My puzzle from last night

[rhu]

First of all, I want to apologize for thoughtlessly claiming that the puzzle would be trivial for experienced puzzlers -- clearly, I misunderestimated the difficulty level. (I continue to be in awe at how well Willz tunes each crossword puzzle to the correct level for each day.) hahathor's comment was spot on, and I'm sorry.

Second, for those who want a little help, ask yourself why the pair isn't together (which it would have been if this had really been a poker hand), and know that the puzzle probably would have been easier to solve if I hadn't presented it as a photograph of five actual playing cards, but instead simply described the hand using plain text.

I'll post a second hint tomorrow night.

Comments

[bourbon-cowboy.livejournal.com]

Okay. That hint helped. Whew!

***POTENTIAL INDIRECT SPOILER***

Not to throw a spoiler in per se, but if you've ever done a Mystery Hunt puzzle, this is actually a pretty conventional method of, um, let's say deriving a word. But if you haven't done any Mystery Hunt puzzles, this style of indicating is very hard to find elsewhere in the puzzle world, and makes for a pretty high "aha" threshold.

Very nice puzzle, now that I finally got it. Utterly elegant.