Solution to the 5-Card Stud puzzle

5-Card Stud is one of the interesting puzzles of the Melbourne University Puzzle Hunt 2015 competition. It was part of the second act of the game and was created by Muhammad Adib Surani, who, besides this, is also the author of the Mr. Game & Watch  and Parallel Dimensions puzzles.

The plot of the game that year was based on the Star Wars universe. It casts you as a Padawan. In one of the locations you come across a tablet that spontaneously displays information on the screen. As a result you're given several tasks, including 5-Card Stud.

The puzzle was preceded by a short narrative.

The flashing [of the tablet] briefly subsides, only to be replaced by a semi-coloured grid. Around the sides are words you'd never heard, and some of the triangles contain symbols you've never seen. What can it all mean?

The puzzle consists of a 5x5 grid, each square of which is further divided diagonally into two triangles. On each of the 4 sides of the grid you can see 5 poker hands that should be placed into the corresponding rows or columns. The yellow squares must be occupied by cards of the same suit, while the white squares by cards of different suits.

Solution

1. (2, 3, ↓) = ?/clubs.
2. (3, 3, ↑) = ?/diamonds. 
3. (5, 2, ↓) = ?/spades.
4. (2, 1, ↓) = ?/clubs; (2, 2, ↓) = ?/clubs; (2, 4, ↓) = ?/clubs; (2, 5, ↓) = ?/clubs.
5. (2, 2, ↑) = ?/clubs. 
6. (2, 4, ↑) = ?/clubs.
7. (3, 1, ↑) = ?/diamonds; (3, 2, ↑) = ?/diamonds; (3, 4, ↑) = ?/diamonds; (3, 5, ↑) = ?/diamonds.
8. (3, 1, ↓) = ?/diamonds.
9. (3, 2, ↓) = ?/diamonds. 
10. (3, 4, ↓) = ?/diamonds.
11. (4, 1, ↑) = ?/hearts; (4, 2, ↑) = ?/hearts; (4, 3, ↑) = ?/hearts; (4, 4, ↑) = ?/hearts.
12. (4, 3, ↓) = ?/hearts.
13. (5, 1, ↑) = ?/spades; (5, 3, ↑) = ?/spades; (5, 5, ↑) = ?/spades.
14. (5, 3, ↓) = ?/spades.
15. (1, 5, ↓) = ?/clubs; (3, 5, ↓) = ?/clubs; (4, 5, ↓) = ?/clubs; (5, 5, ↓) = ?/clubs.
16. (2, 5, ↓) = Q/clubs.
17. (1, 4, ↑) = K/?.
18. (5, 1, ↑) = 10/spades.
19. (1, 1, ↑) = A/?.
20. (3, 4, ↑) = 9/diamonds.
21. (4, 4, ↑) = 6/hearts.
22. (2, 4, ↑) = 5/clubs.
23. (3, 2, ↓) = 7/diamonds; (4, 2, ↓) = 7/?; (5, 2, ↓) = 7/spades.
24. (3, 5, ↓) = J/clubs.
25. (4, 3, ↑) = 4/hearts; (5, 3, ↑) = 4/spades.
26. (3, 3, ↑) = A/diamonds.
27. (5, 5, ↑) = 6/spades.
28. (1, 5, ↑) = Q/?.
29. (2, 5, ↑) = 3/?; (3, 5, ↑) = 3/diamonds.
30. (3, 1, ↑) = K/diamonds.
31. (3, 2, ↑) = 2/diamonds.
32. (4, 1, ↑) = 3/hearts.
33. (2, 1, ↑) = 9/hearts.
34. (1, 5, ↓) = A/clubs.
35. (1, 1, ↑) = A/hearts.
36. (1, 2, ↑) = ?/hearts; (1, 3, ↑) = ?/hearts; (1, 4, ↑) = K/hearts; (1, 5, ↑) = Q/hearts.
37. (1, 4, ↓) = ?/hearts.
38. (2, 4, ↓) = 4/clubs; (5, 4, ↓) = 4/diamonds.
39. (5, 5, ↓) = K/clubs; (4, 4, ↓) = K/spades.
40. (4, 5, ↓) = 10/clubs.
41. (4, 1, ↓) = 2/?; (4, 3, ↓) = 2/hearts.
42. (1, 1, ↓) = 8/?; (2, 1, ↓) = 8/clubs; (3, 1, ↓) = 8/diamonds.
43. (3, 4, ↓) = J/diamonds.
44. (2, 2, ↑) = 2/clubs.
45. (4, 1, ↓) = 2/spades.
46. (4, 2, ↑) = 7/hearts.
47. (4, 2, ↓) = 7/clubs.
48. (1, 2, ↑) = 10/hearts.
49. (1, 3, ↑) = J/hearts.
50. (5, 1, ↓) = 10/diamonds.
51. (5, 3, ↓) = 5/spades.
52. (2, 3, ↓) = 6/clubs; (1, 3, ↓) = 6/diamonds.
53. (2, 2, ↓) = 3/clubs.
54. (2, 5, ↑) = 3/spades.
55. (1, 4, ↓) = 8/hearts.
56. (1, 1, ↓) = 8/spades.

As you can see, two cards are missing from the grid: the Jack and Queen of spades. However, this is not important for the further solution.

Now we need to somehow get the answer to the task from the solved puzzle. Adding up the pairs in each square (A=1, J=11, Q =12, K=13) gives us numbers between 2 and 26 (inclusive), which we can convert to letters:

M O N O S

U I T S E

Q O F F I

V E I N P

I Q U E T

This clues MONOSUIT SEQ OF FIVE IN PIQUET for the final answer QUINT.