Rules

You draw numbers from a deck and decide where on the 5×5 grid to write them. A written number cannot be moved, so every decision is final. You can play for yourself, for a place on the leaderboard, or in a group with shared numbers.

How a game runs

1. You hit Start and the deck hands you the first card. The next numbers come from the Draw button.
2. You pick an empty cell and place the number in it.
3. The next number comes on its own, no clicking needed. The Draw button stays as a fallback.
4. Points are recounted immediately, for every row, column and both diagonals.
5. The game ends when all 25 cells are filled.

Score preview

While a number waits in your hand, the corner of the empty cells shows how many points it would score there. Cells where it would score nothing stay blank. The best gain is highlighted. The eye button in the console above the grid turns it off.

It is not advice on where to place. The number only says what happens right now. It knows nothing about the value of the cell you take up nor about the cards still to come. The biggest immediate gain is quite often the worst move in the game.

There is no preview in the daily challenge or in a ranked game. Those are played for position against other people, so everyone has to count for themselves. The eye button does not even appear there.

The deck

The deck holds 54 cards: four of every value from 1 to 13 (52 in total) and two jokers. A card never repeats: what has been drawn is gone. There are only 25 cells, so a single game never shows you most of the deck.

Jokers

When you draw a joker you have two options:

• Use it now: give it a value from 1 to 13 and write it straight onto the grid.
• Keep it: the joker stays in your hand and you keep drawing. A kept joker does not use up a draw.

Scoring

12 lines are evaluated: 5 rows, 5 columns and both diagonals. Every line counts on its own and only its best combination scores. Points within one line do not add up.

In a row means the numbers of the combination lie next to each other in the line without a gap. That always scores more than the same combination scattered. For the ordered straight the same holds for the order: the five numbers must follow each other, ascending or descending.

An older, simpler table has been going round schools for years, one where it makes no difference whether the numbers sit side by side. It stands, together with a printable game sheet, on Math Poker at school. A third table goes round under the name Matematico, that one with a diagonal bonus; all three stand side by side there.

Difficulties

• Easy: no clock.
• Hard: before the start you set how many seconds you get per number (3 to 300). Whatever you fail to place is lost. The cell for that number stays empty forever and no replacement comes. The game ends earlier that way. An unfinished grid still counts towards your score record, but it does not raise the number of games finished and does not count towards the fastest game.

Both difficulties are run by the server: the deck and the grid live there and the browser only sends “place it on this cell”. That is what lets the game count towards your profile statistics. If the server cannot be reached or storage is turned off, the whole game runs in the browser and nothing is recorded. The dialog at the end says so.

Ranked game

The same rules as easy and hard difficulty, only the result also competes for a place on the public leaderboard. You choose the difficulty and the seconds per number before the start. Without a connection this mode does not run: the server counts the score, otherwise it could not be compared.

• Only a game with all 25 cells filled makes the leaderboard.
• The leaderboard has four periods: today, this week, this month and overall. Each keeps the top hundred places and only the best result of every player.
• There is no score preview here, you play for position against other people.

Daily challenge

Easy rules, but the deck is not shuffled at random: it is derived from the date, so on that day everyone gets the same one in the same order. What decides is not who got the better cards but who arranged them better. A new deck is shuffled tomorrow.

• One attempt a day. The result goes into the table of the day, not the leaderboard, and the record of the day is always visible.
• The game counts a streak, how many days in a row you have finished the challenge. You see it after the game and in your profile.
• The result can be shared: the button at the end prepares a line with your score, your place of the day and your streak, ready to paste into a chat.
• Once the attempt is spent, the same deck can be replayed without the challenge, just for yourself. Such a round does not enter the table of the day.
• The challenge needs storage turned on in the privacy settings. Without it the browser would get a new identity on every load and one attempt a day could not be enforced.

Publishing your result

Before the first result is written to a public table, the game asks whether it may. What leaves is your nickname, score, difficulty and the time of the game, nothing else: no e‑mail, no IP address.

Without consent you keep playing, the result is simply not recorded anywhere. You can change your mind any time in your profile, and it covers both the leaderboard and the table of the day.

Duel 1v1

A duel is the group game narrowed down to two. You both play the same sequence of numbers, each on your own grid, and at the end the points decide who won. What differs from the group game is the pace: the numbers are drawn automatically once you have both placed them, so neither of you decides when the other gets the next one.

• Your opponent joins with the code, a link carrying it, or by scanning the QR. There are two seats and both play; dealing without playing is not possible here. Without an opponent the duel does not start.
• If you do not want to wait, you can draw the next number yourself: in a duel both players may draw, not just the one who created it. Handy when your opponent steps away.
• The higher score wins. A tie is decided by the number of filled cells, and when those match too, it is a draw.
• The result counts into your profile statistics: the game and the points like any other, plus wins, losses and draws. A duel your opponent leaves, or in which they place no number at all, is not recorded as a win: the game counts, the match does not. Duels do not enter the public leaderboard, the same as the group game.

Group game

One player creates a lobby and becomes the host: only they draw numbers and the whole group receives the same sequence. Everyone arranges it on their own grid, so the result is decided by decisions, not by cards. At the end the grids are scored with the same table as everywhere else and the group is ranked.

• The others join with the lobby code, a link carrying it, or by scanning the QR code. One lobby holds at most 50 players. Once the game starts nobody else can join: a newcomer would have an empty grid and a whole queue of numbers the others already had.
• The host can play as well, or just deal. If they leave, the game ends and the standings are shown. An unfinished lobby is thrown away by itself after six hours.
• A joker reaches the whole group at once and everyone handles it their own way: give it a value and place it now, or keep it for later. A kept joker is then placed outside the sequence: it uses up a cell but no number from the queue, so it can be played even while you hold a number, or after the deck runs out.
• In hard difficulty everyone has their own deadline: the seconds run from the moment the player got to the number, so from the draw if they were waiting for it, or from finishing the previous number if they are working through the queue. The host does not set the pace and everyone gets the same time per number.
• Whoever falls behind works through the queue in order; in easy difficulty the queue waits, in hard difficulty numbers are lost.
• Group results do not enter the public leaderboard. The numbers are shared and the host sets the pace, so they cannot be compared with ranked games.
• Group games do count towards your profile statistics if you have storage turned on: the score and a filled board yes, the fastest game no, the host sets the pace there.

Helper modes

• Number picker: just the generator. Handy when you play on paper. It shows the history of everything drawn and how many of each value are left. A started deck survives closing the tab, only the Shuffle button clears it.
• Grid: an empty grid you fill in yourself. Points are counted as you go and the arrow keys move between cells.

Profile and statistics

An account is just a nickname, with no e‑mail and no password. Statistics are counted for the profile that is selected: best score, a record for easy and for hard separately, games finished, fastest game and the daily challenge streak. The server keeps them so they cannot be rewritten in the browser.

What gets recorded are the games the server ran, so easy, hard, the ranked game and the daily challenge. That needs storage turned on in the privacy settings, otherwise every game would belong to a new player and nothing would add up. In your profile the statistics can be downloaded, reset and erased.

Installing and playing offline

The game can be added to your home screen as an app, with the Install the app button in the bar or in the menu. It then opens from an icon and runs in its own window. A browser that does not offer direct installation gets instructions for adding the page by hand.

Offline you can play easy and hard difficulty, the Grid, the Number picker and read these rules. The ranked game, the daily challenge, group play and the leaderboard need the server, so they do not run offline and do not pretend otherwise.

Keyboard

• G draws the next number in easy and hard difficulty and in the Number picker, where Space draws as well
• Tab selects a cell, Enter or Space places the number in it
• ↑ ↓ ← → move around the hand-filled grid
• Esc closes a dialog that can be dismissed

Common questions

How many cards does the Math Poker deck have?

Fifty-four: four of every value from 1 to 13, 52 cards in total, plus two jokers. A card never repeats, what has been drawn is out of the deck. There are only 25 cells, so a large part of the deck never shows up in a single game.

What can you do with a joker?

Either you use it right away: you pick a value from 1 to 13 for it and place it in the grid. Or you keep it and go on drawing. A kept joker does not use up a turn and the counter in the console above the grid holds it until you click on it.

How many lines are scored in Math Poker?

Twelve: five rows, five columns and both diagonals. Every line is counted on its own and only its best combination scores, points do not add up within one line.

What does adjacent mean?

That the numbers of the combination sit in the line one after another with no gap. That is always worth more than the same combination scattered: four adjacent gives 100 points, scattered 70. An ordered straight asks the same of the order, five numbers have to run up or down.

Why is there no points preview in the daily challenge and the ranked game?

Those are played for a place against everybody else, so everyone has to count for themselves. The eye button does not even show up in those modes. In easy and hard difficulty the preview is there and can be switched off.