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One day while he was siting on a chair, waiting for a "reversal of chance" Jim had two queens (beautiful females) come along.

Their sight satisfied Jim and he recalled that people called these ladies a "Pocket Pair'.

Jim then went with the two 'queens' to 'The Flop'; glittering on the table he saw 6 red diamonds. "What are these?", Jim asked, "Garnets or Rubies?". Here he also met another two 'queens', though his time, the beautiful 'queens' were wearing black suit instead.

Gosh! what are the odds of me being surrounded by four sexy ladies?!?! thought Jim.

Jim then went with the 'four ladies' to 4th street, there he met Jack. Jim thought he had managed to made Jack jealous, but Jack maintained his emotion control: he was as stiff as a coated paper. What a poker face, thought Jim.

Jim and the four ladies went walking, unfortunately for Jim after a short time a man named "The King" appeared 'swimming' (out from nowhere!) on the River. The king caught him red handed with his 4 beautiful ladies.

The King punished Jim, causing him to go bankrupt. But those are the rules!

Jim stood up from his chair and left crying.

What actually happened to poor Jim?

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    $\begingroup$ This was a good puzzle, perhaps you added too many hints (for example, upper-case wasn't needed for "River", The Flop was another giant hint too). +1 anyway $\endgroup$
    – leoll2
    May 4, 2015 at 15:54
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    $\begingroup$ I definitely think there were far too many hints. Even a passing familiarity with card games would easily lead you to the answer. I like the direction this puzzle is going, but I would recommend making it less literal (Jack, Queen, King, pocket, red diamonds, Flop, 4th-street, River, plastic coated paper, poker face). Right now, it doesn't really get the puzzler to guess anything. It's basically just a description of a game of hold 'em. $\endgroup$
    – Cubicon
    May 4, 2015 at 17:03
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    $\begingroup$ Wow, Lots and Lots (and Lots) of hints here. Possibly too many hints. Maybe you should have started with a bare-bones version of this and added in more hints as time went on if nobody got it. $\endgroup$
    – Spencerkatty
    May 4, 2015 at 18:12
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with Cubicon and Spencer Kerr: this puzzle was too easy. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 4, 2015 at 19:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Cubicon It isn't a puzzle to figure out that it's about a game of Poker, the puzzle is figuring out the opponent's hand (which is still fairly easy if you know the rules). $\endgroup$
    – Brian
    May 4, 2015 at 20:11

3 Answers 3

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Sounds to me like Jim

Had quite the poker hand - pocket Queens, with 4-of-a-kind revealed in Queens on the flop (as well as a six of Diamonds, apparently).

Unfortunately,

With the Jack as the turn card and the King on the river, his opponent must have been holding a 10 and an Ace suited in black, and achieved the very rare royal flush (though I suppose a 9-10 suited would work as well).

To make matters worse,

Jim went all-in on the 4-of-a-kind (who wouldn't?), lost to the royal flush, and went bankrupt.

Poor Jim.

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  • $\begingroup$ 9 and 10 would not work, Royal flush needs to have Ace. $\endgroup$
    – Zikato
    May 5, 2015 at 8:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Zikato No need for a royal flush to beat a mere 4-of-a-kind. $\endgroup$
    – No. 7892142
    May 5, 2015 at 10:25
  • $\begingroup$ True, my bad. I forgot the hand ranks. Both Royal and Straight flush outrank 4-of-a-kind. $\endgroup$
    – Zikato
    May 5, 2015 at 10:37
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Answer

Jim had

an impressive poker hand: pocket Queens, with four of a kind revealed in Queens on the flop, as well as a 6 of diamonds.

Unfortunately,

with the Jack as the turn card and the King on the river, his opponent must have been holding a 10 and an Ace suited in black, and achieved the very rare royal flush (though a 9-10 suited would work as well).

To make matters worse,

Jim went all in on the 4-of-a-kind, lost to the royal flush, and went bankrupt.

Constructive criticism

I think you show some potential as a riddle-writer, but you've put in far too many and too explicit hints for this puzzle to be any challenge at all. There is a precedent for posting answers that are not actually answers but rather improvements to the question, so here goes.

One day while he was sitting on a chair, waiting for a reversal of fortunes, Jim met two beautiful ladies, who were both wearing glittering red diamonds - rubies, perhaps - 6 in total.

Later he met two more ladies, this time dressed as though for a funeral. "Gosh! what are the odds of me being surrounded by four sexy ladies?!?!" thought Jim.

He went with the four ladies to 4th street, where he met Jack. Jim thought he had managed to made Jack jealous, but Jack kept his face stiff as paper.

Unfortunately for Jim, after a short time a king appeared from nowhere, swimming in the river. The king caught him red-handed with his 4 beautiful ladies and punished Jim, causing him to go bankrupt.

Jim stood up from his chair and left crying.

What actually happened to poor Jim?

In the story as edited above, there are much fewer explicit hints in actual card-game language, which makes the puzzle more challenging. Even now it's fairly easy to solve - with ladies, diamonds, red, black, Jack, and a king, it wouldn't take people long to come up with the idea of a card game - but at least there's something to work out here.

(Of course, I realise you haven't accepted an answer yet. Maybe the whole card-game scenario is a red herring and the real answer is something much deeper - if so, congratulations on writing such a multi-layered puzzle!)

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Like Bailey, but

The other guy had a 4 of a kind in Kings. It couldn't be a Royal Flush because Jim had all the Queens.

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  • $\begingroup$ If you have 2 queens on the hand, you need 2 queens on the table. The remaining 3 cards on the table are used from your opponent to build his royal flush $\endgroup$
    – leoll2
    May 4, 2015 at 16:36
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    $\begingroup$ @leoll2 What card game is this, Texas Hold 'em? $\endgroup$
    – NobleUplift
    May 4, 2015 at 16:51
  • $\begingroup$ @NobleUplift Most likely yes it is Texas Hold'em. $\endgroup$
    – Daedric
    May 4, 2015 at 16:57
  • $\begingroup$ His opponent couldn't have had 4 kings. From the puzzle, it appears the cards on the board were Q Q 6 J K. Even if his opponent had pocket kings, the best hand he could manage at that point would have been a full house, which wouldn't beat 4 queens. $\endgroup$
    – Cubicon
    May 4, 2015 at 16:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Jiminion The community cards (those on the table) are also considered yours to use, remember you only have to make the best with any five cards from your hand and the community cards, there is two black queens on the table that could be used by all players (Jim or Jack?). $\endgroup$
    – Daedric
    May 4, 2015 at 17:00

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