Quantum Poker

A game by RandomVideos, Frib, Miikka and Soroush Sadeghiyeh in a single weekend for Quantum Game Jam 2023!

What is this?

Quantum poker is what you get when you have two decks of cards fused together. Each card contains two cards, and you don't know which one will be the actual card once observed.

The game starts in the final stage of Texas Hold'em. You have two cards, your opponent has two cards, and there are 5 cards shared in the middle. However, since each card can be two cards, there are 512 possible outcomes. You will win some, you will lose some. But you can affect the board with quantum cards!

Each player takes turns playing a quantum card. These quantum cards can affect the poker cards in such a way that the odds of winning will change. You could attempt to secure a flush, or strategically play cards to hinder your opponent.

Once all quantum cards have been played, the game finalizes. It will show two scores: The first is how many win states each player has, based on those 512 outcomes. The second is as if the remaining uncertain cards were observed, forcing one single outcome. Usually the player with the highest odds will win, but there's always that chance that the underdog secures a win!

Quantum Cards

There are 6 different kinds of quantum cards, each doing their own thing.

Measure

Choose what card a poker card should become once observed. This will help you ensure victory, but it's no guarantee as other players can also attempt to measure it into the other value. However, once observed, the measurement is final.

Observe

Forces a card into a single state, giving it a 100% chance to end up like that in all situations. If the card was Measured, it will become that card. If it wasn't Measured, it's a 50/50 chance it becomes either possible value.

Entangle

Entangles two cards so that once one is observed, the other is also observed. You cannot entangle already observed cards. Entangled cards also join their subcard, meaning that if the subcard from deck 1 is measured, all entangled cards will measure their card from deck 1.

Harmonic Oscillation

Entangles a card with its two adjacent cards to the left and right. Doesn't work on already observed cards.

Walk

Swap the places of any two cards.

Tunnel

Choose a quantum card that has already been played and play it again immediately.

Playing the game

To maximize player choice and replayability, you will notice a big intimidating screen when you play a new game. Don't worry! On the left you can choose who controls player 1 and player 2. You can play a solitair game if you want, play hotseat with your buddy, or play against an AI that does random moves. You can also let two AI's play each other. There is no advanced AI with 1337 strats yet.

You can also change the starting hand by changing the values on the right side of the screen, to make games shorter or simpler. Especially for solitaire it might be interesting to toy with a reduced amount of cards, to see if you can ensure a 512/512 victory.

Thanks for playing!