Puzzletober 2025: Deal

The innkeeper says, "I'd like to get a replacement rug out of the cabin before you all leave tomorrow. Let's say it's a three-person job: two can hold the rug by the ends while the third can assist with the doors." The newcomer volunteers, but the rest shuffle in place. He continues, "Since Miss Vitale is away and I can't in good conscience ask Ophelia, that leaves ... seven of us, of which two should go." He looks around the event room for a method of deciding. "Let's make a deal. I have a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Each of us draws one. The two who get the lowest ranks, counting aces as above kings, must go. If there's a tie, the first suit alphabetically should go. So, an ace of diamonds loses to a three of diamonds and an ace of spades. How does that sound?" For lack of a better option, they agree and draw their cards.

The unlucky two decide to wait until later in the evening and pass some time playing poker. The 45 remaining cards are used to create the first hands for all nine people at the hotel.

Rules: Based on the narrative sections on this page, deduce the two people who were chosen to go to the cabin.

Upon receiving his first four cards, the clerk believes he might obtain a royal flush, but after remembering the cards taken by the diver and economist, he realizes he could end up with an ordinary flush at best. Nevertheless, his brief excitement causes the innkeeper to fold with a full house; the innkeeper laments that if one of his cards were replaced with the economist's earlier draw he might've gotten four of a kind. Regardless, he would've lost against the diver, who comments truthfully that her full hand scores a perfect 21 in blackjack. On this remark, the economist bluffs by telling the diver, "If that's the case, I might have the same hand type as you." The bowman decides to fold with a mediocre high card hand. The innkeeper and the bowman, who took cards of the same suit earlier, secretly reveal their hands to each other; the bowman correctly whispers, "My hand would also score 21. If only one of my cards was replaced with one of yours, then I could've had a better hand than what you folded with." The actor exhibits a poker face while holding four of a kind. The newcomer studies his own two-pair closely; one of the pairs is of a single-digit number card matching the rank of the actor's draw, the other pair's rank would pair with the farmer's draw in pyramid solitaire, and the kicker could be the median of a straight flush bounded by the draws of the farmer and the clerk.