Math Poker at school
A whole class plays one sequence of numbers and the browser keeps the score, not the teacher with a calculator. Where phones are not allowed in the lesson, paper stays: the printable game sheet and the classic school scoring table are here too.
The easy way: a lobby on the board
You open the group game, project the three-digit code on the board and pupils join on their phones. Everybody gets the same sequence of numbers, the server keeps the score and the standings update as you go, so the result for the whole class is there by the end of the lesson. Nothing gets installed and one lobby holds fifty players. The whole procedure, with a picture of every screen, is in the guide for teachers.
That is the whole difference from playing on paper: adding up twelve lines over twenty-five numbers drops away for the pupils and for you, and so does the marking. If you want them to practise the adding, turn it around and play on paper on purpose.
The panel beside the grid keeps, next to every name, how many of the twenty-five squares are filled, how many numbers are queued up for that player and how many points they have. Anybody who puts the game aside and switches to something else stops placing, and the queue by their name grows, so you can see it from the front of the room without walking the aisles. On hard it also says how many squares each of them lost to the clock.
Without a lobby, but also without adding up by hand, there is the grid: an empty 5×5 board where the numbers go in by hand and the points are worked out for you. It suits one board projected for the whole class to fill together, and it checks a round played on paper.
When phones are not allowed
In a class with the phones locked away, on a trip with no signal and in a lesson where the adding up is the point, paper wins. The game sheet is a ready-made PDF on one A4 page, with the scoring table and a line for a name. Print it and hand it out as often as you need.
Math Poker
Name
| Combination in a line | Points |
|---|---|
| Two of the same number | 10 |
| Two and two of the same number | 30 |
| Three of the same number | 40 |
| A triple and a pair | 80 |
| A straight, for instance 4 7 5 3 6 | 50 |
| A royal straight 11 10 12 13 1 | 150 |
| Four of the same number | 160 |
| Four ones | 200 |
Five rows, five columns and both diagonals are added up, each line counting only its best combination. Rules and the game in your browser: matematickypoker.cz
Free to use in class · matematickypoker.cz
What to bring for a paper round
- A game sheet for every pupil, one page per round.
- A source of numbers for the whole class: slips in a box, two dice, or the number picker on the projector, which also shows what has already been drawn.
- A pencil and an eraser. A number written down is not erased, the totals at the end are.
- Anybody with a 3D printer can swap the paper slips for tiles: the set of numbers 1 to 13 fits a 105 × 105 mm plate, and printed four times it makes the whole deck. In a bag it lasts longer than paper.
Running a round in class
- Hand out the sheets, every pupil plays their own.
- Draw a number for the whole class at once and write it on the board. Everybody arranges the same sequence, so what gets compared at the end is decisions, not luck.
- Wait until everyone has written it down, and only then draw the next one. There are 25 squares, so a round runs for 25 turns.
- Once the grid is full, the lines are added into the boxes along the edges and then into the total.
- Neighbours swap totals and check them. Finding the mistake in somebody else's table is half the exercise.
With the explaining, the first round takes twenty to twenty-five minutes, the second one fifteen. If the same number comes up twice in a row, nothing is wrong: the deck holds four cards of every value.
The classic school scoring
The table on the game sheet is the one that has been going round schools the longest: a pair for 10 points, four ones for 200 and the royal straight 11, 10, 12, 13, 1 for 150. It does not care whether the numbers sit side by side. Five rows, five columns and both diagonals are added up, twelve lines in all, and each of them counts only its best combination.
The browser game scores differently. It also tells apart whether a combination runs unbroken along the line and whether a straight is in order, which leaves more to decide. The whole table is on the Rules page. On paper feel free to stay with the classic one, both versions are played on the same sheet.
What the class practises
- Combinatorics and probability. The deck holds four cards of every value. How many are left, and how good the chances are that an unfinished four of a kind will land, can be worked out.
- Deciding under uncertainty. Every square can be taken only once. The best move for right now is often the one that takes away the most options later.
- Adding up and estimating. Twelve lines, each up to two hundred points, a total at the end. Estimating the result before adding it up is an exercise of its own.
- Reading a table. A row, a column, a diagonal and the scoring table beside them.
Questions teachers ask
How many pupils can play at once?
Fifty in one lobby, which covers two classes at once. On paper there is no ceiling, everyone plays their own sheet and all of them on the same sequence of numbers.
Do pupils need a phone?
For the group game yes, otherwise no. Without phones you can project one board and fill it together, or hand out the printed sheet, where a pencil is enough.
Can I tell whether pupils are playing and not on their phones?
The panel beside the grid holds, next to every name, the number of filled squares, the numbers queued up and the score, and all of it updates as the round runs. Anybody who puts the game aside stops placing and the queue by their name grows; on hard it adds how many squares they lost to the clock. Nothing is found out about anybody's screen: all that shows is what a player did in the grid, or did not.
From which year can the game be played?
The rules are within reach of nine-year-olds, the adding goes up to two hundred per line. With older pupils you can add working out how many cards of a given value are still left in the deck.
Can the game sheet be used without permission?
Yes, print it and hand it out at school as often as you need, free and without asking. If a link into your materials would help, the address is matematickypoker.cz/school.html.
Can it be played in another language?
Yes. The game speaks Czech, Slovak, English, Polish, German and French, and the flag in the bar switches between them. Everything a pupil sees is translated: the board, the rules, the scoring table and the game sheet. The language you pick travels with the invitation to a group game, so a whole lesson can run in English; the guide for teachers walks through it.