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Text File | 1990-11-10 | 15.0 KB | 364 lines

All materials included in this ARC are (C) 1990 UnSane Creations. This demo version of Poker Solitaire is freely distributable, provided all files are included, and none are modified. This file contains material excerpted from the manual included with the complete version of Poker Solitaire. As such, this manual is incomplete and does not explain every feature of Poker Solitaire. However, everything is pretty self-explanatory. If you have a problem with something in the program, hit the help key. If a requester is displayed when you hit the help key, you'll get help with that requester. You can click on any brown text in Help to get more help on that subject. To order the complete version of Poker Solitaire, send a check or money order for US$34.95 to: UnSane Creations 815 Windingpath Manchester, MO 63021 USA Overseas orders please add US$5.00 for shipping. The Poker Solitaire Manual -------------------------- Standard Rules -------------- Note: UnSane Creations' Poker Solitaire allows you to play with many different sets of rules. In order to explain the game, this section describes the standard rules used in the game. Variations on these rules are described in the "Variations" section. Alternative game modes are described in the "Game Modes" section. Poker Solitaire is different from most other forms of solitaire. There is no "building" of cards - you don't try to get things stacked up to a king. Instead, you construct 10 poker hands in a 5 by 5 matrix, (see figure 1) and try to get the highest score possible. Each poker hand gives you a certain number of points, and your score is the sum of the points for each of the ten hands. See the section on scoring for the number of points for each hand. When you first run the game, Poker displays a requester. This requester is used to start a new tournament. There are five string gadgets, for the names of up to five people who are competing in the tournament. Poker will not continue until you have given it the name of at least one person. (Your own name would be a good one to start with.) Don't worry about this right now, because you can change these names or start a new tournament later. Just enter at least one name and select "New Tournament". (You will not be forced to do this the next time you run the game, because Poker saves this information on disk.) Poker now displays another requester, called the "Startup Requester". This requester allows you to change many things about the way Poker plays. This section doesn't discuss any of Poker's variations, so we'll just discuss what happens when you select "Start Game". When you do, another requester is displayed. (Will these requesters never end?!) This is the "Go Requester", and it's the last one before the game starts. The names of the people competing in the current tournament are displayed in the middle of the requester, and there are four blue lines, and one blue arrow to the left of the names. The arrow points to the name of the person who is going to play this game. Click on one of the lines if you want a different person to play. When you have the arrow pointing to the right person, click on the Go! gadget in the lower left. When the game starts (finally!), the computer deals a single card. You must pick this card up and move it to your hand. When you have placed the card, the computer deals another card, which you must move to your hand. Play continues in this fashion until all squares in your hand are occupied. Once a card is placed in your hand, it must stay in that square until the end of the game, with one exception. You are allowed one reject. That is, one time you are allowed to take a card out of your hand and remove it from play. Once a card has been rejected, you cannot put it back in your hand. Blue squares show where cards can be legally placed. At first, all twenty-five squares in your hand are outlined in blue, as well as your one reject. When you place a card, most of the blue squares turn black. The remaining blue squares have edges which touch the card you placed. This is because every card you place must have an edge touch a previous card. As you add cards to your hand, any squares with touching edges turn blue. Also notice that cards in your hand are outlined in blue. This is because these cards can be discarded. (When deciding whether to outline cards in blue, Poker doesn't actually check to make sure you have a discard available. More on this later.) As you play, a running total of your score is displayed below your hand. At any time, this total shows what is in your hand at that time. Incomplete straights and flushes are not counted in this total. However, one pairs, two pairs, etc. are counted, even if they are part of an incomplete hand. In figure 1, poker hand #6 is almost a straight flush, yet it still counts as nothing, because it is not yet complete. Hand #8 could be a full house with the addition of the seven of spades, but it counts as two pair, because that's all it is at this time. Figure 1: 5H 5D 6D -- KC (1) One Pair 6H 2D 6S 2H 6C (2) Full House 7H JD 7C QS 2C (3) One Pair 8H 10D 7D JD -- (4) Nothing -- 3D -- JS -- (5) Nothing (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) N F T O N o l w n o t u o e t h s h i h P P i n a a n g i i g r r When you are done playing, select "New Cards" or "Same Cards" from the Project menu to start a new game. You can start a new game at any time, but if you haven't yet filled your hand, Poker will ask you to make sure you want to start over. "New Cards" will shuffle the deck and start a new game. "Same Cards" will allow you to replay with the same cards. After you select "New Cards" or "Same Cards", a requester (please, not another requester!) will be displayed showing your highest, lowest, and average score. It will have two gadgets at the bottom, one that says "Same Game", and one that says "New Game". "New Game" will cause the startup requester to be displayed, while "Same Game" will take you directly to the "Go!" requester. If the same person re-plays with the same cards, the second game will only affect the low score, and, if you start a new game without first completing your hand, Poker will not ask you if you're sure. Game Mode --------- The are seven different modes of play in Poker Solitaire. Game modes can only be changed from the startup requester. One Hand One player uses one matrix to construct the best hand possible, according to the current rules. Best of Two One player uses both matrices to construct one hand. In effect, one matrix may be used as 25 discards. However, cards should be discarded in the best configuration, since this hand could turn out to be better. Sum of Two One player uses both matrices to construct two hands. The player's score is the sum of the scores of the two individual hands. Race Two players compete to get the best hand. Players race each other to get to cards as they are dealt. The game is over when one player fills his matrix, and clicks on his 'Done' gadget. Race Both The same as Race, but both players complete their matrices. Alternate Two players alternate moving cards. Same Deck The same as Alternate, but every card gets dealt twice, so both players have a chance to get it. If you play in a one player mode with two matrices, you will have the chance to use 50 cards. Since there are only 52 cards in a deck, you can pretty much construct the hands you want. Therefore, it is suggested that you only play these modes when placement is restricted or when you are playing with two decks. If you start a new game from the Project menu in a two player mode before both matrices are filled, the game will not affect the players' scores. In the two game modes where players alternate taking cards, two gadgets get added, one in each bottom corner. The gadgets say "Pass", and enable a player to pass her turn if her matrix is full. If Stealing and/or Planting are enabled, one player's matrix may get filled long before the other's. The game will not be over, but a player may not be able to or want to make a move. That player can click on her "Pass" gadget, and it will be her opponent's turn. Variations ---------- Poker Solitaire allows you to change its rules, giving you a total of 48 variations per game mode. You change the rules by selecting Change Rules in the Startup requester, or in the Edit menu after the game has started. When you do, you see the following choices: Edges must touch Corners must touch Cards go anywhere Cards can't move Cards can move Count 10 Hands Count 12 Hands English Scoring American Scoring Make Pat Hands User Scoring You can vary the game's difficulty by changing these options, to make the game more challenging, or to provide a handicap to a better player. Notice that you can change some of the rules independently for Player 1 and Player 2. The rules for Player 2 are ignored if you aren't in a two player game mode. The first group controls where cards may be placed. The first card can always be placed anywhere. If Edges Must Touch is selected, subsequent cards must have their edges touch the edges of cards already played. If Corners Must Touch is selected, subsequent cards must have edges or corners touching. If Cards Go Anywhere is chosen, subsequent cards can also go anywhere. The second group controls whether or not cards can be moved once they are placed in the hand. If Cards Can't Move is chosen, cards cannot be moved within the hand. Cards can still be discarded. However, once you discard a card, you can't get it back. If Cards Can Move is selected, cards can be moved within your hand, and retrieved from the discard squares. The third group allows hands to be counted diagonally as well as horizontally and vertically, for a total of twelve hands. This rule is ignored if "Make Pat Hands" is chosen in the fourth group. The fourth group controls the scoring. Four different scoring systems are available - English, American, Pat, and User. English scores are based on how hard the Poker hand is to construct in Poker Solitaire. American scores are based on how difficult the hand is to construct in Poker. User scores are set by you with the SetOpts program. "Make Pat Hands" means that you try to make five pat hands with the five horizontal hands. A pat hand is one that can not be improved without destroying its present status. (Pat hands are listed in the scoring section.) When playing with this rule, you don't get a score. You either win or lose. Also in this requester are the options to change the number of rejects, the number of cards dealt, and the number of decks used. You must always deal at least one card. The number of cards dealt and the rejects must total five or less. (Poker will not let you set dealcards and rejects that don't fit these requirements.) A common reject is one that can be used by either Player 1 or Player 2. Player 1 Rejects are for the exclusive use of Player 1, and player 2 rejects are for the exclusive use of Player 2. Either player can take any card that has been dealt. It is suggested that you not change the dealcards or rejects once the game has started. Poker will not move any of the cards that are already in play, so Player 1's rejects may become common rejects, etc. Changing the number of decks has no effect until you re-shuffle the cards. Hand Scoring ------------ Poker Solitaire can recognize 81 different poker hands. Many of these hands, such as a round-the-corner-kilter-flush, or a three-of-a-kind-four-flush-blaze, would never be used in Poker, and are not used in the standard scoring methods. Additionally, some of the hands can only be formed with two decks, such as five-of-a-kind, pair-flush, and two-pair-flush. The normal hands and scores are: English American User Pat ------- -------- ---- --- Five of a Kind 30 100 65 Yes Royal Flush 30 100 65 Yes Straight Flush 30 75 53 Yes Four of a Kind 16 50 33 Yes Full House 10 25 18 Yes Flush 5 20 13 Yes Straight 12 15 14 Yes Three of a Kind 6 10 8 No Two Pair 3 5 4 No One Pair 1 2 1 No Nothing 0 0 0 No When the scoring option is "Pat Hands", you have to make five pat Poker hands using the 5 horizontal hands. In this variation, you do not get a score, you either win or lose. The "User" scores can be set with the "SetOpts" program. The user column, above, shows the default user scores. The Advice Column ----------------- 1. Always put the first card in the center of the matrix. When edges or corners must touch, this gives you the maximum number of legal moves later. 2. Try to construct flushes with the horizontal hands. It is usually possible to make four flushes with four of the horizontal hands. This is less important with the English scoring system, because flushes count for less. 3. Try to get matching cards going up and down. While getting four flushes horizontally, it is usually possible to get at least two pair in all vertical hands. 4. It's not a good idea to try to make a hand a straight. If you have four cards in a hand, and it can be a straight, then go for it. If you try to make a hand a straight from the beginning though, you'll probably mess up other hands and it won't be worth the gain. 5. Remember to note which cards have been used. If you don't pay attention, you may find yourself hoping to get a card your opponent has. 6. Remember your discard, and use it wisely. It's a good idea to save it for use toward the end of the game. Make sure your opponent doesn't need the card you're discarding. 7. Use any common discards first, for the obvious reason that they won't be available to your opponent if you have used them. 8. If you can't decide where to put a card, put it in the poker hand that's worth the fewest points. That way, it doesn't mess up better hands. In tests of the computer player, this heuristic added about 15% to its score on average. 9. If stealing is enabled, steal all your cards from your opponent's hand. She can't steal cards that have been stolen, so she can't steal them back. This strategy is most effective against the computer. 10. If planting is enabled, keep an eye on your opponent's game. It's fun to mess up her royal flush when she has four cards in it. If the game is too fast to watch her play, then toss a card in her hand at random occasionally. 11. Don't enable steal or plant when playing a friendly game with someone. 12. And finally, like many other prominent psychologists, astrologists, and Advice Columnists, I may not have the slightest idea what I am talking about. Use your own judgement.