Fancy Screens

[seananders0n]

At the end of our tournements, we post a "results" in the WhatsApp group and as I had already got the final screen showing the full finishing list, I mentioned "why don't we make that last screen good for a screenshot"

I hit ChatGPT with "mock up some screens" and set about tryign to get the layout similar and soon realised that it would take ages and I wasn't able to to get results anything like what I hoped for. I turned to ClaudeAI and pasted in the mockups, along with a couple of my exported attempts, directed Claude to the documentation on this site and started to ask questions...

Can you make a layout like this?
Can you make the title consistent?
Make the text bigger?
etc.,

It took 40+ iterations to get here, but what we now have is:

• One layout file, which (based on the tournament title) will display the venue and tournament name
• Shows the Season/Game, which are date based
• Calculates the points for our Redtooth and League games (based on the tournament)
• Shows 3x highest hand (side game)
• Shows our Ace Eliminator (side game)
• Congratulates the winner

Here's a few screenshots

[pokerclubhq]

These look fantastic, @seananders0n, thanks for sharing them!

Building the last screen for the WhatsApp results post is a smart idea, and it's great to see the venue, season and game, Redtooth and League points, top three hands and Ace Eliminator all coming from one layout. The card order you raised in #74 has a reply there, with a fix you can drop straight into these screens.

Would you be happy for other clubs to use your layout? If so, I'd like to add it to the Layout gallery, where anyone can pick it from the Browse tab. We plan to let you share layouts straight from the app eventually, but until then the easiest way is to send me the tournament it's in:

1. On the home screen, tap ⋯ on the tournament's row and choose Export (or Download on the web).
2. Email the .pchq file to support@pokerclubhq.com.

Please email it rather than attaching it here. The file holds the whole tournament, including your players' names and results, and this page is public. I'll only use the layout from it.

The Layout gallery is covered here: https://pokerclubhq.github.io/info/timer-display/#layout-gallery

[seananders0n]

I have no issues with sharing what we have created (will email the files across shortly).

[pokerclubhq]

Your screens led to a new help page, @seananders0n

Your post showed how much an AI assistant can do with a layout, so I've written up the approach for other clubs: https://pokerclubhq.github.io/info/layouts-with-ai/

It walks through the round trip you used (export the tournament, give the AI the file and a picture of what you want, import the file it gives back, and repeat), with a starting prompt to paste in. Alongside it there's now one reference file written for AI assistants: https://pokerclubhq.github.io/info/_llms-txt/layouts.txt

That file holds all the layout and scripting help as plain text, including a new Layout file format page that describes what's inside the .pchq: every cell setting, how colors are stored, and where content items live. Before, an AI had to work that out from the exports you gave it. There's also a Scripts with AI page, and a list of the JavaScript habits AIs bring to EZScript, with what to write instead: https://pokerclubhq.github.io/info/scripting-language/#coming-from-javascript

After 40+ rounds, you know better than anyone where it gets stuck. Is there anything that would have helped? For example:

• something Claude kept getting wrong, or that you had to explain more than once
• a part of the export and import loop that slowed you down
• anything you looked for in the help and couldn't find

And if you build another layout with the new reference, I'd love to hear whether it takes fewer rounds.

[seananders0n]

The free version of ClaudeAI has a limit on how many questions you can ask it, and as soon as I saw what was possible, I upgraded to Pro, but I would suggest that with a little determination, most people could probably do this, using the free trail of pro.

Here is what cost us the most time, as advice for someone starting out.

Start from a real export

• Build on a .pchq export of a working tournament. That keeps the alerts, background image, chip set and blind structure intact, and you only change the layout and content.
• Export again after every test and send it back. Many of our fixes only came from seeing real log data.
• Keep a version number in the title (v35, v36 and so on). Always keep the last version that worked, because we reverted more than once.

Know how the script language behaves

• Each {{ }} block is its own scope, so variables don’t carry between blocks. Repeat any setup you need.
• A template whose expressions are all empty disappears. That is a useful trick for hiding text, but it also hides things by accident.
• The script ends up with the last value it worked out, and the points formula must end by returning points.
• Keep scripts quick, since there is a time budget of around 10 ms each. Avoid comments inside templates.
• Prefer simple if / else over chains, and test anything unusual in isolation.
• Don’t trust fields that change after a player is out. We read chips from the “Player chips” log entries, because a player’s chip count wasn’t reliable once they were eliminated.
• The player lists have a set order. playersEliminated runs best-first, so use that order for the standings.

Layout

• Everything is sized in fixed units, and there are no percentage heights. Pick a target ratio, such as 16:9, and make the body heights add up.
• Minimum sizes include padding and borders, so audit the widths and heights. Ours had to total 1514 wide and 606 tall.
• Text size only takes whole numbers. A cell grows if its content is too big, so leave some spare room.
• Empty text vanishes, and its container can shrink with it. We saw this with the clock on the Final Results header. Keep a placeholder there, such as an invisible space.
• Drive the venue and tournament names from the title, not hard-coded text.

Content

• Card text like A♠ and chip text like 1,000s are drawn as images, but only in the exact format the app expects. Chips of 1,000 or more need the comma.
• Test with awkward cases: a full house, long names, 20+ players, and a Play-Off game with no points.
• Make the screens handle a game with no data yet, such as no hands, no eliminations or no aces.

Habits that saved time

• Test with a throwaway game, and eliminate players, assign chips and record hands.
• Change one thing at a time, and write down what each version changed.

[pokerclubhq]

Thanks for the tips, @seananders0n

This is exactly what I was hoping for. Some of it is in the help already but easy to miss, like the 10 ms limit for each script and the comma in chip values such as 1,000s. Some of it isn't there at all, like starting from an export of a tournament that already works, keeping a version number in the title, and how variables behave between {{ }} blocks. I'll work these into the Layouts with AI page so the next club starts with them.

Both files arrived by email, thank you. I'll reply there about the gallery.

Your percentage heights idea (#77) and the chip sets (#76) have answers in their own discussions.

[seananders0n]

I probably should have mentioned that the "Ace Eliminator" is a pretty bespoke side game (£1 entry) for one of our venues; there are a bunch of cards in a side deck, when you get eliminated you pull a card - red Ace for £5 and the black Ace for the rest of the pot (usually about £10-15). Pure luck/lottery, but all adds to the fun.

[seananders0n]

For anyone reading this, I asked AI to summarise "what have we acheived"

What we’ve built

Two importable Poker Club HQ tournament files, currently at v42: Redtooth_Screens_v42.pchq (Redtooth Poker) and Clubsports_League_v42.pchq (Clubsports League). Each has a custom timer-screen layout, scripted content, and a points formula. Each starts clean, with no players or log, so it’s ready for a new game. I haven’t seen the latest versions run in the app, only checked their structure.

Common to every screen

• Header: the venue is the first word of the title (small, gold), and the tournament name is the rest (large, white). On Redtooth games it also shows the season and game number, for example “Season 1 (Game 3)”. Games run in 13-week seasons and week 13 is a Play-Off. The right side shows the level or status, plus the clock.
• Footer: a seating-move note.
• Look: a dark theme with gold and red borders, and the layout is sized for a 16:9 screen.

Screens

• Level:
  • Large BLINDS (blue) and NEXT (gold), with time until the next break.
  • Average stack.
  • Players left and starting players.
  • An Eliminated list showing the first 8, with place and points.
  • A side-games column.
• Highest Hands: the top three hands, with player name, a small hand name above the cards, and the cards drawn across the panel. Cards are ordered with the largest group first, so a full house reads trips then pair.
• Break: colour-up details with chip images, or “none” if there’s no colour-up.
• Pregame: a summary strip, table seating, and rules.
• Final Hand (countback): a “FINAL HAND” screen.
• Final Results:
  • The champion with a thank-you line.
  • Standings with the top 3 shown large, and places 4+ in two balanced columns.
  • Points columns are hidden when nobody has points, as in a Play-Off.
  • Side-game results.

Side games

• Clubsports games: Ace Eliminator, built from the player chip entries. 2 chips gives the Ace of Spades, and 1 chip gives the Ace of Hearts or Diamonds. “Aces not assigned yet” shows until someone has an ace.
• League games only: an Eliminators top 3 (knockout counts).
• Plain Redtooth games: Highest Hands only.

Rules and formulas

• Points:
  • Redtooth games score 100 for 1st, then 100 − 10 × place down to 8th, then 10.
  • League games score 30, 20, 15, 10, 8, 7, 6 and 5 bonus for reaching final table, plus points for the overal position.
  • Play-Off weeks score no points.
  • No money values appear anywhere.
• Blinds: the Redtooth structure includes the 200/400 level before the first break. The League structure has 24 levels of 15 minutes. In-game breaks are now 8 minutes, and the pregame level stays at 10.

Not done or unconfirmed

• Player photos and simulation aren’t included, by your choice. - I was trying to include the winner photo on the final screen.
• I wrote the knockout alert, but you tuned it yourself, and I haven’t confirmed it speaks. - AI did get this right, if the person is the first eliminated ... Can we get a cheer for our first player away has been eliminated if it's a league game by and there are players remaining
• I’m not sure the Final Results header keeps its width now that the clock is invisible there. - I does
• The Redtooth website results task is on hold, nothing was saved there. - I was (separately) trying to see if I could export results and feed them straight into the Redtooth website. Abandoned the idea.