Poker Hand Evaluation – From Best to Worst

Note: Cards can appear in any order.

• Royal Flush: Contains a 10, jack, queen, king and ace, all of the same suit. For example: king clubs, jack clubs, ace clubs, 10 clubs, queen clubs.
• Straight Flush: Contains five consecutive cards that share the same suit. A straight flush does not contain an ace. For example: 3 clubs, 7 clubs, 6 clubs, 4 clubs, 5 clubs.
• Four of a Kind: Contains four cards that share the same rank. For example: 4 clubs, 10 diamonds, 4 hearts, 4 spades, 4 diamonds.
• Full House: Contains three cards that share the same rank and two cards that share a different rank. For example: jack hearts, king hearts, king clubs, jack clubs, jack diamonds.
• Straight: Contains five consecutive cards that do not all share the same suit. For example: 3 clubs, 7 diamonds, 6 hearts, 5 hearts, 4 clubs.
• Three of a Kind: Contains three cards that share the same rank and two cards that have unique ranks. For example: 6 clubs, 7 clubs, 8 clubs, 7 diamonds, 7 hearts.
• Two Pair: Contains two cards that share the same rank, two cards that share a different rank, and one card that has a unique rank. For example: six diamonds, six hearts, queen spades, ace clubs, queen diamonds.
• Pair: Contains two cards that share the same rank and three cards that have unique ranks. For example: king hearts, queen hearts, 9 diamonds, 9 hearts, ace spades.
• Nothing: All other hands of five cards. For example: 9 hearts, 6 diamonds, 3 diamonds, 10 spades, queen clubs.

Assignment

• Download poker.py, make sure that you fully understand it, and then modify it so that it evaluates poker hands correctly. When it is run using the hands provided, it should produce this output.
• The evaluate function is correct – do not modify it.
• If it is helpful to do so, you are welcome to introduce other functions into your solution.

Grading – 100 points

Note: Your program will be tested on a different set of poker hands than the ones that appear in the main() function of poker.py. Thus, it is important that you test your program on different inputs and identify the different types of poker hands in a general fashion.

• 10 points – Every royal flush is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 5 points – Every straight flush is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every four of a kind is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every full house is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every straight is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every three of a kind is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every two pair is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every pair is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 10 points – Every nothing is identified correctly. (All or nothing.)
• 15 points – The Python solution is properly commented, easy to understand, high quality and does not contain unnecessary code. (3 points for each type of improvement up to 15 points.)

Test Data

def main():    print("CSCI 127: Poker Hand Evaluation Program")    print("---------------------------------------")    evaluate([[14, "spades"], [10, "spades"], [8, "spades"], [2, "hearts"], [5, "spades"]])     # nothing    evaluate([[14, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [8, "spades"], [6, "hearts"], [5, "spades"]])      # 1 pair    evaluate([[14, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [14, "clubs"], [6, "hearts"], [5, "spades"]])      # 2 pair    evaluate([[14, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [8, "spades"], [6, "hearts"], [6, "clubs"]])       # 3 of a kind    evaluate([[3, "spades"], [5, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [4, "hearts"], [2, "spades"]])       # straight    evaluate([[4, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [4, "diamonds"], [6, "hearts"], [6, "clubs"]])      # full house    evaluate([[14, "spades"], [6, "spades"], [6, "diamonds"], [6, "hearts"], [6, "clubs"]])     # 4 of a kind    evaluate([[13, "spades"], [11, "spades"], [12, "spades"], [9, "spades"], [10, "spades"]])   # straight flush    evaluate([[13, "spades"], [11, "spades"], [12, "spades"], [14, "spades"], [10, "spades"]])  # royal flush