The first column given is the American system of counting by fives, after one pair, retaining the regular poker rank of the hands. The second column is the American system that puts the straight next to the full hand, and the flush between two pairs and a triplet. The third column is the English system, which ranks the straight above the full hand.
As no person has as yet come forward with any figures to show which combination is easier to get in patience poker, nor the proportion of one hand to the other, these figures are all guess work; and players may adopt any values they please.
As soon as the tableau is complete, with five rows of five cards each, the value of each of the ten hands the tableau contains is found and the total put down. The object of the solitaire player usually is to see how many tableaus he needs to reach a grand total of 500 points.
SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY. Experience has shown that it pays to keep certain classes of hand in one section, either left to right or up and down. Many players put all the flushes in the vertical columns, and build the pairs, triplets and fours from right to left. Straights are uncertain quantities unless they are flush also and are seldom played for.
Each card has a double value, and it may help to make up two hands of high scoring power, if well placed. The highest possible point value for a tableau would probably be five hands of four of a kind and five straight flushes, four of which would be royal, like this:
The odds against the cards coming from the stock in such order as to make a tableau like this possible would be enormous, but there are many sets of twenty-five cards that can be rearranged so as to make a much higher count than that actually arrived at in the solitaire. The player’s skill consists in anticipating the possibilities that certain cards will be drawn and in so arranging his table that if the hoped for card comes out, the most advantageous place will be found open for it.
TWO OR MORE PLAYERS. Any number can play this game, the only limitation being the number of packs available and space enough on the table for each one to lay out his own tableau. One player is selected as the “caller” and he shuffles his pack and presents it to be cut. In the meantime each of the others sorts his individual pack into sequence and suit, so as to be able to pick out any named card without unnecessary delay.
METHOD OF PLAYING. The caller starts by taking off his top card and placing it face up on the table, at the same time announcing aloud its suit and rank, as “Seven of clubs.” This makes it unnecessary for the others to watch the cards the caller draws.