I'm planning a poker run for a PCA Spring Tour. The Saturday route will be 168 miles, and seven hours with scheduled stops. One stop is for the catered lunch (90 minutes) at Twin Falls State Park, WV. The other stops have not been planned yet.

Best five of seven card hand.

First card drawn with route instructions, Saturday AM.
The morning drive will be 3 hours, with the 12:30 arrival at Twin Falls.
Another card will be drawn at the lunch stop.
The afternoon drive will be 3 hours, with the 5 PM arrival at Pipestem.
Somehow I want to plan four stops, four chances for cards.
At the banquet, draw the seventh card?

If you have driven on a poker run, what worked and what did not work?

 

Make sure you have honorable folks distributing the cards, the girl at Wendy's drive thru can be bribed. On a run of that magnatude, I'm guessing you will have the stops manned by club folks. When I did my Gimmick run, I let the drive thru and counter folks at the auto parts stores distribute, and a lot of guys came back with 5 aces. No big deal, there wasn't any money on the line.

 

Thanks for the reply, and I find your concerns legitimate. Hoping to avoid having volunteers, I think I will include questions at the designated stops, and allow a card to be drawn at the banquet for each correct answer. Not wanting to exclude anyone, the questions will be easy to answer. Some of questions will require stopping the car i.e. "What color is the dining car at the restored train depot in Bramwell?" Other questions can be answered on the drive i.e. "What color is the bridge over Bluestone Lake?" Using a single deck of cards, the drawn cards will be marked on the answer sheet. Then the cards are returned to the deck for the next player.

With a $300.00 cash prize to the winning hand, and knowing some of the jokers (pun intended) in this crowd, the exchanging of cards is quite possible unless some sort of control is instituted.

Not knowing if this format has been used before, do you see any problems with it?

With six questions, and six possible correct answers / six cards being drawn, do I:

1) Allow you to buy a seventh card? How much?
2) Allow you to draw a seventh card if all six questions are correct?
3) Draw a seventh card that is a wild card for everyone to use?

 

I do see a small problem with a couple of your ideas, and maybe you can find a workaround.

If you ask questions at the stop, and get answers later, you give the teams the opportunity to ask answers from other teams, or go back and figure it out before they get the card. I'm not sure if that is what you want or not. Also, as a poker player, your option #3 is sort of a wash as everyone will get a similar benefit, as in 3 K's turns in to 4 K,s etc. I suppose the only guy who might really benefit is someone who is 1 card short of a straight or flush. With $$$ on the line, all cards should be "marked" somehow so you recognize YOUR cards and not ones they got at Walmart. I think it would take some of the fun out of it, if you did not see cards until you were done. Part of the fun of a poker run is watching the hand develop as you drive and anticipating the next stop and card.

I had a few ideas, feel free to use them. When I did my rally, (a gimmally, not really just a poker run) I had 20 questions to solve while out on the drive. Also, folks had to stop at certain stores and get cards using passwords. For example, they had to go to Wendy's and order a "Whopper" (this was all cleared with the manager days in advance). I think my counter help was helping the contestants too much, so next time I'd put the cards in individual envelopes so they could not cheat. There is also the issue of repeat visits to the card distributing location. I also used auto parts stores, the were excited to have a bunch of Porsches visiting their spot, and the drivers would have to go in, order a thermostat for an early VW beetle, pay $1 to the store's charity and get a card. Another neat idea I had was to set up a faux bridal registry at Walmart. Print up a fake wedding invite, ask the guests to purchase something off the registry and bring it to the end. Select items for the registry that would do well as cheap door prizes, and give them away in the prize drawing at the end. If you think it might help you out, I suppose I could share a copy of my old rally packet with you.

As for your questions of 6 vs 7 cards, it really does not make a big difference. I only used 5 in my run, with nothing wild. Heck, in that situation a pair of 7s might win. When you go to 7 cards and wilds, it will take 4 of a kind to win and anyone with a pair is likely a deep backmarker. Giving one out at the start, and one at the end takes nearly 50% of the fun of gathering on the run out of it. I would try to make all of the card gathering happen on the drive if able.

 

Dan, thanks for your input. I have read your reply and have been bouncing some ideas around.

I will keep it simple and stick to five cards. To eliminate any shenanigans, I'm going to stick to questions to be answered, which will require stopping the car. This will give everyone a chance to let the adrenaline ebb, only to be quickly picked back up. The stops will also allow the cars to catch up with one another and possibly shuffle the order. Cards will be drawn at the banquet, one card for each correct answer.

Once the answer sheet is updated (I'm missing one picture) I'll scan it and post it for your further input. Thanks again.

 

Dan,

A few years ago our region had a short poker run...
But what they didn't tell the members - was it was for the worse hand.

Then if a person was bribed - it didn't matter.

Just wanted to share. It could be one of those thoughts for a later date...

A game of Hi-Lo anyone?

 

Hmmmm, low hands gets the cash, what a nice twist.

Thanks.