[Benedict] >> It would be interesting to see how complicated it would get to write >> code to detect the correct hands in poker with wildcards included.
There is an interesting SF project with code written in C: http://pokersource.sourceforge.net/ In contrast, Python makes short work of these kind of problems. Here are some primitives to get you started (just add a representation for suits, flush detection, and controlling logic for ranking hands): def is_straight(hand, numwildcards=0): """Checks for a five card straight Inputs: list of non-wildcards plus wildcard count 2,3,4, ... 10, 11 for Jack, 12 for Queen, 13 for King, 14 for Ace Hand can be any length (i.e. it works for seven card games). Outputs: highest card in a five card straight or 0 if not a straight. Original list is not mutated. Ace can also be a low card (i.e. A2345). >>> is_straight([14,2,3,4,5]) 5 >>> is_straight([14,2,3,4,6]) 0 >>> is_straight([10,11,12,13,14]) 14 >>> is_straight([2,3,5], 2) 6 >>> is_straight([], 5) 14 >>> is_straight([2,4,6,8,10], 3) 12 >>> is_straight([2,4,4,5,5], 2) 6 """ hand = set(hand) if 14 in hand: hand.add(1) for low in (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1): needed = set(range(low, low+5)) if len(needed & hand) + numwildcards >= 5: return low+4 return 0 def groups(hand, numwildcards=0): """Checks for pairs, threes-of-kind, fours-of-a-kind, and fives-of-a-kind Inputs: list of non-wildcards plus wildcard count 2,3,4, ... 10, 11 for Jack, 12 for Queen, 13 for King, 14 for Ace Hand can be any length (i.e. it works for seven card games) Output: tuple with counts for each value (high cards first) for example (3, 14), (2, 11) full-house Aces over Jacks for example (2, 9), (2, 7) two-pair Nines and Sevens Maximum count is limited to five (there is no seven of a kind). Original list is not mutated. >>> groups([11,14,11,14,14]) [(3, 14), (2, 11)] >>> groups([7, 9, 10, 9, 7]) [(2, 9), (2, 7)] >>> groups([11,14,11,14], 1) [(3, 14), (2, 11)] >>> groups([9,9,9,9,8], 2) [(5, 9), (2, 8)] >>> groups([], 7) [(5, 14), (2, 13)] """ result = [] counts = [(hand.count(v), v) for v in range(2,15)] for c, v in sorted(counts, reverse=True): newcount = min(5, c + numwildcards) # Add wildcards upto five numwildcards -= newcount - c # Wildcards remaining if newcount > 1: result.append((newcount, v)) return result import doctest print doctest.testmod() -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list