Dr. Todd Neller, Gettysburg College, will present "The Poker Squares Challenge" on Tuesday, February 19th at Noon in Tome 115.  Free pizza and everyone welcome to attend!

Abstract: In this interactive talk, we will introduce the game of Poker Squares (a.k.a. Poker Solitaire, Poker Square), where a player sequentially places random playing cards into a 5-by-5 grid in order to maximize the score of Poker hands in each of the grid's 5 rows and 5 columns.  We will then play a game together using a common card deck draw.  From this experience of the game, we will discuss possible strategies for human and computer play.  A semester-long potential Poker Squares programming contest will be outlined, and we will overview a few approaches one might take in creating strong Poker Squares computer players.  Please join us to plant seeds for creative solutions to this interesting, fun, and open problem.