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Hmmm, looks like a good hand... I'm certain I can make a straight out of this! What should I call it? (6 2 8)

8 card hand

Amoz
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    Very clever construction! – hexomino Feb 06 '24 at 18:06
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    @hexomino Agreed. For a while I thought the 8 card was a dud, so sure was I that the spades are normally aligned on it in two columns of 4. Once I finally realised I had completely misremembered that, the truth jumped out at me! :) – Stiv Feb 06 '24 at 18:07
  • @Stiv Great solve too! Slightly related that the eight of diamonds looks like it has an 8 in the middle due to this arrangement. – hexomino Feb 06 '24 at 20:46
  • Oh wow this is clever. Great puzzle! – Dmitry Kamenetsky Feb 07 '24 at 12:46
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    After seeing the solution, it seems to me that the 3 and the 8 are in the wrong order - am I missing something? – htmlcoderexe Feb 08 '24 at 10:59
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    @htmlcoderexe My thought was to put them enough in order that it was clear the answer was intentional but not make it a simple verbatim as this is already a pretty easy question. But your idea might have been better, given how little I mixed it up. I'm actually surprised this question is so popular, I prefer harder questions myself and almost didn't post it... But it was so much fun to construct that I did anyway. – Amoz Feb 08 '24 at 14:07
  • It is a really fun puzzle, I mostly noticed because the rest were already in order just with those two swapped - hence triggering my "huh, this is slightly off" feeling. I don't think it did anything for making it more or less difficult. – htmlcoderexe Feb 08 '24 at 14:13
  • FWIW While solving it I just applied a left-to-right order in two rows, rather than a hand order, so the ordering works visually in that regard :) – Stiv Feb 08 '24 at 14:39
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    No, these cards cannot make a straight in poker. They are all of the same suit, so any combination is either a flush or a straight flush. Mixed suits would be needed to make a straight. – Imre Feb 09 '24 at 08:13
  • I was trying to connect-the-dots the spades to get a toilet shape... – Michael Feb 09 '24 at 20:45

1 Answers1

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You should call this a...

Strait of Magellan (after the famous sea route).

Because...

The positions of the visible spades should be interpreted as Braille. When this is done, the cards spell out MAGELLAN:

Image annotated with Braille interpretation

Combining this with a pun on the poker term, 'straight', gives us the answer!

Stiv
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    What is the meaning of (6 2 8) ? – mountrix Feb 07 '24 at 11:06
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    @mountrix That's the enumeration for the answer, like for a crossword clue - it tells you that you're looking for 3 words, of 6, 2 and 8 letters in length :) – Stiv Feb 07 '24 at 11:18