Harken Tone Poker

1. What Is Tone Poker?

Tone Poker is a friendly musical game that follows five-card draw poker as closely as twelve cards allow. Each card is a chromatic interval (0–11). The result of play is sound.

There is no betting. You deal, discard, draw and play your hand — and listen.

You don’t need musical training — the app handles the structure. You do the listening.

2. Host and Players

One person starts the table as the Host. Others join as Players. Everyone plays on the same screen.

Each seat belongs to one player.
Each player chooses a unique tonic.
Each player has their own deck of twelve cards, 0 to 11.
A phone seats two players. A tablet or computer seats up to twelve.
Everyone plays independently, and listens together.

3. Starting and Joining

Host: enter a name → choose a tonic → tap Start Game.

Players: tap Join Table → enter a name → choose an available tonic → tap Join Game.

Join Table stays open while cards are being dealt. A player who joins then is seated at once, with a full deck; nobody else’s cards are touched.
It closes when the hand is underway: at the first discard, or as soon as any hand is played.
It opens again at New Hand, unless the table is full.

4. The Table

Each player has a nameplate, a draw deck, a discard pile, and a five-card hand.

Color identifies pitch. A card’s number is its interval above that player’s tonic.
The small letter in the corner of a card is its poker rank (see the Addendum).
The number under a draw deck is the cards left in it. The number under a discard pile is the cards discarded.
The buttons along the top are Join Table, Show Score, Play Hands, New Hand and Guide.

5. Playing a Hand (Five-Card Draw)

Deal: tap your draw deck, once for each card, until you hold five. Each new card plays as it appears.
Select: tap a card to select it. It plays and stays selected.
Deselect: tap a selected card to unselect it. No sound is played.
Discard: select up to three cards, then tap your discard pile. You may discard once in each hand.
Draw: tap your draw deck to replace each card you discarded.
Play Hand: with five cards and none selected, tap your nameplate. The hand plays as a short musical phrase, strongest card first.
A played hand is final. It is scored, and its cards, deck and discard pile do nothing more until New Hand. The nameplate still replays it.
New Hand: everyone gets a fresh deck. The running totals are kept.

6. Sound and Feedback

Tone Poker uses a piano sound. Audio confirms key actions: dealing, selecting, playing hands, and the cards turned in a draw-off.

Silence is also meaningful — deselecting is silent by design.

On an iPhone the piano plays even when the ringer switch is off; use the volume buttons to set the level. If the sound stops after you leave the page and come back, tap the screen once.

7. Play Hands (Table Playback)

Tap Play Hands to hear every hand on the table once.

Starts with the Host.
Plays clockwise around the table.
Stops automatically when finished.
Each hand it plays is scored and becomes final, just as if its player had tapped the nameplate.
A hand with fewer than five cards, or with a card still selected, is skipped.

8. Scoring (Five-Card Draw on 12 Cards)

Hands, strongest first. This is poker's own ladder, for a deck of six ranks with two cards of each:

Royal Flush (12 points): A–K–Q–J–C in one suit. Example: 0,7,2,9,4.
Straight Flush (10): any other five ranks in a row, in one suit. Example: 7,2,9,4,11.
Flush (6): five different ranks in one suit, not in a row. Example: 0,7,2,4,11.
Straight (3): five ranks in a row, in mixed suits. Example: 0,5,2,9,8.
Two Pair (2): two ranks doubled. Example: 7,5,2,10,4.
One Pair (1): one rank doubled. 0 and 6 together are a pair of Aces.
High Card (0): none of the above.

Tone Poker follows five-card draw as closely as twelve cards allow. Cards always sound as their interval; scoring is a separate layer.

Ranks, high to low: Ace 0, 6 = A. Kings 7, 5 = K. Queens 2, 10 = Q. Jacks 9, 3 = J. Champions 4, 8 = C. Squires 11, 1 = S.
Suits: Major is 7, 2, 9, 4, 11. Minor is 5, 10, 3, 8, 1. The Aces, 0 and 6, belong to both suits.
“In a row” goes by the rank letter in the corner of the card, not by its number: A–K–Q–J–C, K–Q–J–C–S, or Q–J–C–S–A. The Ace plays high or low.
What cannot happen: with two cards of each rank there is no three of a kind, four of a kind or full house. There are no wild cards.
Winning the hand: the higher hand on the ladder wins. Two hands of the same kind are compared by rank, highest first: pairs before the odd cards, straights by their top rank. Suits never decide.
Draw-off: if two hands are still level, each tied player turns the next card from their own deck when Show Score is pressed, and the higher rank wins. Equal ranks turn again. If a deck runs out, the place is shared.
Placing bonus: each player also earns one point for every player they beat: 1st = + (N−1), 2nd = + (N−2), … last = +0, where N = number of players in the hand.
Running total: hand points and bonus add up from hand to hand, in the Total column. New Hand keeps the totals.
Show Score: after everyone has played, use Show Score to see the placing, the hands, the points and the totals.

9. On a Phone

Hold the phone upright. Turned sideways, the table is replaced by a Turn phone upright notice; your cards are untouched and return when you turn it back.
A phone seats two players, and the table fills the width of the screen.
The page stays at one size; it does not zoom.

10. Final Note

Tone Poker is not about speed. It’s about attention, contrast, and shared listening. Take your time — let the table play.

A. Addendum: Rank Symbols on Cards

Each card shows a small serif symbol in two corners (top-left and bottom-right) so pairs are easy to spot when fanned:

A = Ace (0, 6)
K = King (7, 5)
Q = Queen (2, 10)
J = Jack (9, 3)
C = Champion (4, 8)
S = Squire (11, 1)