All inPlay Poker General Help

(If you are currently playing All inPlay Poker, press ALT+F4 to exit this help window and return to the game.)

This document gives general help for All inPlay Poker. It contains the following sections:

The Rules
Keyboard interface
Mouse interface

The Rules

All inPlay Poker is an online, multiplayer version of the classic card game of five-card draw poker. Two to five people can play together. One standard deck of cards is used to play. The object of the game is to win chips from your opponents by either having the best hand or by raising the stakes so high that all of your opponents fold (drop out) rather than continue betting. Play proceeds as follows:

Each player antes one chip into the pot.
The deck is shuffled, and players are each dealt five cards.
Players participate in a round of betting.
Players are given the opportunity to discard cards in their hand and replace them with cards dealt from the deck. The other players are told how many cards their opponents discard, but do not know what cards were discarded or received. Discarded cards are not dealt again until the next hand.
There is another round of betting.
If everybody folded except for one player, then that player wins the pot without revealing what was in their hand. Otherwise, the non-folded players' hands are revealed, and the player with the strongest hand wins the pot.
After a brief pause for everybody to review the game, another hand is started.

If at any point there is only one player who hasn't folded, that player wins immediately.

Betting rounds

Each All inPlay Poker table has its own betting limits, with a five-raises-per-round limit.

Betting proceeds as follows:

Each player is given an opportunity to match the current bet ("call" the bet), raise the bet (unless the maximum number of raises for this round has been met, or they don't have enough chips to raise the bet), or fold (drop out of this hand, forfeiting the chips that they've already put in the pot).
The betting round continues, with players prompted to call, raise, or fold in turn until everybody has folded except for one player, or everybody has called the raise (everybody except for the person who made the last raise--you don't have to call your own raise).
Example of fixed-limit betting: In the first betting round, if you must bet 10 chips to call the current bet, then you can either fold, call (putting 10 more chips into the pot), or raise up to the max chip limit for that table.

A note on all-in:

All-in allows a player to bet all of his chips when matching a current bet that is higher than the number of chips he is holding. For example, if SusanBot has 12 chips in her hand but SteveBot has just raised 200 chips, SusanBot can call that raise and throw in her last 12 chips. If she loses, she loses it all and gets kicked from the table to play Guess'Em. If she wins, however, she wins back her 12 chips plus 12 of SteveBot's chips. Steve loses but the additional 188 chips are returned to his pocket.

In cases where more than two players are at a table, a side pot is added if a person goes all-in and wins. If there are fractions of a chip due to the splitting of winnings, All inPlay takes the fraction of the chip as a All inPlay tax.

Hand Rankings

All inPlay Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards; four suits-- hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs-- of 13 denominations-- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.

The five cards in your hand are rearranged to make one of the following ranks of hands. Poker hands are ranked as follows, from the best hand (a straight flush) to the worst (a high-card hand):

Straight flush. Five cards, in order, all of the same suit. Aces act as both high and low, so the highest ranking straight flush (a Royal Flush) is 10-J-Q-K-A, and the lowest ranking straight flush is A-2-3-4-5
Four of a kind. Four cards of the same denomination, with any other card. Aces are high, so the best four-of-a-kind is four aces (and the worst is four twos).
Full House. Three cards of one denomination and two of another. Aces are high, and the denomination of the three cards is used to determine which of two full houses wins (so, for example, 4-4-4-2-2 beats 3-3-3-Ace-Ace).
Flush. Five cards of the same suit. If two players both have flushes, the denominations of their cards are used to determine the winner. The best flush is 9-J-Q-K-A, the worst is 2-3-4-5-7.
Straight. Five cards, not all of the same suit, in order. Ranking for breaking ties between straights is the same as for straight flushes.
Three of a kind. Three cards of the same denomination, with any other two cards. Three aces is the best three-of-a-kind, three twos the worst.
Two pair. Two cards of one denomination and two of another, plus one other card (the "kicker"). The best two-pair hand is A-A-K-K-Q, the worst is 3-3-2-2-4. The high pair wins the hand, so A-A-2-2-3 beats K-K-J-J-A.
One pair. Two cards of one denomination and three other cards. The best one-pair hand is A-A-K-Q-J, the worst is 2-2-5-4-3.
No pair (high-card). Five cards that don't match any of the above categories. The best high-card hand is A-K-Q-J-9, the worst is 2-3-4-5-7.

Suits are never used to break ties between hands, so, for example, 2-3-4-5-6 of hearts ties 2-3-4-5-6 of spades. If the best hands are tied, the pot is split evenly among the winning players.

Keyboard interface

Exiting All inPlay Poker

ALT+F4 or ALT+x: Exits All inPlay Poker. One of the players at the table (normally the first person at the table) functions as the game host. If your machine is acting as the game host and you quit in the middle of a hand, All inPlay Poker minimizes itself, stops voicing, and exits as soon as the hand is over. This is done so that the other players at the table can finish out their hands.

Getting information, and general controls

Space Bar: Voices the current status of the game (e.g., "it's Bob's turn to discard.")
F1: Voices information about you (what cards you are holding, how many chips you have, whether it's your turn, etc.).
F2-F5: Voices information about the other players at the table (their nickname, how many chips they have, if they've folded, etc.). F2 is the player to your left, and so on, all the way around the table.
p or F7: Tells you how many chips are in the pot.
F11: Mutes the text-to-speech output.
F9: Mutes sound effects.
~: Describes your hand (for example, "Queen high straight flush").
SHIFT-1 through SHIFT-5: Tells you each of the cards in your hand.
SHIFT-6: Tells you ALL of the cards in your hand.
? or h: Brings up these help pages.
TAB: Enters chat mode. Press TAB, type the message you'd like everybody to see, then press ENTER to send it.
v: Toggle between verbose and concise messages. This is a game option you can set using the poker options page.
a: Active AutoFold Mode.

Betting

0 through 9 followed by ENTER: Raise the current bet by the amount entered. For example, to raise the bet 10 chips, press 1 0 ENTER.
ESC before pressing ENTER: Cancel any raise you're in the middle of entering.
m: Raise the current bet by the maximum allowed immediately.


c or ENTER: Call (match) the current bet.
f: Fold (drop out of this hand).

You have a limited amount of time to enter a bet. If you don't bet within the time limit, you are automatically folded, and lose your ante and any chips you've bet.

Discarding

1 through 5: Toggle discarding your cards. For example, if you are holding Q-A-9-9-Q, press '2' to discard the ace (and press it again to change your mind).
ENTER: Commit your discard choices.
ESC before pressing ENTER: Cancel your discard choices.

You have a limited amount of time to decide which cards to discard. If you don't press ENTER within the time limit, then whatever cards you've chosen to discard so far are automatically discarded (no cards are discarded if you haven't pressed the 1-5 keys).

Chatting

Press the TAB key to enter chat input mode. The chat input window is a standard windows text edit box, and supports all of the standard windows operations (cut and paste, etc.). In addition, the following keys behave specially:

TAB: Switch keyboard focus back to the game, without erasing whatever chat message you were typing. You can then tab back to the chat window to complete your chat message.
ESC: Erase whatever chat message you were typing and switch keyboard focus back to the main game window.
ENTER: Send your text message to everybody at the table, and switch keyboard focus back to the main game window.

Ignoring

Press alt+i key to enter ignore mode. This mode will allow you to select players to ignore or stop ignoring in chat. Upon entering the mode, the first person on the list of people at the table is read.

RIGHT ARROW and LEFT ARROW: Scroll through the list of people at the table.
DOWN ARROW: Toggle the ignore state of the currently selected player (the last player read).
UP ARROW: Read the currently selected player and their ignore state.
ESC: Leave the ignore mode and return to the game.

AutoFold Mode

If you want to step away from your keyboard for a bit, but don't want to lose your seat at a table, you can press alt+a to activate AutoFold. In this mode, you'll automatically fold whenever it becomes your turn. To leave this mode, just press any key. Other players will be notified when you step away from the keyboard, and again when you return.

Mouse interface

All inPlay Poker also includes a visual interface.

To call, click on the CALL button.
To raise, click on the RAISE button. A window will pop up where you can type the amount you want to raise and click RAISE.
To fold, click on the FOLD button.
To discard, click on the cards you want to discard. When you have completed your selection, click the DISCARD button that appears to the left of the cards.
To quit, click on the QUIT button.

If you are currently playing All inPlay Poker, press ALT+F4 to exit this help window and return to the game.

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