Poker game design is somewhat intricate because there is a need to input lots of card combinations and their outcomes. In general, there will be a need for a class for players and their hands, cards, and the deck. The game itself also needs a class that specifies ante value, big and small blinds, and in general, runs each game. The biggest challenge in poker game design is keeping all possible hands in a game. Merely having an enormous database with sets of five cards. It should have all the combinations possible for a player to have in their hand.
This would total in 52x50x49x51x48 or 311,875,200 combinations, to be exact. It would be tough to get all of this information into a standard database because each combination would need a specific score to know a pair of two’s win from a pair of three’s. Using a database speeds up calculating the odds process with each hand. If it were not for a database, the user would have to write a multiplex and time-consuming algorithm.
In a poker game design, the final hand can have seven cards with 2520 different combinations. The user would need to calculate which one is the best. There would also be a need to review the other player’s cards that are visible and make a calculation to see the chances of beating their hands. The player having the Ace, Queen, ten of clubs, and King visible while the opponent having four sixes shown would mean that there is a good chance the player has a royal flush.
The player can check to see if he or she has a Jack of Clubs in their covered hand. If they do, then they will win. If that is not the case, then they will have to bluff. In this instance, it is simple math. But things can get complicated when the opponent has a flush or a straight. Because there comes a need to estimate the opponent's best hand to know if the player has to fold, raise, or call. These are the simple yet delicate features of poker game design.