Poker Grid

What is poker squares?

Poker squares is an old patience game that uses poker hands instead of suits and sequences. You turn cards over one at a time and place each one on a five by five grid. Once a card is down, it stays there. When all 25 spots are full, each of the five rows and five columns is scored as a five card poker hand. You don't need to know any poker strategy, only the hand rankings, and those are in the table below.

Poker Grid is our version, with a Hold slot, two gold squares that double their lines, and a daily grid everyone plays. It's free and plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

How to play

• Cards come one at a time. The deck is shuffled and you see the current card, plus a peek at the Next card coming after it.
• Tap a square to place it. Any empty square works. You don't have to fill the grid in order.
• No moving cards later. Once a card is placed, it's part of both its row and its column for good.
• Ten hands are scored. When a row or column fills up, it scores right away. After the 25th card, all ten lines are added up for your total.
• Only 25 cards are used. Out of a 52 card deck, more than half never show up. You won't see every card, so don't plan on one that might not come.

Gold squares

Every grid has two gold squares, marked x2. They never share a row or a column. Any row or column that runs through a gold square scores double, so four of your ten lines are worth twice as much.

Hold

Tap Hold to park the current card and move on to the next one. Later, tap Hold again to swap the parked card back in for whatever card you're holding now. It's one slot, so use it for a card that fits a plan, like the fifth heart for a column you're building.

Undo and hints

Each grid gives you 3 undos and 3 hints. A hint highlights the square our coach likes best for the current card. Neither one comes back during the grid, so save them for the hard choices.

Poker hands and scoring

Each line is scored as a normal five card poker hand. Aces can count high (10, J, Q, K, A) or low (A, 2, 3, 4, 5) in a straight, but a straight can't wrap around from King to 2.

Lines through a gold square score double. The total in the corner of the grid updates as you play, and you'll see each hand pop up as its line fills in.

Controls

On a touch screen, just tap the square where you want the current card, and tap Hold to park or swap. On a computer, the arrow keys move a cursor around the grid and Enter places the card. H holds, Z undoes and Esc pauses.

Daily, ranks and the Hand Book

The Daily grid uses the same deck order and the same gold squares for everyone that day, so scores are a fair comparison. Play it each day to keep a streak going.

Your best ever score sets your rank: Newcomer, Card Scout (40), Grid Runner (70), Hand Crafter (100), Line Artist (130), Grid Sage (160), Grand Gridder (200) and Grid Legend (250). The Hand Book keeps track of every kind of hand you've made.

Card backs unlock through milestones such as scoring 60, 100, 140 and 180 in one grid, making your first Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind and Straight Flush, playing 3 daily grids and finishing 25 grids. They're shared with every card game on the site.

Poker squares strategy

Our ranks top out at 250, and anything past 100 is a grid to be proud of. These are the ideas that get you there.

• Columns for suits, rows for ranks. The classic plan: dedicate columns to flushes (one suit per column) and use the rows to collect pairs, three of a kind and full houses. A card then has an obvious home, and every placement helps two hands at once.
• Full houses and flushes are the workhorses. At 25 and 20 points, they're the hands you can make again and again. Four of a Kind and straight flushes are lovely when they happen, but you can't plan a grid around them.
• Be careful with straights. They need five exact ranks and you'll only see about half the deck. Go for one only when it falls into place early, like holding 6, 7, 8 and 9 with gaps on both ends.
• Keep a dump line. Pick one row or column to take the cards that don't fit anywhere. Ruining one line on purpose is much better than spoiling three by accident.
• Put your best lines through the gold. A full house through a gold square is 50 points. Build your strongest plans on the four doubled lines and use the others as backup.
• Watch the Next card before you place. If the card after this one is a perfect fit for a square, don't fill that square now.
• Hold the card that completes something. The best use of Hold is the card that finishes a flush or full house you're one card away from, or a card that's simply in the way right now.
• Count what's gone. If two Queens are already on the grid in other lines, your hope for three Queens in one row is slim.

Like poker hands? Twenty One is our friendly card table where you race the hosts to 21. For a calmer solo puzzle, try Star Solitaire.

Questions