Your mission is to uncover a secret society of individuals who use a unique poker game to identify their targets. Each member of this society has a special playing card that represents their role. As the game begins, your agent manages to sneak into a high-stakes poker game in a hidden room of a grand casino. You’re watching everything through a drone, trying to figure out who the individuals are before it’s too late.
In this special poker game, each player gets two cards. They secretly swap one of these cards with their signature card. Then, the dealer reveals three shared cards on the table. After some betting, the players show their signature cards, and the game continues. Your goal is to identify the individuals and save the targets.
As the game progresses, your drone captures the cards each player holds. But suddenly, disaster strikes! Someone swats the drone, breaking your video feed just before the shared cards are revealed. Before shutting down, the drone sends you data about the three shared cards. Now, it’s up to you to solve the mystery without any more help from the drone or your agent.
To solve the puzzle, you start by combining the clues you have. You know there are at least two queens and one king among the shared cards. The king must be either in the middle or on the left. Additionally, there are two spades and one heart, with the heart being in the middle or on the right.
By analyzing these clues, you narrow down the possibilities. You realize that the three shared cards are the king of spades, the queen of hearts, and the queen of spades, but in different orders. Each player holds one of these cards, except for two players who hold the same card. This means one of them must have a signature card.
With the information you have, you deduce that your agent is actually the individual known as the king of diamonds. She has been playing you all along. The only target left is the other player. You quickly act, grabbing the target just before the game ends and making a swift exit.
As you leave, you lock eyes with your partner, searching for any sign of remorse or apology. But all you see is a neutral expression, leaving you to wonder about her true intentions.
Gather in small groups and simulate the poker game described in the article. Each of you will take on a role with a special playing card. Swap cards and try to deduce each other’s roles based on the clues provided. This will help you understand the dynamics of the game and the importance of observation and deduction.
Create a puzzle using a deck of cards where you must arrange the cards to match the clues given in the article. Work individually or in pairs to solve the puzzle, focusing on the logic behind the placement of the king and queens. This activity will enhance your problem-solving skills.
Design a simple drone simulation using a computer program or app. Your task is to capture and analyze data from a virtual poker game. This will give you insight into how technology can be used for surveillance and data collection in real-world scenarios.
Write a short story from the perspective of the agent who was playing you. Explore her motivations and feelings throughout the mission. This will help you develop empathy and understand different viewpoints in complex situations.
Participate in a class discussion about trust and deception. Reflect on the article’s themes and share your thoughts on how trust can be built or broken in high-stakes situations. This will encourage critical thinking and communication skills.
Your agent is about to infiltrate a high-stakes poker game in a hidden back room of a grand casino. You’re on the trail of an elite society of individuals, each of whom carries a signature playing card corresponding to their role. You’ve received intel from a reliable source about how they operate. Their method is to invite their targets to a game with one or more individuals at the table. The game is a variant of poker played with a single, fair deck where every player receives two cards in secret. Each participant immediately and covertly swaps one of the cards they’ve been dealt with their signature card. Then, the dealer reveals three shared cards on the table. After betting, the players signal that they’re ready by playing their signature cards. When the last card is revealed, they proceed with their plans.
Today’s game is no different, and your mission is to identify the individuals and save all the targets. Everyone at the table is either an individual or a target, and there must be at least one of each. The game is about to begin when your agent finds a secret passage and talks her way into a seat at the table. Meanwhile, you’re monitoring the proceedings with a drone. If you can figure out who has swapped out a fairly dealt card with a new one, you can identify the individuals and alert your agent through her earpiece.
The game begins. Your drone doesn’t catch anyone’s sleight of hand, but it does manage to get a look at the cards each player holds. Suddenly, disaster strikes. Someone swats the drone, breaking your video feed before the reveal of the shared cards. It goes into emergency mode and sends a string of data about those three shared cards before shutting down. That’s it; you’ve lost your eyes and ears in the room. Your agent can’t see anyone else’s cards or tell you anything, so it’s up to you to figure this out quickly. Who are the individuals?
You can start by combining the first two rules. The second tells us that there are at least two queens, and the first that there’s at least one king. So we must have two queens and a king. The first rule then tells us that the king is either in the middle or on the left. That’s all we can do for now, so let’s look at the suits. By the same logic, we know that there must be two spades and one heart. The heart must be in the middle or on the right.
We can now make a table with our possibilities. We can eliminate one option because it would require the deck to have two queens of spades. We can’t rule out any other options, but we don’t actually need to; in every case, the three cards are the king of spades, the queen of hearts, and the queen of spades, in different orders. And it just so happens that each of these players holds one of those cards.
However, there’s something odd. Two players hold the same card. So, one of those must be a signature card. But you know from your intel that there’s at least one target who is not the agent. How can that be? There’s only one possibility: your agent is the individual known as the king of diamonds, and she’s been playing you this whole time. The only target is the other player. You rush in, grab hold of that player just before the bidding ends, and make a run for it. On your way out, you lock eyes with your partner. You search her features, desperate for any sign of remorse or apology. All you get back is a neutral expression.
Poker – A card game that combines gambling, strategy, and skill, where players bet on the value of their hand. – In mathematics class, we used poker to practice probability by calculating the odds of getting certain hands.
Game – An activity or contest with rules, where players engage in competition or cooperation to achieve a goal. – The teacher designed a math game to help us understand algebraic equations better.
Cards – Small, flat, rectangular pieces of paper or plastic used in games, often marked with numbers or symbols. – We used cards with different numbers to practice our skills in adding and subtracting integers.
Clues – Pieces of evidence or information used to solve a problem or mystery. – The teacher gave us clues to help us figure out the solution to the complex math problem.
Players – Individuals who participate in a game or activity, often competing against each other. – In the math competition, the players had to solve challenging problems within a time limit.
Targets – Goals or objectives that one aims to achieve. – Our target for the math project was to accurately calculate the area of various geometric shapes.
Analyze – To examine something in detail to understand it better or to draw conclusions. – We had to analyze the data from our experiment to determine the relationship between the variables.
Mystery – Something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain. – Solving the mystery of the missing angle required us to apply our knowledge of geometry.
Solve – To find an answer or explanation for a problem or question. – We learned different strategies to solve quadratic equations in our math class.
Deductive – Relating to reasoning from general principles to specific conclusions. – Using deductive reasoning, we concluded that if all angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees, then the missing angle must be 60 degrees.
