Poker Night at the Inventory is a series of Poker games by TellTale Games that is distinguished by a cute crossover gimmick of several characters from different series'. You unlock items for TF2, sets of cards, and tables for games you win and characters you knock out of tourneys.

This walkthrough was made to learn how to play "Poker Night At the Inventory" as well as Poker itself. If you bought this game to grab the four items and then never play again, this is not the guide for you.

**NOTE** A lot has changed! This guide was my first, so I went for a complete overhaul. Let's hope that Steam doesn't continue to make crazy changes to steam guides so I don't have to do this again!

Terminology


How To Play Texas Hold 'Em


The Characters


Opponent Tells


Game Mechanics


Tips


Easter Eggs


Achievements


Unlockable Items


Final Words from the Author

A lot of casual poker players will keep a cheat sheet nearby that tells them in order, all sets of cards you can make and what beats what. Many card companies will put an extra card in the box with this information on it. Poker Night At the Inventory does not display what your hand is comprised of, so if you don't know the worth of your hand, keep this open!!




No-Pair:
No cards make a set, highest card in your hand or on river is referenced


Pair:
Two cards of the same rank.


Two Pair:
Two sets of cards of the same rank



Three of a Kind:
Three cards of the same rank



Straight:
A minimum of five cards with consecutive ranks of any suit.



Flush:
All of the same suit. Ranks are irrelevant. ("All reds/Blacks")



Full House: Three of a Kind and a pair all in one hand.



Four of a Kind:
All suits of the same rank.



Straight Flush: Consecutive ranks of the same suit.




Royal Flush:
The rarest hand: A 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of the same suit.

There is no use in jumping right into explaining the game if you don't understand what I'm saying. Here is some basic Poker terminology. It's a little overwhelming, but will make reading about it much easier for you.

Texas Hold 'em:
The style of Poker that is played in this game. Originally called "Hold 'em," Texas Hold 'em Started in Robstown, Texas USA[en.wikipedia.org] where it skyrocketed to the most popular form of Poker and the standard game for most establishments. The fast-paced nature of the game made it great for casinos, but the strategic betting periods make it more psychologically-centered than other installments.

Hand:
May refer to this round, ("I'll grab a beer after this hand") or literally what is in your hand. ("My hand is terrible, I'm folding.")

Reds/Blacks:
The color of the suit.Traditionally, Hearts/Diamonds = red, Spades/Clubs = Black.

Card Rank:
This is the number or type of royal on the card. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A.

Card Suit:
This is the icon on the card. Hearts, Spades, Clubs, Diamonds.

Pocket:
These are the two cards that each player has that nobody else can see.

River:
The five cards on the table that everyone can see.


Flop:
The first three cards dealt. Shows you how the rest of the hand may pan out.

Fold:
Forfeiture of your cards, the money that you've put in the pot, and interest in the rest of the round.

Check:
Remaining in the game without putting money in the pot or folding.

Raise:
Betting your money by putting it in the pot. Everyone else on the table must bet the same or fold.

Call:
Putting down the amount an opponent raised. When someone raises, you MUST call, or fold.

High:
If you and your opponent have the same winning hand, the decision is defaulted to who has the highest card in their pocket. (Example: There is a 10 on the river. Heavy has a 10 and a 6 in his pocket. You have a 10 and a Queen in yours. You both have one Pair made of 10's, but you win because you were Queen-High.)

You're in this section because you do not know how to play Poker. Or it's variation, "Texas Hold 'em." If you do, skip right on passed this chunk of information.

Poker is an awesome card game that is sure to impress; a card game in which Old Maid and UNO pale in comaparison. If this is truly your first time learning, I apologize for your friends not teaching you sooner.





The goal of the game is to get the best score possible during a short round that is largely decided by luck. The reason why this game doesn't suck like Yahtzee is because we have a chance to incorporate some skill in this luck-based gameplay.

The variation you will be playing in Poker Night At the Inventory is called "Texas Hold-em." This information can be applied to other types of Poker, but for now we'll just focus on this.

First, everyone will be dealt two cards. This is your "pocket." Nobody can see this pocket, nor can you see others' pockets. Everyone will begin to bet, check or fold based on what they see:

If they see something that can lead to a good hand, they may bet or check. If they see two unrelated cards that cannot realistically make a good hand once the rest of the cards come out, the player may decide to fold to avoid losing money.

Once betting is over, a "Flop" is dealt.These are the three cards that are put on the table for all to see. This is the remainder of everybody's hand. Depending on what you can conjure up with the flop and your pocket decide your score.

Everybody begins to bet again. Here you can get a basic idea of what everyone has by how much they are betting, checking, or if they are folding. Once everyone is done, two more cards are dealt onto the "river."

Once five cards are on the river, it's time to see everyone's hands and see who had the best score. Simple? Yes. But all the meta and bluffing around the game is what makes it exciting.

Max[www.samandmax.net]... Might not even know how to play poker. He's not a good player, but is enough of a wildcard to cause trouble. He'll go from being completely aggressive to cautiously folding every other hand. His moves are annoyingly spontaneous so don't try to predict them.

Strategy for Max: Catch him bluffing and milk money from him. Beyond that, pray.




Strong Bad[www.hrwiki.org] is a slightly better player than Max, but not by much. He is unbelievably egotistical, so he bets high even when he has nothing, and goes all in at really dumb times. But because it's a little hard to see his tells and you can't always depend on them to tell if he's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you out. He can remain until the end of the game with his obnoxious bluffing.

Strategy: Don't take his crap. If he goes all in, watch for his bluff/good tells. He only remains until the end of games because he's a jackass that likes to bluff.



Heavy is a good Poker player, but has trouble keeping his emotions under wraps. He connects boisterous playing with masculinity, so he's easy to sucker into bet-waging wars. (Even if he doesn't have anything special in his hand!) This is especially true when he's got plenty of chips. He is also not suspicious of small bets, so lure him in with them. Heavy will typically be around until the end of the tournament unless you knock him out early with the strategy below.

Strategy: Because Heavy Weapons Guy plays frivolously with a big pot, it's best to knock him out when he's most confident, which is when he's in the lead. Just be leery of him going all in, as he often does it when he has a least SOMETHING, unlike Strong Bad.



Tycho[pennyarcade.wikia.com] is a great poker player. While playing with him, you'll often hear about his two favorite locations: Foldsville and Check city, USA. He is completely removed from the game emotionally, meaning he's hardest to win money from. He only seems to call and raise aggressively with amazing hands, so if he's playing like heavy would with a big pot, it's time to fold.

Strategy: Bet small and check until the river is on the table, and even if you're not able to keep him betting until the end, you'll at least get some money from him. Also do anything in your power to not let him bait you into betting wars, and when he does, make sure he doesn't get much money out of it. Once it's on his side of the table, he's going to check and fold to make sure it's not going anywhere.

A "tell" is a subconscious reaction that one has during Poker out of nervousness, anxiety, excitement, anger, or frustration. Emotion manifests itself in unique ways for different people, so there is no set of definite tells; it's up to you as a player to look around the table and make spontaneous, informed decisions about what your opponents may be holding.

To have a better chance at catching tells, go into your settings and turn off the conversations so the camera angles don't get in the way.




In Poker Night At the Inventory, tells range from

• Very Subtle
  
• Subtle
  
• Noticable
  
• Very Noticable
  
• Can't Miss it

They also portray the following...

• Bad Hand
  
• Decent hand
  
• Good Hand
  
• Great Hand
  
• Bluffing

Max
(Noticable/Bad Hand) Max only checks for several turns.
(Noticable/Bad Hand) Max shakes his head in disappointment.
(Very Noticable/Bad Hand) Smacks himself in the face.
(Very Subtle/Decent-Good Hand) Max's right hand quivers.
(Can't Miss it/Great Hand) Max stands on his chair and looks triumphant. (Not while talking with other players)
(Very Subtle/Bluffing) Max's left hand quivers.


Strong Bad
(Can't Miss it/Bad Hand) Strong Bad hits his head against the table violently.
(Noticable/Good Hand) Strong Bad's eyes are smugly half-shut.
(Noticable/Good-Great Hand??) Strong Bad's eyes are winced in excitement. (This may very well also be his bluffing face)
(Very Noticable/Great Hand) Smiles with his arms up in the air, looks around the table.
(Noticable/Bluffing) Strong Bad's eyes are winced in excitement. (This could also signify a legitimately good hand.)


Heavy
(Can't Miss it/Bad Hand) Heavy slams his fist on the table angrily.
(Very Noticable/Bad Hand) Heavy looks furious after looking at his cards.
(Subtle/Decent Hand) He looks at his cards and nods slightly in approval.
(Subtle/Great Hand) Heavy rubs the bottom of his nose.
(Subtle/Bluffing) Heavy stretches his neck confidently.

Tycho
(Very Subtle/Bad Hand) Small head shake.
(Subtle/Bad Hand) Tycho checks more than he already does.
(Can't Miss it/Bad Hand) Tycho smacks himself in the face.
(Very Subtle/Great Hand) Looks at his cards, diverts eye contact and smiles.
(Can't Miss it/Great Hand) He looks psychotically demonic and his eyes begin to glow.
(Noticable/Bluffing) His eyebrows tilt in a concerned manner while betting.

This game actually has impressive AI, considering the lack of effort put into most single-player Poker games. The games mechanics interact with your actions more than you think. Here are some details that will help you get the most out of a hand.

Bluffing

Don't attempt to bluff your way through the entire game. Some guide-writers here don't realize that the game was programmed to catch mindless bluffs. Yeah, sure, it'll get you your items sooner or later. But you can get to the other side of a brick wall eventually if you smash your head against it enough. Have some class, play the game.
The AI recognizes bluffing by what is on the river. If there is nothing that could lead up to a straight or flush, the AI will assume you are bluffing. Full houses, 3 of a kind and pairs happen through this, but if the AI see you put down a ton of money on seemingly nothing, they will call you out on your BS. The best time to bet is when you see a series of connected numbers (2 4 and 5 ) on the table, the same suit or something similar that could lead into a good hand, like pairs on the river. Just make sure you don't get so caught up in your own bluffing that you don't notice someone else's good hand!

Folding

If you're new to Poker, you may be wondering when it's the proper time to fold and what causes your opponents to fold. Keep in mind that there are 52 cards in a single deck: Fifteen are brought out onto the table for play. If there is an Ace in your pocket and one of the River, there is a chance that the opponent aggressively betting has an Ace as well... Maybe two.
See how much Tycho is checking and folding? Attempt to match that when you don't catch any important tells. If your pocket is crappy, fold it.
"But what if I throw away a hand that was good at the very end?"
Yeah? What if you are coerced out of $4000 and you get nothing? Keep hands that are pairs, could lead to straights, or flushes. If someone wants to raise $4200 before the flop hits the table and you have a 2 and 8, toss it. And don't be afraid to fold when the fourth or fifth card hit the table, either; It's better to lose $8000 than it is to lose $13,000.

"Blinds" in Poker can be rather confusing, but fortunately in this game they serve one purpose: To make sure a game doesn't last very long. Each round the game changes who is the Big blind and who is the little blind. All together, 50,000 dollars are set on the table; if you all kept tossing that same amount back and forth between each other, a game could last forever! The overall amount of money on the table is drained continuously from the table.
Blinds here seem unfair but actually can be used to a crazy advantage! As far as I've noticed, play-styles do not change depending on who is being leeched from by the blind. So that means Strong Bad will continue to make frivolous bets despite $600 dollars being taken from his wallet at every turn. That little bit of extra help would make it easier to knock him out of the tourney.
While you're at it, play safe when you're the big/little blind (or any at all if beginning of game.) to minimize damage done to you by it. Conquering this little mechanic could make the difference between a win or a defeat!

Raising

Some of the characters at the table are as skittish as a deer. You raise red flags when you...

• Immediately begin betting on your pocket
  
• Raise viciously the moment the flop hits the table
  
• Raise when an obvious straight or flush is on the river

To avoid scaring others, turn to what Heavy lovingly refers to as "Baby bets." Very teeny bets that make you look like you're just throwing in the pot for the fun of it. Your opponents are more likely to go along with a handful of chips and won't consider folding like they will when you push a whole stack to the middle of the table.

• The Host: Reginald Van Winslow from Monkey Island
  
• Sam: From Sam and Max.
  
• Buster Blaster: From Sam and Max.
  
• Momma Bosco: From Sam and Max
  
• Artie Flopshark: From Sam and Max and Telltale Texas Hold'Em.
  
• Flint Paper: From Sam and Max.
  
• Stinky: From Sam and Max
  
• Pom Pom: From Homestarrunner.com
  
• Trixie Trotter: From Back to the Future- The Game.
  
• Monty Muzzle: From Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures

• Max doesn't have much issue with parting with his special item if you win it. It's because the number on the badge reveals that he's betting Sam's badge/gun, not his own.
  
  
• If Tycho is the first to be elminated from play, a funny scene will ensue of all the characters pulling their guns out on him. Otherwise, he will sit at the bar with Flint.
  
  
• This game is the only time in which the character Strong Bad swears.
  
  
• Heavy's Favorite Movies are The Dirty Dozen and the first twenty minutes of Rocky 4. He also likes Huey Lewis and the News. (For those of you who don't know, the first 20 minutes of Rocky 4 are of a Russian boxer brutally beating his opponent.)
  
  
• Apparently the song is a jazzy rendition of "More gun" from Meet the Engineer. Thanks, Dusktracker!

**It was hard picking the things that I thought were cool and things that weren't worth mentioning. If you've got secrets that you feel should be here, message them to me!***

These items can be used in the game Team Fortress 2.




Lugermorph & License to Maim







Dangeresque Shades









Enthusiast's Timepiece








The Iron Curtain








Table Name / Amount of wins / Description


Default Table / 0 / The Green TTG table.
Max Imp / 1 / A Red/Black table with Max in the center.
Trogdor / 2 / A green Trogdor table with a symmetrical circular pattern.
Telltale Games / 4 / A blank table with TTG in the center.
Automata / 5 / A black/white table with a PA comic character in the center. Makes the whole screen go black and white, retro movie style.
RED Team / 7 / A TF2 RED team table that gives Heavy a stereotypical Poker Player visor.
Fruit Friend / 8 / A blue table with Fruit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on it, surrounded by oranges.
Videlectrix / 10 / Orange-colored table with the Videlectrix logo in the middle. Strong Bad turns into a polygonal retro game character with this table on.
BLU Team / 11 / A blue/white table with the BLU logo in the center.
Strong Badia / 13 / A table with the Strong Badia flag.
Team Fortress 2 / 14 / An orange table with the TF2 logo.
Twisp & Catsby / 16 / A blue table with PA characters decorating it.
Max & Crossbones / 17 / A green table with a bunny skull/crossbones. Max uses a skeletal model when you use this table.
Freelance Police / 19 / A blue table with the Sam & Max Police symbol in the middle.
Telltale Shield / 20 / A black table with a TTG shield in the center with all the character on it. All special effects are turned on with this table.



Default Deck / 0 / The average everyday deck.
TF2 Deck / 3 / A blu/red deck with the TF2 cast.
Homestar Deck / 6 / An 8-bit deck with HSR characters.
Sam & Max / 9 / A stylized set of Sam and Max cards with various characters.
Poker Night / 15 / Various characters from Poker Night at the Inventory on this set.
Grickle / 18 / A Puzzle Agent-esque deck.
Alternative Poker Night / 21 / A more stylish variation of the default deck.

Some of these achievements can only be obtained with patience. You'll have to wait for several specific hands to get these, odds that you cannot in any way alter yourself.





Win A Game.
No expanation needed.


Win a Game, Hard
Change the difficulty in the options menu to "Hard" and win a game.


Full House
Win a hand with a Full House.


Flush
Win a hand with a Flush.


Straight
Win a hand with a Straight


Four of a Kind
Win a hand with Four of a Kind.


Kicker Trouble
Have a higher value of cards when you and an opponent hold the same hand.


Slow Play
Check on any hand higher than a pair, as opposed to betting.


Rushing
Win three pots in a row.


Summer of '69
Win a hand with a 6 and 9 card (HUHUHUHUHU)


Three Wise Men
Get a Three-Of-A-Kind with all Kings.


The 12 Days of Christmas
Win 12 or more hands (Not consecutive.)


Straight Flush
Win a hand with a Straight Flush


Down to the Green
Win Consecutive All-ins.


Rags to Riches
Win a showdown with just a high card.


Triple Through
Win a pot with two or more opponents when you are all in.


Special Item: Heavy
Win heavy's buy-in item, Sasha.


Special Item: Max
Win Max's buy-in items, the Lugermorph and License to Maim.


Special Item: Tycho
Win Tycho's buy-in item, his watch.


Special Item: Strong Bad
Win Strong Bad's trashy buy-in item, Homestar's shutter shades.