This project provides functionality to take an array of cards and be able to parse it into a hand which provides information such as an ID and a generic rank based on standard poker hands.

There are two steps involved in the process, the first being creating a Hand object. To do this, an array of five cards is passed into the ParseHand method of the client, which will validate the input to ensure five cards are present, and no duplicate cards are passed in to assume only one deck is being used. It is then checked against a set of definitions of standard poker hands to determine the highest hand that it conforms to.

var client = new PokerClient();
var cards =  new Card[] {
  new Card(Suit.Hearts, CardValue.Seven),
  new Card(Suit.Hearts, CardValue.Eight),
  new Card(Suit.Hearts, CardValue.Nine),
  new Card(Suit.Hearts, CardValue.Ten),
  new Card(Suit.Hearts, CardValue.Jack),
};

Hand hand = client.ParseHand(cards);
// hand.Definition.HandIdentifier == "straight_flush";

Once a hand is created, it can then be compared to other hands by calling the CompareHands method and passing in two hands. The return value of this method is the better of the two hands, or null in the case that both hands are equal.

Hand firstHand = ... // two pair
Hand secondHand = ... // three of a kind

Hand better = client.CompareHands(firstHand, secondHand);
// better.Definition.HandIdentifier == "three_of_a_kind"