Repeat Poker

Contributed by Pramod Mulay

This is a solitaire game in which the player tries to score as many points as possible by creating poker hands from cards dealt from the deck. Repeat Poker can be played using a normal 52 card deck. It has similarities to Poker Solitaire or Poker Patience, with extra opportunities for strategy and memory.

Cards are drawn from the deck and laid out in a 5×5 grid, as in the diagram. Each completed 5-card row (not column) is evaluated as a poker hand. If a row contains a poker combination (Three of a kind, Two pair, etc), points are scored. See the ranking of poker hands page for definitions of the hands. The playing process is as follows:

1. Start with a stack of full deck, 52, shuffled cards (face down)
2. Draw the top card from the deck, look at it and place it in any of the 5 rows
3. As you place cards, try to form Poker Hands (Straight, Flush, Full-House, Pair, etc)
4. After a hand is complete (all 5 cards placed), check for the highest Poker Hand it contains.
5. Note down the points gained for that Poker hand, according to the reference table below.
6. Remove the poker hand cards from the row, but not the kickers, which remain. So you remove the 2 cards of a pair, the 3 cards of three of a kind, the 4 cards forming 2 pairs of 4 of a kind, and all 5 cards in other cases. Example: If the hand was a pair, remove those two cards that form the pair and keep the rest as is. If the hand was a flush, remove all 5 cards to make the row empty.
7. Continue steps 2-6 with the rest of the cards in the deck
8. Game Over: After you have placed all 52 cards in the deck, that level is over. Total the points you gained during this level.
9. Aim Of the Game: Score as many points as you can.
10. Next Level: Once you have completed the first level, make the game tougher by now placing the newly shuffled, full deck of 52 cards, within just 4 rows (instead of 5). The third level would have three rows, and so on. Keep in mind, as you go through various levels that your earlier strategies may not work with fewer rows.

Reference table: Poker Hand Points

Royal flush	1000
Straight flush	750
Four of a kind	500
Full house	250
Flush	200
Straight	150
Three of a kind	100
Two pairs	50
One pair	20