Poker Holdem is sort of a sort of Video Poker-ish type of solitaire. Rather than the 5 x 5 grid that games like Poker Squares employ, this game uses only five cards at a time. Since you can only see a few cards at once, it's often difficult to come up with high-scoring hands.

This game was invented by Randy Rasa, and is available as part of the Poker Solitaire Pack collection.

Getting Started

The game is begun by taking two packs of 52 cards (104 cards total), shuffling them, and dealing the cards face-down into a pile to become the stock. Five cards are then dealt to the five tableau positions.

Object

The object is to make the best poker hands you can. Each of the five tableau cards may be either held or discarded. Click the cards themselves, or the buttons below them, to toggle between "Hold" and "Discard". Click the "Deal" button (or the deck) to replace the "discard" cards with new cards from the deck. The current value of the hand is displayed in the box below the cards.

Cashing In A Hand

When you've created a complete hand, you may cash it in. This gives you a new set of five cards.

Scoring

You earn points for each type of poker hand you can create. The number of points awarded per hand is based on the hand you create, and the cards in the hand. When all ten hands are filled in the score box, the hand is over, regardless of whether cards remain in the deck or tableau. Likewise, if the deck is exhausted before all hands are scored, the game is over.

Refer to Poker Solitaire Pack Scoring for details on the scoring systems used for this game.

Strategy

This game relies a bit more on luck and judgement than some other games. That, coupled with the fact that you can only see five cards at once, makes for a sometimes-miserly score. Offsetting that is the opportunity for a five-of-a-kind hand. Be careful of running out of cards before all ten hands are scored. If you find yourself running out of cards, you may have to settle for whatever you can get by the end of the game.

The rules to this game are copyright Randy Rasa, and neither the rules nor the game they describe may be reproduced without written permission.