Hands (Mind Loft)

About Hands (Mind Loft)

Hands is a poker puzzle without opponents. Cards are dealt one at a time and each must be placed in an empty square of a 5x5 grid. When the grid is full it is read as ten poker hands, the five rows and five columns, so every card counts in two hands. A placed card never moves, so each decision is made while the rest of the deal is still hidden.

Because a daily leaderboard cannot rank luck, the shuffle is fixed: every player gets the same 26 cards in the same order, which turns the game into a contest of decisions. Your one extra tool is a single muck, which throws away the current card and takes the next without showing it first.

The day's two targets come from real play: par is the median of four hundred blind solver runs on your exact deal, and ace is the best of them, so the top score is reachable. A new deal arrives at midnight Eastern each day.

How to play Hands (Mind Loft)

1. Open Hands and press Start to see the first card.
2. Place the card in any empty square of the 5x5 grid; it cannot be moved later.
3. Keep placing cards as they arrive, using your one muck on a card you cannot use.
4. When the grid is full, the five rows and five columns are scored as poker hands against the day's par and ace.

Screenshots

Tips

• Plan rows for flushes and columns for pairs or straights, so each card can help both directions.
• Keep one row or column as a dump for cards that fit nowhere.
• Save the muck for late in the deal, when a bad card would break a nearly finished hand.

Questions