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by Matthew D Moss
You work for a cable network; specifically, you are the resident hacker for a
Texas Hold'Em Championship show.
The show's producer has come to you for a favor. It seems the play-by-play
announcers just can't think very fast. All beauty, no brains. The announcers
could certainly flap their jaws well enough, if they just knew what hands the
players were holding and which hand won the round. Since this is live TV, they
need those answers quick. Time to step up to the plate. Bob, the producer,
explains what you need to do.
BOB: Each player's cards for the round will be on a separate line of the input.
Each card is a pair of characters, the first character represents the face, the
second is the suit. Cards are separated by exactly one space. Here's a sample
hand.
Kc 9s Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d
9c Ah Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d
Ac Qc Ks Kd 9d 3c
9h 5s
4d 2d Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d
7s Ts Ks Kd 9d
YOU: Okay, I was going ask what character to use for 10, but I guess 'T' is it.
And 'c', 'd', 'h' and 's' for the suits, makes sense. Why aren't seven cards
listed for every player?
BOB: Well, if a player folds, only his hole cards and the community cards he's
seen so far are shown.
YOU: Right. And why did the fifth player play with a 4 and 2? They're suited,
but geez, talk about risk...
BOB: Stay on topic. Now, the end result of your code should generate output that
looks like this:
Kc 9s Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d Full House (winner)
9c Ah Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d Two Pair
Ac Qc Ks Kd 9d 3c
9h 5s
4d 2d Ks Kd 9d 3c 6d Flush
7s Ts Ks Kd 9d
YOU: Okay, so I repeat the cards, list the rank or nothing if the player folded,
and the word "winner" in parenthesis next to the winning hand. Do you want the
cards rearranged at all?
BOB: Hmmm... we can get by without it, but if you have the time, do it. Don't
bother for folded hands, but for ranked hands, move the cards used to the front
of the line, sorted by face. Kickers follow that, and the two unused cards go at
the end, just before the rank is listed.
YOU: Sounds good. One other thing, I need to brush up on the hand ranks. You
have any good references for Texas Hold'Em?
BOB: Yeah, check out these Poker Hand Rankings
(http://www.thepokerforum.com/pokerhands.htm). And if you need it, here are the
Rules of Texas Hold'Em (http://www.thepokerforum.com/texasholdem.htm). While
ranking, don't forget the kicker, the next highest card in their hand if
player's are tied. And of course, if -- even after the kicker -- player's are
still tied, put "(winner)" on each appropriate line of output.
YOU: Ok. I still don't understand one thing...
BOB: What's that?
YOU: Why he stayed in with only the 4 and 2 of diamonds? That's just...
BOB: Hey! Show's on in ten minutes! Get to work!
[ Editor's Note:
Matthew included a script for generating test games with his quiz. Here's that
code:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
FACES = "AKQJT98765432"
SUITS = "cdhs"
srand
# build a deck
deck = []
FACES.each_byte do |f|
SUITS.each_byte do |s|
deck.push(f.chr + s.chr)
end
end
# shuffle deck
3.times do
shuf = []
deck.each do |c|
loc = rand(shuf.size + 1)
shuf.insert(loc, c)
end
deck = shuf.reverse
end
# deal common cards
common = Array.new(5) { deck.pop }
# deal player's hole cards
hole = Array.new(8) { Array.new(2) { deck.pop } }
# output hands
hands = []
all_fold = true
while all_fold do
hands = []
hole.each do |h|
num_common = [0, 3, 4, 5][rand(4)]
if num_common == 5
all_fold = false
end
if num_common > 0
hand = h + common[0 ... num_common]
else
hand = h
end
hands.push(hand.join(' '))
end
end
hands.each { |h| puts h }
-JEG2 ]
