right thing to do!
A: Because it helps to support this site!
A: Because it helps us improve the game and write others like it!
A: Because it gives you a chance to offer feedback and suggestions for the game!
A: Because it gets rid of the download timer and enables the high score list!
A: Because it supports the shareware game industry, which brings you low-cost, high-quality, non-corporate games like this!
A: Because it's so darn cheap!

Copyright � 1998-2000 Susan Brooks.  All rights reserved.