Retro Shopper Poker Run: Official Rules

1. No purchase necessary

No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. A purchase will not improve your chances of winning. You do not need to be a subscriber to COMPUTE!’s Gazette to play. Void where prohibited.

The Retro Shopper Poker Run (the “Contest”) is sponsored by COMPUTE! Publications, Inc., publisher of COMPUTE!’s Gazette, PO Box 213, Cedar Park, TX 78613 (the “Sponsor”). By entering, you agree to these Official Rules and to the Sponsor’s decisions, which are final on all matters relating to the Contest.

2. Who can enter

The Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 or older (or the age of majority where they live, if higher) when they enter.

Employees, officers and contractors of the Sponsor, regular contributors to COMPUTE!’s Gazette, anyone involved in creating or running the Contest, and members of their immediate families or households are not eligible. Owners and staff of the participating vendors may enter.

3. Entry period

The Contest begins October 26, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Central Time, when sign-ups opened on the Contest page, and ends December 8, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time (the “Entry Period”). Entries made at any time during the Entry Period are valid. The Sponsor’s server clock is the official clock. Sign-ups, answers and swaps are not accepted after the Entry Period ends.

4. How to enter and play

1. Sign up. Go to computesgazette.com/pokerrun, enter your first name, your state and your email address, and agree to these rules. We’ll email you a sign-in link.
2. Get your route. Opening the link signs you in and deals you a route of seven stops, chosen at random from the vendors featured in the Retro Shopper 2026 holiday buyer’s guide in the November 2026 issue of COMPUTE!’s Gazette. Routes are dealt so that each vendor is assigned about equally often, so different players get different routes.
3. Solve the clues. Each stop has a clue that points to something on that vendor’s own website. Visit the site, find the answer and enter it on the Contest page. Answers are not case-sensitive, and spaces and punctuation are ignored.
4. Tries and swaps. You get three tries per stop. After three incorrect answers, that stop is closed. You also get two swaps, each of which replaces one unsolved stop with a new one, chosen at random. A stop you’ve solved cannot be swapped. Swapped and closed stops can’t be reopened.
5. Come back any time. You can return to your route as often as you like during the Entry Period using the link in your email. If you request a new link, the old one stops working.

Limit one entry per person. Each person may use only one email address. The Sponsor’s records of who signed up and when are final.

5. Cards and hands

Each correct answer deals you one playing card, chosen at random by the Sponsor’s server from a standard 52-card deck. You will never be dealt the same card twice. Each player’s cards come from their own deck, so other players’ cards don’t affect yours. Once dealt, a card cannot be changed.

To qualify, you need at least five cards by the end of the Entry Period. Your entry is the best five-card poker hand that can be made from all the cards you hold, up to seven. It is calculated automatically; you don’t need to choose or submit it.

Hands rank from highest to lowest:

1. Royal flush: A, K, Q, J, 10, all the same suit
2. Straight flush: five cards in sequence, all the same suit
3. Four of a kind
4. Full house: three of a kind plus a pair
5. Flush: five cards of the same suit
6. Straight: five cards in sequence
7. Three of a kind
8. Two pair
9. One pair
10. High card

Aces count high, or low only in the straight A-2-3-4-5, which is the lowest straight. Suits have no rank. Within the same type of hand, the higher-ranking cards win under standard poker rules (for example, a pair of kings beats a pair of queens, and between equal pairs the highest remaining card decides).

6. Prizes

At the start of the Contest, twenty prizes were offered, with a total approximate retail value of $1,656.65. With the three prizes added on October 27, 2026, twenty-three prizes will be awarded, with a total approximate retail value of $1,908.65.

Additional prizes. The Sponsor may add prizes at any time during the Entry Period, including prizes donated by participating vendors. Each added prize, its approximate retail value, its donor (if any) and how it will be awarded will be posted on computesgazette.com/pokerrun and added to these rules. Added prizes will be awarded under Section 7 in the same way as the prizes above. Prizes already listed will not be reduced or removed.

Limit one prize per person. Prizes cannot be transferred, exchanged or redeemed for cash. The Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if a listed prize becomes unavailable. The Sponsor may add prizes during the Entry Period but will not remove any listed prize. Winners pay nothing to receive a prize. The Sponsor, or the vendor that donated the prize, pays all costs of delivering it, including shipping to the winner’s address. Gift cards and vouchers are delivered by email, and store credit is added to the winner’s account with that store (which the winner may need to create). Any purchase made with a gift card, voucher or store credit, including that store’s shipping and any amount above its value, is between the winner and the store. Winners are responsible only for any income taxes on their prizes.

7. Choosing winners

Within 7 days after the Entry Period ends, the Sponsor will rank all qualifying hands under Section 5. The best hand wins the Grand Prize, the next six hands win second-place prizes, and the next four win third-place prizes. Within each group, the Sponsor will assign the prize items to the winners by random drawing. If there are fewer qualifying players than prizes, the remaining prizes will not be awarded. The twelve Wildcard winners will be drawn at random from all qualifying players who did not win a place prize. The first player drawn receives the AmericanRetro.shop gift card, the second receives the Protovision voucher, and the next ten each receive a keycap set.

Ties. If two or more hands are exactly equal after all five cards are compared, the tie is broken by a random drawing among the tied players. A player who loses a tiebreak is ranked next, so a tie for first decides first and second place.

Odds. The odds of winning depend on the number of qualifying players and on the cards each player is dealt.

Notification. Winners will be notified by email at the address they signed up with. A winner must reply within 10 days with a mailing address for the prize. Any winner of prizes worth $600 or more in total must also provide a completed IRS Form W-9, and the Sponsor will issue an IRS Form 1099. The Sponsor may also require a winner to confirm their eligibility in writing.

If a winner doesn’t reply in time, is found ineligible, or their prize is returned as undeliverable, the prize is forfeited and may be awarded to the next-ranked player (or, for a Wildcard prize, to another randomly drawn player).

8. Participating vendors

The vendors on Contest routes are not sponsors of the Contest, did not pay to be included, and are not responsible for running it. Some prizes are donated by participating vendors, as shown in Section 6. A donated prize may be shipped to the winner by the Sponsor or directly by the vendor that donated it, but the Sponsor is responsible for choosing winners and awarding all prizes. Donating a prize has no effect on how often a vendor’s stop is dealt. Please don’t contact vendors for help with clues. Send all Contest questions to the Sponsor at contests@computesgazette.com.

Vendors may change their websites at any time. If a clue no longer works, the Sponsor may replace it with a backup clue, accept both the old and new answers, or retire the stop. Players with a retired stop can swap it for a new one without using one of their two swaps. Visiting a vendor’s website does not require a purchase, and any purchase you choose to make is solely between you and that vendor.

9. Fair play

The Sponsor may disqualify any player, and void their cards, if it believes the player has:

• signed up with more than one email address, or entered on someone else’s behalf;
• used scripts, bots or any automated means to sign up, answer clues or play;
• tampered with the Contest page, the sign-in process or the dealing of cards; or
• otherwise broken these rules or acted in a way that is unfair to other players.

Routes are dealt at random, so most players won’t share stops, and we ask everyone to find their own answers.

10. Privacy and publicity

We collect your first name, state and email address, plus your route, answers and cards. We use them to run the Contest, send your sign-in links, contact winners, deliver prizes and send occasional COMPUTE!’s Gazette news. Sign-in emails are sent through our email delivery provider. By signing up, you agree that COMPUTE!’s Gazette may also send you occasional news by email. Every news email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing has no effect on the Contest. We won’t sell or share your information with vendors or anyone else, except as needed to deliver prizes (including sharing a winner’s name, email address and mailing address with the vendor that donated their prize) or as required by law.

The Contest page uses a cookie to keep you signed in. You can sign out at any time from the bottom of the page.

Your first name, state and hand may appear on the Contest page leaderboard while the Contest runs. By accepting a prize, winners agree that the Sponsor may publish their first name, state and winning hand on computesgazette.com and in COMPUTE!’s Gazette, without further payment, except where prohibited by law. After the Contest, you can ask us to delete your information by writing to contests@computesgazette.com.

11. General conditions

Technical problems. The Sponsor is not responsible for emails that are lost, delayed or filtered as spam, for vendor websites that are unavailable, or for any technical failure that affects play. If the Contest can’t run as planned because of a technical problem, tampering or anything else beyond the Sponsor’s control, the Sponsor may modify, suspend or end the Contest. In that case, it may award prizes from the qualifying hands as they stood at that time.

Release. By entering, you release the Sponsor and its officers, employees and agents from any liability for injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from your participation in the Contest or from accepting or using a prize, to the extent the law allows.

Governing law. These rules are governed by the laws of the State of Texas. The Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Winners list. Winners will be announced on computesgazette.com/pokerrun and in a future issue of COMPUTE!’s Gazette. You can also request the winners list by writing to contests@computesgazette.com within 60 days after the Entry Period ends.

Questions. Write to contests@computesgazette.com. Please don’t contact the participating vendors about the Contest.