Hot Streak Solitaire – Cards + Fire = Ash. No wait, it’s AWESOME! That’s it. ^_^

If you enjoy solitaire games, then you should totally try Hot Streak Solitaire at Gamesville! It’s based off of tri-peaks solitaire, so named because of the three peaks (or pyramids) that form the playing field.

And deserts are REALLY hot.

This isn’t a new game for Gamesville, but it recently got a complete makeover! Now you’re helping Poke move through the worlds. (He’s trying to get back home, poor thing!) Right now there are three worlds, but 4 & 5 are coming soon. At least, that’s what the map says. ^_^

This map should help clear things up!

Will there be more worlds beyond that? I have no idea, but I kinda hope so.

Each world has 12 levels. Basically, when you finish a level Poke waddles a little bit across the screen. ^_^ And in order to complete a level you’ll have to clear all of the cards from the playing field. How do you do that? Well…

 

The Basics

If you’ve never played tri-peaks solitaire, don’t worry! This is a pretty simple game. ^_^

Each round you’ll start with 28 cards creating the pyramids, and 23 cards at the bottom that create a “deal” pile.

I’m with ya so far.

There’s also one card that’s face-up in the bottom right corner. This is the discard pile, and this is where you’ll play all of your cards!

To play a card from the pyramids you just click on it, and if it’s a legal play it will automatically move to the discard pile. You can play cards that are either one step higher OR lower than the current card. For example, I could play either a 2 or a 4 on that 3 of clubs!

If you reach a point where you can’t play anything on the discard pile, click the draw pile to flip a card over. Play on the new card, if you can!

To finish a level you must remove all of the cards from the pyramids. The draw pile is just there to help you clear the level, and there’s NO penalty for having draw cards left over! However, if you run out of draw cards and you can’t play anything else, you lose the round and have to try the level again.

 

Rewards

For each completed level you’ll get 500 GVs and 1 sweepstakes ticket. On levels 4, 8 and 12 in each world you’ll win 10 sweepstakes tickets instead of 1!

This means that if you played all the way through the (current) three worlds, you’d earn 18,000 GVs and 117 tickets!! (Once you reach the end you start back at world 1.)

The sweeps drawing occurs each day at 12 am GMT (That’s 7 pm EST.) and is for a $10 prize. The prize is automatically doubled for Gold members, which means they win $20!

If you aren’t a Gold member but you like the sound of doubled prizes, well I have good news! Non-Gold members can get double winnings for a month!

This is completely legit, btw. You can read about it on the Hot Streak Solitaire rules page. ^_^

You’ll need a business size envelope, a 3x5 index card, postage, and something to write with. (I suggest a pen.) Write ALL of the following information on the card.

• Your full name
• Gamesville account name
• Your mailing address
• Date of birth (mm/dd/yyyy)
• Daytime phone number and e-mail address

Seal the card in the envelope and mail it to:

"Gamesville Hot Streak Solitaire Automatic Prize Doubler "
c/o Lycos, Inc.
100 Fifth Ave.
Waltham, MA 02451-8703

As soon as they receive your entry you'll be eligible for a doubled prize for a MONTH!! Good luck to you! ^_^

 

Tips & Tricks

Score doesn’t affect how many GVs you’ll get, but the player with the highest score for the day is featured on the game page!

Congrats to houlygan2 & rotomojo!

I haven’t been lucky enough (yet) to be the daily high score, but I came darned close!

And no, I didn’t photoshop that. :P

Getting a HIGH score requires two abilities:

1. Successfully clear levels one after the other.
2. Create long streaks of cards.

Item #1 is the most important because you carry your score from one level to the next, but only if you clear the board. The first time you can’t finish a board, your score goes right back to zero and you start over. >_< (You only start over with score! You’re still on the same level, and Poke doesn’t take a step back or anything!)

Here are two tips for clearing the board.

 

1. Free the masses! Pick cards that reveal the most new cards.

Often in Hot Streak Solitaire you’ll have to choose between several paths. Whenever you have to choose between two (or more) cards, pick the card that will reveal the most cards directly below it.

In the picture below we can only play a 9 on that 10. (No Jacks around.) With two 9s on the board, which should we go for?

Oooh! Oooh! I know!!! *Waves hand*

The 9 of spades will reveal two new cards, whereas the 9 of clubs will only reveal one new card. Since we want to keep options open, we should pick the 9 of spades. Most likely we’ll use the 9 of clubs in a streak, but we still should use the 9 of spades first.

 

2. Free the populace! Pick cards that free up the lowest tier.

Sometimes your options will all reveal the same amount of cards. When that’s the case, go for the card that’s on the lowest tier.

In the picture below we have to choose between two 10s. Both will reveal only one card.

 Mmhmm. I see!

However, the 10 of spades is on the lowest tier, which means that more cards are “trapped” by it. (Three trapped cards, vs the 10 of diamonds’ two trapped cards.) In this case, I would definitely opt for the 10 of spades.

Take time to look at what’s below each card before you pick it. You don’t want to end up with a board that looks like this! *Points down*

“Uh-oh,” indeed.

That Jack has five cards pinned under it and no other cards to play off of. Even if we’re lucky and get a 10 or a Queen, it’s unlikely that we’ll get exactly what we need to clear the remaining cards.

And for the record, I lost that hand. XD

Let’s move on to streaks!

No, not hair streaks. Although… those look AWESOME!

A streak is when you play two or more cards in a row, without needing to flip a card over from the draw pile. The longer a streak is, the more points it’s worth!

I tried to figure the formula out, but I got confused. *^_^* (If someone else has figured it out, please tell me!)

In addition to the awesome points, creating a streak fills up the multiplier bar!

That thing.

Once your streak is over the multiplier bar stays where it is, so you can get the bonus on the next cards you play! However, the multiplier bar empties a little for every card you pull from the draw pile. Creating a new streak will fill it up again!

To give you an idea of how powerful streaks are, I have a little story for you. ^_^ (No pic because I didn’t think to take one. So sorry!)

I got on a roll with the cards and created a streak of 18! Then I looked at my score and nearly fell out of my chair. I had over 200,000 points, and that was my first hand!!! o_O Streaks are definitely worth taking time for!

So, how do you build better streaks? Well, the first step is to stop thinking of card order as linear.  (A2345678910JQK) Instead, think of the card sequence as a circle.

It looks like a clock.

It all connects! Every card has two other cards that it can be played on. And you can create streaks that move up and down. For example, you might play a streak similar to this: Q-J-Q-K-A-2-A-2-3

Here’s a simple streak for an example. We have a 3 on the discard pile and we also have a 4 and a 2 on the board. Which should we play?

Hmmmm….

If we play the 2 then the best streaks we could build are 2-3-4 or 2-A-K. But if we play the 4 we can make a streak that goes 4-3-2-A-K. That’s definitely the better option! And if we’re lucky, there might be cards underneath to extend the streak. *Crosses fingers*

Learning to build long streaks takes patience and practice. But you can’t forget everything that you learned about clearing the board too! If you ever have to pick between extending a streak over freeing buried cards, free the cards. The bonus points from the streak are useless if you can’t finish the board!

 

Final Rating

I’ll admit, I had a hard time writing about the new Hot Streak Solitaire. Why? Because whenever I sat down to play and get some pics I’d completely lose track of time. Seriously, hours would fly by before I remembered what I was supposed to do. Oops. *^_^*

So yes, I really enjoy this game! It’s addictive, easy to play, and looks great! I kinda want to finish this guide so I can play a few more rounds before bed. *Innocent whistle*

I rate Hot Streak Solitaire 5 out of 5 stars!

How about you? What would you rate it? Any tips to share? What other worlds should Poke visit?

For a glimpse of what it took to put Hot Streak Solitaire together, check out the Free2WinGames’ interview with the artist, Nick Sherman!

 

Similar Games

If you like solitaire-type games then you should give some of these a shot too!

• Pyramid Solitaire at IWON – Clear the pyramid by pairing up cards that equal 13! (It’s really freakin’ hard.)
• Treasure Hunter at Spigo – This is part tri-peaks and part bejeweled. Very fun!
• Rainy Day Spider Solitaire at Pogo – If you like Spider Solitaire you should definitely try the Pogo version. It’s really cute. ^_^

Gryphon Hearts – Wasted potential.

Gryphon Hearts is an IWON card game. If you couldn’t guess, it’s based on the card game, “Hearts.” Only this time there are elves and gryphons!

Ooooh!

The concept is neat, but there are quite a few problems with this game. In fact, I found a pretty big problem when I was half-way done with the guide. At that point I realized I couldn’t in good conscience recommend that you play a broken game, but I hated the thought of losing the time I’d put into it. So! This will be a rant/list of what’s wrong with Gryphon Hearts and why you shouldn’t play it. *^_^*

First off, this isn’t a new game.

Copyright 2007

If you’re a regular Free2WinGames reader then you know that I don’t care how old a game is, as long as it works and is interesting. But they’ve had three years to fix bugs!

What is this dreadful bug I refer to? Well, in hearts you compete against other players to get the fewest points. The game is over when one person reaches 100 points, and the winner is whichever player has the lowest score.

Most of the time you don’t want point cards. But you can do something called “Shoot the Moon” that changes things. When you “Shoot the Moon” you have to get ALL of the point cards in that hand. If you can do that, you’ll get zero points and everyone else will get 26 points. Like this:

Yay!!! You shot the moon!

That was the first hand. When the game is over you get your IWON score and tokens. Here is my final score for that game. Can you see the problem?

WHAT?!?!

Yeah. It says I didn’t shoot the moon. In an earlier game I’d thought that I shot the moon and was surprised not to get credit for it. Good thing I paid attention this time!

That’s the biggest problem. Here are a few smaller ones.

1. The cards are hard to see.

For most of this game I had my nose up to the monitor, trying to see whether something was a club or a spade. That’s not good!!

If you click on the pic below you’ll see the actual size of the board.

Eek!

There’s no way to make the game bigger! You could alter your monitor settings, but I don’t know many people who would do that for a single game. (Unless it was Runescape, or something. ^_^)

In your hand the cards are arranged by suit. Specifically, it’s Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, and then Hearts for last. Usually this isn’t a problem, unless you don’t have any Diamonds or Spades. Then it gets tricky because…

2. Aces are low.

With some card games Aces are both high and low cards. This is not the case in hearts! Here, Aces are always high. Always!! But for some blasted reason, they’re auto-arranged as low.

This threw off my game a lot. I’d think that my highest card in a suit was a King, and at the end I’d see that stinkin’ Ace. Or better yet, I’d think I had the Ace of Clubs and it was the Ace of Spades. GAH!! >_<

it’s all around bad. Bad bad bad!

3. You can’t change your pass cards.

Hearts is played in a cycle of four rounds. The first round you pick 3 cards to pass to the left. The 2nd round you pick 3 cards to pass to the right. The 3rd round you pass to the person in front of you, and on the 4th you keep your cards as they are.

In Gryphon Hearts, as soon as you click a card to pass, you’re committed. You can’t unclick that card! And as soon as you click on the 3rd card the game starts. If you misclick (and I did) then you’re stuck!

 

Final Rating

Despite the glaring problems, I actually had fun playing Gryphon Hearts. *^_^* But would I recommend it to you? Absolutely not. I know there are other free-to-win Hearts games out there, so I’ll keep looking!

This gets 1 star out of 5.

Do you know of any free-to-win Hearts games that you’d recommend?

 

Similar Games

If you like card games, here are a few non-broken ones that you can try!

• Quick-Draw Poker at Gamesville – Play 7 hands of poker at the same time!
• Turbo 21 at Pogo – An incredibly addicting and FAST 21 card game!
• Treasure Hunter at Spigo – Fascinating mashup of tri-peaks solitaire and bejeweled. Try it!

5 Card Slingo - INSEFTG

If you’ve never played poker before, well, don’t start with 5 Card Slingo. *^_^* I’m serious! Go with Quick-Draw Poker, since that’s nearly impossible to mess up.

On the other hand, if “regular” poker is too boring for you, then you’ll LOVE 5 Card Slingo! It’s a fast-paced cross between poker and slots.

You start with a very green 5x5 board. This is where you’ll place your cards.

 It ain’t easy being green.

On each deal you’ll get five cards. Now the tricky part is that each card can only be placed in the column directly above it. Also, once the cards are placed, you can’t remove them. Until the round is over you can move cards around in their own columns, but you can’t put another card on top or anything sneaky like that. ^_^

Well…. crap.

Each row, column, and diagonal line counts as a separate hand and is scored individually. It can get a little confusing, but at least you don’t need to have a full hand (5 cards) before it’s scored!

Every game consists of five deals plus a sixth bonus deal. (The bonus deal costs 500 points.) The deals are timed, and you have a maximum of 30 seconds to decide what to do!

Those of you who are math savvy may have noticed a slight discrepancy. With six deals of five cards each, you’ll have a total of 30 cards to work with. But there are only 25 spots on the board. How can that work?

Easy. ^_^ You don’t have to place every card that you get! If you have something awesome going on and the wrong card pops up, just don’t use it.

IMPORTANT: The cards are taken from a virtual 52 card deck. (That’s a normal deck.) If you pass up a card it won’t turn up again!

 

Scoring

As previously mentioned, each row, column, and diagonal line counts as a hand.

A flush! Woohoo!!!

The entire board is scored after each deal, and you’ll get points for any new combinations. In other words, if you score a pair after the first deal, you won’t get points for that same pair again.

However, if you add to it by making it 3 of a kind or better, then you’ll get additional points for whatever you scored.

Here’s what everything is worth!

Hand	What It Is	Value
1 pair	Two cards with the same number or letter.	50 points
2 pairs	Four cards in sets of two.	100 points
3 of a kind	Three cards with the same number or letter.	500 points
Straight	Five cards in sequential order. Ex: 2,3,4,5,6	1,000 points
Flush	Five cards of the same suit. (Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, or Clubs.)	2,500 points
Full House	A pair + 3 of a kind	3,500 points
4 of a kind	Four cards with the same number or letter.	20,000 points
Straight Flush	Five cards in the same suit AND in sequential order.	36,000 points
Royal Flush	10, J, Q, K, and Ace of the same suit.	50,000 points

 

 

 

Tips & Tricks

1. If you’re dealt a straight in the first deal or two, lay it out diagonally. Typically it’s pretty hard to score anything on the diagonal, and this will leave your columns and rows open for pairs, flushes, or whatever else you want. ^_^

 

2. The easiest way to score well 9 out of 10 games is to build for flushes. Put one suit on each row, and use the 5th row to create pairs in the columns.

 

If you start out with a pair, split it on the diagonal. Like this!

 

How come?

 

You’ll get credit for the pair and you’re all set to build flushes. If you’re lucky you might get a 3rd seven to turn it into 3 of a kind. However! If you already have a 4 card flush, don’t wreck it! The 3 of a kind is worth 500 points and the flush is 2,500. Not worth it!

 

Here’s another hand built for flushes.

 

My that’s… colorful. ^_^

 

You can see that the bottom four rows are divided by suit, and the very top row made a pair of 5’s and Jacks.

 

This doesn’t work perfectly for every single game, but most of the time I’ll score at least one flush. Often more!

 

Admittedly, I’m not an expert at 5 Card Slingo. If you have tips, PLEASE share! (Remember, the best tip of the week gets 100 P4P points!)

 

 

 

Final Rating

I enjoy poker and slots, but 5 Card Slingo is too complicated for my taste. Whenever I play I can’t help but think, “I’m not smart enough for this game.” *^_^*

 

Once I figured out the flush trick I started earning more tokens and having more fun, but my strategy is limited. Also, on more than one occasion I had a perfect Royal Flush set up, and actually got the 5th card! Unfortunately the final card was in the wrong column, so I couldn’t use it. Booooo! :(

 

I think I would enjoy 5 Card Slingo more if it was a single player, untimed game. I like having time to think!

 

Final verdict is… *drumroll*  3.5 stars out of 5.

 

How about you? What would you rate it? Do you think it’s a simple game or does it make your head hurt too? ^_^

 

 

 

Similar Games

If you like poker games then you should definitely try some of these games!

• Flush Frenzy at BugleGames – This is another poker/slots mix, but at a much slower paced. *Whew!*
• Quick-Draw Poker at Gamesville – Play 7 hands at a time! Averages 2 cash winners each day!
• Turbo 21 at Pogo – If Blackjack is more your thing then you should really try Turbo 21! It’s one of the most addictive online card games that I’ve ever found. Really!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire – Galoshes galore!

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is a Pogo card game based on Spider Solitaire. I’m sure by the name you were expecting it to be based off of Spades, or Cribbage. ^_~

The itsy bitsy spider..

If you’ve never played Spider Solitaire, well, the rules are pretty simple. You have two decks of cards (104 cards total) and the first 54 cards are dealt into 10 piles at the top. These piles are called the foundation. The remaining 50 cards form the draw pile.

Whenever you have 13 cards of the same suit in descending order, all 13 cards go poof. (Descending order is King-Queen-Jack-10 and so on. Aces are the very last cards.) To win the game you must remove ALL of the cards.

With me so far? Good. ^_^

Unlike regular Solitaire, there aren’t any piles to put Aces and everything else. So in order to get cards in the same suit AND descending order, you have to move the cards around on the foundation.

This is where it gets tricky. You can stack cards in descending order, regardless of suit. (Example: A 5 of hearts could go on top of any 6 and nothing else.) BUT you can only move cards at the end of the stack if they’re sequential AND are the same suit.

If I have a 7 of hearts with a 6 & 5 of clubs on top of it, the only cards I can move are the 6 & 5. If I really need that 7 I’ll have to move the other cards before I can reach it.

Take a look at the picture below. The neon-green boxes highlight which cards can be moved around. Everything else is stuck for right now.

 I guess that’s not too bad.

Now remember the 50 cards in the draw pile? You have to get rid of those cards too. Not just one card at a time either, oh no. Whenever you draw cards it’s 10 at a time; one card for each stack in the foundation. So now you have a new mess on top of whatever you managed to organize.

Fudge. >_<

Empty stacks are good things because it gives you a little more freedom to move things around. But you have to have something in every stack before you can draw more cards. Boo. :(

That covers the basics of Spider Solitaire. It can be a brutal game, but luckily Rainy Day Spider Solitaire includes a few options to make things a little easier for us.

 

Why Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is Unique

First off, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire has 3 different modes.

• Easy – All of the cards are the same suit. Winning is pretty simple.
• Normal – All of the cards are divided into two suits. Winning the game is tougher, but not too bad.
• Hard – The cards are divided into four suits now. Winning is a challenge.

To be honest, I stay away from hard mode. I get really anxious when there’s a lot of chaos and disorder around me.

Ack!!

Normal mode is a lot more fun in my book. ^_^ But try each mode for yourself and see what you like best.

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes six extra cards, bringing the total to 110 cards. Two of the cards are “free cells.”

Ooooh!

Free cells will temporarily hold one card for you. If you get in a tight spot a free cell can help you get things untangled. The downside is that each free cell is a 1-time use only thing. Also, they’re in the deck like regular cards, so you have to wait until you’re dealt a free cell before you can use it.

In other words, don’t count on a free cell being there when you need it. Keep it strictly an emergency use thing. You’ll also get a small token bonus for any free cells left at the end!

The other four extra cards are “scratchers.”

Big money! Big money!

As you can see, each one is divided into 4 squares. Pick a square to scratch and you get whatever prize is under it. (Always tokens.)

Woohoo!

The scratchers vanish as soon as you scratch them. They’re just a nice little bonus. ^_^

Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes an 11th “free” column.

Bonus!

You can put whatever you want in this column, as long as it’s a legal move. (Like putting a 10 on top of a Jack. You couldn’t put an Ace on top of a 4 though.)

If you manage to win without using the free column you get a bonus. It’s 5 tokens on easy, 25 in normal, and uh… more than 25 tokens in hard mode. I didn’t win a hard game, okay? *^_^*

Also, in the bottom right corner you’ll see 5 piles that say “Draw” on them. The card on top of each pile will land on the leftmost stack. You won’t know what the other 9 cards are in each pile until you click, but it’s still nice to at least know what one card is. ^_^

Still, I think the best feature in Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the Undo button. There is no penalty for using it!! Whenever you have multiple choices you can use the Undo button to figure out the best option. For example, let’s say you have two 6s of diamonds and one 7 of diamonds. Which six should you move? Many times moving even just one card frees you to make other moves. You can follow the trail as far as you want, then use Undo to back up ‘til you have to pick a 6 of diamonds again.

It’s wonderful, but it has limits. You can’t undo a draw or clearing a set of 13. Look carefully before you commit!

 

Tips & Tricks

Start with the highest value same-suited cards and work your way down. Not sure wha tI mean? Let’s try a normal mode game together. ^_^

 Now what?

We have a few options here, but we’ll start with the easiest things first. We’ll click on the free cell card, move the 9 of diamonds to the 10 of diamonds, and the 6 of diamonds to a 7 of diamonds.

Hmmm.

Fewer options this time. We have two 3s of clubs and only one 4 of clubs. We’ll use the Undo button to try both options and figure out which one is best.

 Wait wait! I blinked and missed it!

Sorry, I didn’t want to show every single step along the way. *^_^* If you’ll notice, right now everything is still in suited groups. If we want to get to some of the cards buried at the top (and we do), then we’ll have to make some mix-suited stacks.

 Are you sure that’s safe?

Be very careful when making mix-suit stacks! Remember that you’ll eventually have to draw more cards, and they can throw your perfectly orchestrated hand into chaos.

Looking at the top card on the draw piles, I’m going to pick the one with the 8 of diamonds on top, since we already have three 9s of diamonds.

The aftermath.

Things are a little messy, but not too bad. You can probably see several new moves. ^_^ Just keep working with the suits as best you can. Try to “clear” a stack as soon as you can. You can put anything you want in an empty stack, so long as it’s a legal move. Use empty stacks to move card groups around.

If you’d like more help with Rainy Day Spider Solitaire, check out the Badge Hunters forum or these articles on BadgeHungry!

 

Final Rating

I’m not a huge fan of Spider Solitaire games in general. But I have to admit, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the cutest one that I’ve played. For every complete suit (13 cards) you remove, a ray of light appears. If you win the game the sun comes out and the spider is all happy.

Awww!

Come on! That stuff is CUTE! ^_^

I like that there are 3 difficulty levels and the bonus features (free cells and the free column) are quite nice, but… I still don’t love this game. I rate it 3.5 stars out of 5.

What would you rate it? Do you have any Spider Solitaire tips to share?

 

Similar Games

If you’re looking for fun card games, give some of these a try.

• Pyramid Solitaire at iWon – Remove cards by finding pairs that add up to 13. Can you beat the pyramid?
• Treasure Hunter at Spigo – An amazing cross between Tri-Peaks solitaire and Bejeweled!
• Kenoka at Slingo – Combining Keno + Poker = Brilliant

Flush Frenzy - Fun, but not really frenzied.

Flush Frenzy is played only at BugleGames! If you like card games you should definitely try it!

Bingo! Whoops... Wrong game.

First off, Flush Frenzy is based on poker. If you don't remember what a Full House or a Straight is, click here. Come back when you're done! ^_^

Finished? Okay, let's go!

I'll have two Royal Flushes, please!

To score anything at all, you need at least a pair of Jacks or better. (Queens, Kings, and Aces are better.) When you place a bet you can wager anything from 1 to 5 coins. (Go for 5.)

Flush Frenzy is different from "regular" poker because it has Lucky Numbers and a semi-minigame when you hit a Flush!


Lucky Number

In every hand there is a Lucky Number. It's in the green box below. ^_^

King me!

If you have a winning hand AND the Lucky Number in that hand, your winnings multiply!

• 1 Lucky Number = Double winnings
• 2 Lucky Numbers = Quadruple winnings
• 3 Lucky Numbers = Octuple (8x) winnings 
• 4 Lucky Numbers = Sixteenuple (16x) winnings (Yes, I made that word up. Shhh!)

Here's how the hand turned out.

Woohoo!

I got two pair! Ordinarily that's worth 10 points, but since I had two Lucky Numbers my winnings quadrupled! Not too shabby!


Flush Frenzy

Whenever you get a Flush, ANY Flush, you trigger the Flush Frenzy.

Let the frenzy begin!

Here's how the Flush Frenzy works. For the next 5 hands, whenever you have a card in the same suit as your Flush, your get an additional bonus of 20x your bet. This is for each card!

In the picture below, I didn't have a pair or anything. But since I had three club cards during a club frenzy, I earned 300 tokens! 20(bonus) x 5(bet) x 3(cards) = 300.

Sweet!

It gets even better if you have a Lucky Number. The multiplier works on the Flush bonus too. ^_^

610?! Awesome!!

That time I ended up with a pair of Aces (5 points), three club cards (300 points), and a Lucky Number! With the double score, I earned 610 tokens from one hand!

IMPORTANT: You still need a winning hand for the Lucky Number to apply. If I only had 3 clubs and nothing else, the Lucky Number would not double my winnings.

If you get another Flush during the frenzy, then a new frenzy starts for 5 rounds. It doesn't stack! If you're on round 1 of a frenzy and pull another Flush, you'll go straight into frenzy #2.

Also, the suit you're frenzying on is highlighted in green under the Flush Frenzy logo.

Well that's handy.

I've uh, gotten mixed up a few times. *^_^* It really stinks to hold on to three diamonds when the suit you want is hearts. Don't be like me! Pay attention!


Tips & Tricks

The Flush Frenzy is where you'll earn the most points. This means that you want to get as many Flushes as you can! In Quick-Draw Poker I only aim for a Flush if I have 4 cards the same suit. On Flush Frenzy I'll try for a Flush with just two or three cards of the same suit. But sometimes you'll get two suits with two cards each. What then?

First, look to see if one suit has a Jack or better. That way if I don't get a Flush, I still have a decent chance of getting a pair. In the example below I have a Queen and King of diamonds, and a six and Ace of hearts.

Hmm.....

With the Queen and King of diamonds I double my chance of getting a Jacks or better pair, so that's what I'll pick.

If neither suit has a Jack or better, I'll look to see if one of the suits has a Lucky Number.

Ooh! I see an eight of diamonds!

This time we have a nine and three of spades, and an eight and three of diamonds. Since eight is a Lucky number, I'll grab the diamonds. It's unlikely that I'll get a Jacks or better pair on the redeal, but if I do, I want to maximize my score.

If neither suit has a Lucky Number of a Jack or better, flip a coin. ^_^


Final Rating

I enjoyed Flush Frenzy, but I kept waiting for the "frenzy" to kick in. I imagined something like a shark feeding frenzy, but with cards, I guess. *^_^* Instead I got a poker game where I set the pace. That's fine and all, but I'm not exactly a frenzied player on my own.

Anywho, it's a good game, and the addition of Lucky Numbers adds a unique twist. I'll rate this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it? Better still, what would you name Flush Frenzy? Bonus points for creativity!


Similar Games

If you like Flush Frenzy then you should try some of these games too!

• Quick-Draw Poker at Gamesville - Play 7 hands of poker at one time!
• Kenoka at Slingo - One of my favoritest games ever. ^_^ Keno + Poker!
• Turbo 21 at Pogo - An incredibly addictive fast-paced blackjack game.

Treasure Hunter - A true gem.

Treasure Hunter is a beautiful game from Spigo. It's also incredibly addictive. The first time I played it I stayed up until 6 am!! *^_^*

Unlike Turbo 21, (which is addictive because it's so dang fast) Treasure Hunter is addictive because it's simple to play, but hard to master. It's an intriguing cross between Tri Peaks Solitaire and Diamonds. There is a clock, but you can play at your own speed. No rush. ^_^

Let's dig in, shall we?


The Cards (Part 1)

The deck is a standard 52 cards. You start with a pattern in front of you, a stack of cards face down, and one card face up all by its lonesome. This is the "waste" pile.

What a waste. *Ba-dum-bum CHING!*

The goal is to clear the pattern of all cards. Any card that is one rank higher or lower than the top card of the waste pile can be moved to the stack. Suit doesn't matter. It then becomes the *new* top card on the waste pile. ^_^

In the above picture I could put either a 5 or a 7 on that 6 of hearts. If I played a 5, then I could play either a 4 or 6 on top of it. With me so far? Good!

Now in this game, having the runs is a good thing! A run is when you play several cards in succession before you get stuck and have to flip over a card from the stack.

Just looking at the cards showing, I would play them like this:

5-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q

A run of eight isn't a bad start! As you keep playing you'll learn how to make longer runs. It takes practice. ^_^

If you remove all of the cards in the pattern before you run out of cards in the stack, you win the round! Woohoo!! But if you still have cards on the table when you flip over that last card in the stack, it's game over. Back to round 1 for you. :(

Oh, and did I mention that there are dozens of patterns?

Whoa...

Oh yes. ^_^ Dozens and dozens of different patterns. Some are harder than others, but I love the creativity!

Woof!

You never know what you'll get. It's great. ^_^


The Cards (Part 2)

Now that we've focused on the numbers and how to make runs, it's time to explain this part. You may have noticed it lurking in the upper right-hand corner.

What is that?

This is your jewel box, and this is where the colors of the cards come into play. You start out with four colors: Red, yellow, black, and blue. Any time you play two cards of the same color in succession on the waste pile, a jewel of that color falls into the jewel box.

For example, if you played a red Ace on top of a red King, a red gem would fall into the box. If you played a black Ace on top of that red King, no gems would appear.

Let's say you continue the run of red cards. For each additional red card you would get another red gem in the jewel box AND one swap! Swaps are used in the jewel game, which I'll explain in a moment. ^_^

As you progress through the rounds you'll get more and more colors to work with!

• Round 5 - Pink
• Round 9 - Grey
• Round 13 - Purple
• Round 17 - Green

Once your jewel box is full and after you finish the current round, you get to play the jewel game!


The Jewel Game

When the jewel game starts the jewel box will take center stage. It's much easier to see that way. ^_^ Your jewel box may look something like this.

Um.. Now what?

This is where the Diamonds aspect comes in. Your goal is to turn all of the tiles gold. And the only way to do this is by getting three (or more) same-color gems in either a row or a column. Diagonals don't count.

When you make a match the gems vanish, more gems fall down, and the tiles behind the match turn gold.

Ah. A work in progress.

And this is where the swaps come in! Every time you move a gem it's one swap. Unlike Diamonds, the gems don't have to create a match 3 in order to swap them. In fact, sometimes it may take 3+ moves to get gems in the right spots!

For each round of cards you complete, you'll get a few swaps. The amount of swaps you get depends on how many Big gems you have. (More on that in a moment.)

• 0 Big gems = 2 swaps per round
• 1 Big gem = 3 swaps per round
• 2 Big gems = 4 swaps per round

These swaps definitely help, but you'll usually get the most swaps from the cards. (Remember, each same-color card played after the 2nd earns a gem and a swap! A run of five same-color cards earns four gems and three swaps!)

Unless you have a ton of swaps banked, or a really awesome board, you'll probably run out of moves before the puzzle is completed. That's okay! Go back to the cards and try to earn more swaps. But most importantly, you must survive the round of cards to get back to the jewel box! If you lose then it's back to round one, and the jewel box empties.

Which really sucks. >_<

Let's be positive and say that you finish a jewel box. ^_^ What happens then?

Well, the most common gems left on the board will fuse into one BIG gem!

Pretty!!!

The new Big gem floats down the screen and settles into a piece of jewelry.

What is that? A decorative comb?

Once you have three Big gems you earn a jackpot spin!! Sometimes it takes a while to earn those Big gems. A long while.

Oh! And there are several jewel box patterns too.

Ooohh!!

Just to, ya know, keep you on your toes. ^_^

Nice!

That one is my favorite, but I rarely get it. =(

IMPORTANT: Once you make a Big gem you will not lose it! Even if you die on the next round, you'll still have that gem. *Whew!*


Jackpot

Once the jewelry is complete and you have three Big gems, you get a jackpot spin! The cash prize is a progressive jackpot with a max pot of $200. Spigo (like most sites) doesn't post the odds for winning, but you can assume the odds aren't great.

Since you probably won't win the cash prize, you want to win the most Spigos possible, right? But isn't the reward random?

It's true that the spinning is random and you don't know where it will land. However, the Spigo awards are not random! They're based on the the gems in your jewelry! It's a little tricky to explain, so just stick with me.

When you start the game and have zero Big gems, the jackpot "wheel" looks like this.

That's not very exciting.

That neon green box is the max Spigo award. When you get your first Big gem, the values change!

Oooh! That's much better!!

Here is the max Spigo award for having one of the following gems:

• Red gem = 10,000 Spigos
• Yellow gem = 12,500 Spigos
• Black gem = 15,000 Spigos
• Blue gem = 17,500 Spigos
• Pink gem = 20,000 Spigos
• Grey gem = 22,500 Spigos (unconfirmed)
• Purple gem = 25,000 Spigos (unconfirmed)
• Green gem = 27,500 Spigos (unconfirmed)

At the end if you have three different color gems, Treasure Hunter goes by the gem that is worth the most. For example, if you had a yellow, red, and blue gem, then your max Spigo award is 17,500.

If two of the gems are the same color, then the max Spigos are doubled! Two blue gems means a max pot of 35,000 Spigos!!

Sweet!

Now if you have three gems the same color, the Spigos are tripled! Three blue gems would have a max pot of 52,500 Spigos!! Sorry, no pictures of it. Getting three Big gems the same color is really hard. o_O

Remember, you're not guaranteed to win the max Spigos pot. But you have some control over what it will be!


Badges

All Spigo games have four different badges to earn. Each badge has a 1-time prize of Spigos. (Darn.) For Treasure Hunter, these badges are:

• Bling bling - Collect 20 large jewels for 10,000 Spigos
• The sophisticated jeweler - Get a jackpot spin with 3 identical gems in the jewelry for 25,000 Spigos.
• The persistent archaeologist - Get to round 35 and achieve a run of 20 for 50,000 Spigos!
• I want one of each! - Get a large jewel of each of the 8 possible colors for 200,000 Spigos!!

These are some tough challenges! On the upside, most of the challenges are spread across several games. Want to see my progress? ^_^

I guess that's not *too* bad.

Yes, despite my mad skills, I only have two of the badges. My longest run was 31, so "The persistent archaeologist" badge is halfway done. But I've never made it past round 17. Yipes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love challenges!! ^_^


Tips & Tricks

1. The hard part about this game is learning to balance runs (5-6-7-6) with matches (red card-red card). If you focus on runs you'll fly through the rounds, but it will take ages to fill up that jewel box. Conversely, if you focus on matches you may not even survive the first round!

This is what most people get stuck on. Runs vs. matches. But really, there's a third factor that's extremely important. Revealing cards.

If you're almost out of flips and you have one card holding down a pile three cards deep, you're pretty much screwed. It's not impossible to win, but it's nearly impossible. ^_^

I now combine all three factors, in this order.

1. Revealing as many cards as possible.
2. Making matches that work for the jewel box pattern.
3. Clear as many cards as possible with each run.

Let me show you my least favorite pattern. ^_^

Eek!

As you can see, there are only two cards face up in this pattern. Each of those cards have a whopping fifteen cards pinned under them!

With this pattern I focus completely on revealing cards. I'm in complete survival mode. *^_^* Let's say I've worked through it a tiny bit and have revealed a few more cards. In this scenario I have two options. 1. A run of two, which would make a match AND reveal one card. Or: 2. Play a single card that would reveal one card which is also pinning other cards.

Option 2 is the better choice. The cards at the bottom of that pile are going to be hard to get to, and I don't want to wait until I'm almost out of flips!

Since I changed my strategy I haven't died on this pattern a single time. I don't get many matches, but I make it to the next level. Previously I focused solely on runs and matches, and this pattern killed me almost every time.


2. Making matches work for the jewel box is something that I'm still not great at. *^_^*

New gems fall from the left and fill to the right. This means you can plan your jewel box puzzle before you get to it! Making every match you see *will* fill the jewel box quickly, but the result may be such a mess that it takes 50 swaps to complete.

Look at the shape of the jewel box and think about where the next gems will fall. Maybe you want to avoid a match of red cards to wait for a match of blue cards. It's another aspect to consider.


3. Avoid speed clicking. When you're tired, it's very easy to absently flip through cards. Then omg, wait!! That was the card you needed!! But you flipped right past it and there's no undo button. It sucks. Get in the habit of flipping cards slowly, especially on troublesome patterns. That one card can make or break you.

However, if you're so tired that you can't hold your head up but you can't stop playing because you REALLY want that 3rd gem... Go to bed. You'll make silly mistakes and get frustrated if you push it. Get some sleep and tackle Treasure Hunter tomorrow. ^_^


4. The first three times you play Treasure Hunter, you'll get wonderful, helpful tips as you play.

To be honest, they usually annoy the tar out of most people. These helpful tips stay on the screen far too long and cover up the cards. (Tsk! Bad design!) Oh, and each time you clean out your cookies, you'll have to go through the annoying tips again.

The easiest thing to do is close and reopen the game four times. On the 4th try you'll be helpful-hint free and can actually play! ^_^


Final Rating

There is a reason that Treasure Hunter is Spigo's most popular game. It's difficult and yes, often frustrating. But when you finally get that jackpot spin... What a rush!!

Every time I sit down to play Treasure Hunter for "just a few minutes," I end up playing for well over an hour. The variety in patterns means that each game is a new experience and a unique challenge. I love that. ^_^

Graphically, there are several small details that really stand out. The steam from the cup of coffee, and the reflection from the glasses both amaze me. Those two items aren't used in any way, but they're beautifully rendered. Things like that are a really nice touch on an already great game.

I say it's 5 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it?


Similar Games

If you like Treasure Hunter as much as I do, then you might like some of these games too. ^_^

• Merry Poppings at Slingo - Make your way through 10 levels with 9 different types of balloons designed to help and hinder you! (Harder than it sounds.)
• Pyramid Solitaire at iWon - Find pairs that add up to 13 and clear the Pyramid!
• Diamonds at Spigo - Move gems into matches of 3+ and watch the Spigos fly!