February 18th, 2025

The Secret Poker Game You Can Play on the Subway

Subway Poker is a two-player game for subway commuters, where players create poker hands based on passenger types. The game concludes at a chosen station, enhancing interaction and entertainment.

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The Secret Poker Game You Can Play on the Subway

Subway Poker is an innovative two-player game designed to enhance the experience of commuting on subways. Players engage by selecting a row of five seats, which represent their poker hand, and must agree on an end station where the game concludes. Each type of passenger corresponds to a specific poker card value: children count as 10, teenagers as Jack, women as Queen, men as King, and elderly individuals as Ace. The objective is to create the highest-ranking poker hand based on traditional poker rules by the time the train reaches the designated station. Players are encouraged to observe their surroundings, choose their seating wisely, and predict passenger patterns to improve their chances of winning. The game can be adapted to various subway systems, making it a versatile option for commuters worldwide. Subway Poker not only provides entertainment but also fosters interaction among passengers, transforming an ordinary subway ride into a dynamic and engaging experience.

- Subway Poker is a two-player game played during subway rides.

- Players create poker hands based on the types of passengers in their selected row of seats.

- Each passenger type corresponds to a specific poker card value.

- The game concludes at a pre-agreed end station where hands are evaluated.

- Observing passenger patterns can enhance gameplay strategy.

AI: What people are saying
The concept of Subway Poker raises various concerns and critiques among commenters.
  • Many express skepticism about the game's mechanics, particularly the reliance on random passenger patterns and the classification of passengers into poker hands.
  • There are concerns about the subjective nature of identifying passenger types, such as "teenager" or "elderly," which could lead to disagreements among players.
  • Some commenters suggest alternative methods for gameplay that avoid assumptions about age and gender, emphasizing the need for clearer rules.
  • Several users question the overall appeal of the game, comparing it unfavorably to other forms of entertainment.
  • There is a general interest in how to adapt the game to make it more engaging and less reliant on potentially problematic classifications.
Link Icon 27 comments
By @ZoomZoomZoom - 2 days
The most obvious issues with this is that the game boils down to predicting passenger patterns, but you're still just comparing two RNGs, which is one of the worst kinds of games. I also don't think this can be called Poker, really. Poker is an imperfect information game, where your hand tells you some information about your opponents' hands.

It would be interesting to read HN's ideas on how you can simulate the shared information part of the game in such a scenario.

By @ZoomZoomZoom - 2 days
Each card value has the same probability, but subway riders' distribution is all skewed.

A way to make the hands fair that comes to me right away is to take some unambiguous information about riders (coat color, presence of a hat, etc..) and calculate a hash that you can read as/transform to a hand. This should transform the distribution to uniform, at least to a degree suitable for an occasional play.

Though, this will void the strategical part of the game.

By @tromp - 2 days
> Each type of passenger corresponds to a specific poker card value: Child: Counts as a 10 Teenager: Counts as a Jack Woman: Counts as a Queen Man: Counts as a King Elderly Person: Counts as an Ace

How do you get the players to agree on whether some person is elderly or not? Some people look 10 years younger than their age, while others look 10 years older. Short of asking people for their age, it seems to remain guesswork...

By @lozf - about 22 hours
Very reminiscent of "Tube Poker" (2005), A short mockumentary film by Simon Levene.

("Tube" has long been a colloquial term for London's Subway system).

- https://www.simonlevene.com/portfolio/tube-poker

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818537/

Edit : in fact the points are exactly as describes at around 03:45 https://youtu.be/UttaYUv5zYg?t=221

By @remram - 2 days
> Selecting a row near the doors can increase the likelihood of passenger turnover

I don't think that's true. People get off when they get to their destination whether or not it is easy to reach the door, and sit in available spaces.

By @jbs789 - 2 days
It’s not clear to me when or how you “choose” your row of 5. I feel dense but I don’t think this is described…
By @aqueueaqueue - 1 day
The teenage and elderly classifications gonna be problematic.
By @Aransentin - 2 days
This article has a strong ChatGPT smell. Things like "in the world of", "let's dive into", the bullet points, "conclusion" section, etc. Anyone else have the same feeling?
By @jameslars - 2 days
Does 5 of a kind beat a royal straight?
By @fitsumbelay - 2 days
This is great. I've had some (probably naive) imaginings about extremely short term multi-player interactions in public spaces/public transport like this but always got stuck at the "how will they know it's there" part
By @fumblebee - 1 day
I assumed that from the first picture this game would consist of counting the number of folks in a row looking at their phones at a given time.

Which, frankly, I quite prefer since there's less fuzziness about classification of age groups.

By @vekatimest - about 24 hours
Clicked off as soon as I read "let's dive into"
By @tomcam - 2 days
Great thing about the Lexington Ave subway in New York is that you can legally gamble with your own money just by setting foot on it!
By @failrate - 1 day
SecurID fob poker, anyone?
By @kulesh - 2 days
I don't know why, but I vibe-coded AI Subway Poker https://x.com/stas_kulesh/status/1892328616609841290
By @Refusing23 - 1 day
So you ask their age or what?

when is a women a women? and when does she become 'elderly' ?

you also cannot see if a teenager is 19 or 20.

By @bibelo - 1 day
I like the WarGames reference
By @acqbu - 1 day
Okay nice but what if queen identifies as king?
By @yapyap - 2 days
I can imagine the discussions on whether someone fits the ‘elder person’ description that would ensue.
By @golergka - 2 days
For a second I wondered how would you assign suits to people — but quickly realized that this would be easy, but probably racist.
By @shlomo_z - 2 days
I prefer not to play a game that requires assuming anyone's gender or age

But its a cute idea

By @deepAIhunter - 2 days
So you need to click pictures of random people in the subway to play this game?
By @AStonesThrow - 1 day
Adaptations here may account for: no "rows of 5" or even 4 seats (a photo anticipates this variant

But moreover, folks here buffer a lot of personal space, and seats fill in checkerboard patterns, bags and parcels on unoccupied seats, and when the checkerboard is full, most folks would rather stand than request/insist/apologize for sitting down

By @lupire - 1 day
Laughing on the bus

Playing games with the faces

They've all come to look for America

By @mplewis - 2 days
There should probably be a way to play this that doesn't rely on assuming the gender of someone you see in public.
By @dankwizard - 1 day
Humans slaved away to give me the perfect entertainment device at my finger tips and you're trying to drag me away with what looks to be the most boring game I've ever seen?

And to think Poker is the right move after we all battle our Balatro addiction?