Poker Puzzle Contest

[ouchbadbeat]

Welcome to the Official Poker Puzzle Contest - devised and funded by Venice.


How good at you at solving puzzles? How about at creating them? Well here's your chance to win some dough.

The contest is divided into stages:


Stage 1: Puzzle creation (Now until Sunday 10th February 23:59 ET)


You have 3 weeks to create and submit your poker puzzles. Create your own puzzles - anyone found to be copying/rewording existing puzzles risks being disqualified.

Q. What type of puzzle should I make?
A. Any puzzle that can be solved with some form of logic. As long as it's connected with poker in some way and does not involve random guesswork to solve, it should be fine. I will check all puzzles that get submitted, and PM you if there are any problems.

Q. How many puzzles can I submit?
A. You can submit a maximum of 3 puzzles.

Please submit all puzzles to me via PM, with the title "Poker Puzzle Submission" and the following format:

Originally Posted by Poker Puzzle Submission

Puzzle: [Your puzzle here]

Answer: [Answer here]

Logic behind answer: [Explain how the answer is reached here]

Stage 2: Puzzle solving (Monday 11th February - Friday 15th February 23:59 ET)


All of the puzzles will be posted in a new thread, and everyone will have until Friday 15th February to submit their answers.
You do not have to have entered a puzzle in Stage 1 in order to be able to answer them in Stage 2.

Conversely, if you have entered any puzzles, you can still submit your answers in Stage 2 with the following rule in place:
For any puzzles that you created, you must state the answer 'MINE' on your answer sheet. If more than 50% of the other players get your puzzle correct, you will be marked as getting it correct. If fewer than 50% of the other players get your puzzle correct, you will be marked as getting it wrong.

This stage will have its own thread, but you can expect an answer sheet like this

Originally Posted by Example answer sheet

Puzzle 1. [Your Answer]
Puzzle 2. [Your Answer]
Puzzle 3. [Your Answer]
Puzzle 4. [Your Answer]
...

The answer alone will suffice; you do not have to explain how you reached this answer (though you can if you like.)
Answers must be PMed to me before the deadline. If you send in more than 1 set of answers, only your most recent set will be counted.



Stage 3: Puzzle voting (Monday 18th February - Wednesday 20th February)


On Monday 18th February, I will post all of the answers to the puzzles. (Note - I will not reveal anyone's score just yet)
A 3 day poll will be created, allowing all members with over 100 posts to vote on their favourite puzzle. Depending on how many puzzles there are, it may be a single-vote poll or a multi-vote poll.

You should vote for the puzzle that you like the best, or the one that you feel is the cleverest. You cannot vote for your own puzzle(s).



Stage 4: Winners announced (Thursday 21st February)


There will be 2 prizes awarded:
1) Highest score (most correct answers) - $10
2) Best puzzle (decided by poll) - $10

A leaderboard will be posted showing everyone's puzzle scores, and the top scorer will recieve a $10 prize from Venice.

The author of each puzzle will also be revealed, and whoever created the puzzle that won the poll will recieve a $10 prize from Venice.

Important: There will only be two prizes. In the event of a tie, here what will happen:

a) with the puzzle scores, whoever sent their answers in soonest will be declared the winner.
b) with the best puzzle vote, a new poll will be created with just the tying puzzles to vote on. Again the poll will only be open to members with 100+ posts.



Summary

Now until Sunday 10th February 23:59 ET: Submit your puzzle(s). You can enter a maximum of 3 puzzles.
Monday 11th February: Puzzles are posted in a new thread.
Monday 11th February until Friday 15th February 23:59 ET: Submit your answers to me via PM.
Monday 18th February: Answers are revealed, and a 3 day poll is put up so members with 100+ posts can vote on the best puzzle.
Thursday 21st February: Scores and puzzle creators revealed, prizes awarded.


Any questions or comments? Post below.

[Venice]

It looks very well structured to me. Thanks for organising, and good luck to those who enter

[no1yidmax]

Sounds like a good idea, although I wouldn't know where to start as far as making my own puzzle goes.

I will however have a go at solving some

no1yidmax

[ouchbadbeat]

Originally Posted by no1yidmax

Sounds like a good idea, although I wouldn't know where to start as far as making my own puzzle goes.

I will however have a go at solving some

no1yidmax

well you have 3 weeks, maybe you'll get an idea for a puzzle in that time
i might enter a few puzzles myself, but of course i won't be answering any

[TomPerez]

I'll see what I can do as far as creating them. I might need some help and inspiration as I'm really bad in creating puzzles, but we'll see

[PB-SP-SC]

well, if I want to take part of it, I need to look up what a poker puzzle is, to even start thinking about creating one... lol
maybe I will be out of this one...

[ouchbadbeat]

I've already thought of 2 little puzzles, so that get's our running puzzle total up to...... 2

[toploader1]

i will create a poker puzzle by the end of the week,
got o idea what it will be as yet though,

but good luck to all who try

[Venice]

Hopefully we can get a good 6 or 7 entries at least. Just feel that inspiration flowing through your veins

[TomPerez]

I'm not really feeling it yet, and haven't had enough time to think of a good one. It'll probably be a detective kind of thing though But it should really be poker related eh?

[ouchbadbeat]

i won't be too fussy in accepting puzzles, just as long as they have some reasoning involved

so no "here is a hand history, do you call or fold??" type questions

[ouchbadbeat]

As an added incentive - whoever wins the best poker puzzle prize will also get a ticket to Jenpoker's $100 freeroll

This freeroll should only have about 20 players, so will be a great chance at some cash.

(Note: if someone who is already allowed in the freeroll wins, it'll go to the next eligible person on the best puzzle poll.)

[ouchbadbeat]

Come on guys... still no entries yet

Well christo entered, but his puzzle doesn't have a definite answer so it can't be accepted yet

This'll be an easy $10 for me at this rate

[deathcard71]

i have given this a lot of thought.... well ok a little thought. and i have come to the conclusion that creating a puzzle is a hell of a lot harder than solving one. and i would say i'm less than average at solving. so if you get an entry from me, ouch ... it will surprise both of us.

[ouchbadbeat]

Originally Posted by deathcard71

i have given this a lot of thought.... well ok a little thought. and i have come to the conclusion that creating a puzzle is a hell of a lot harder than solving one. and i would say i'm less than average at solving. so if you get an entry from me, ouch ... it will surprise both of us.

christo_r_6 has just submitted a different puzzle that i've accepted, so that tkes us up to 3 puzzles now

as for creating your own, i say give it a go - it doesn't have to be a word puzzle, it can use pictures etc

once you've submitted it i'll let you know if it's acceptable or not

[ouchbadbeat]

reminder to everyone that this is the last week that i'll be accepting entries

deadline is 23:59ET this sunday, and the puzzles will be posted some time on monday

[ouchbadbeat]

Only 2 days to get those entries in now

[ouchbadbeat]

just 5 and a bit hours left to get those entries in. i won't accept any entries after that

the main puzzle thread will appear tomorrow, probably sometime in the afternoon GMT (09:00-12:00 ET)

[TomPerez]

Damn, I totally forgot, I'll try to come up with a sucky one now

[TomPerez]

Nope, sorry ouch, can't come up with anything good, pretty tired now so I'm going to bed..

[ouchbadbeat]

the puzzle thread should hopefully be posted in the next hour
i need to just find all the puzzles submitted and put them in a random order, as well as creating a thread with clear instructions

[ouchbadbeat]

Sorry guys I'm running a bit late here, I said it'd be ready in the last hour but I'm still working on it.

Pretty certain the puzzles will be posted in the NEXT hour.

[ouchbadbeat]

Nearly done now. Just making it look pretty Puzzles will be posted in a few minutes