The Complete Guide To Poker Runs
The date - 30th July
Set up camping at Northampton Casuals RFC NN4 7AA for 12.00 (Midday)
Leave for the short ride to the Billing Mill near Billing Aquadrome at 13.00. Register and collect your first card!
Leave the Billing Mill at 13.30 for the Cardigan Arms in Moulton.
The route
Registration - The Billing Mill -NN3 9EX
Stop 2 - The Cardigan Arms in Moulton
Stop 3 - The Cock Hotel - Kingsthorpe
Stop 4 - The County Tavern - Northampton
Stop 5 - The Britannia - Bedford Road - Northampton
50 Quid Prize for best 5 card poker hand - Awarded at The Casuals Rugby Club NN4 7AA by rocket dog FM
Live music from the find at 7pm
Poker runs have grown in popularity in recent years. When done well, they result in a "win-win" situation for those attending having a memorable experience that keeps them coming back year after year.
What is a "poker run" anyway?
The events actually have little to do with poker, beyond using the hand-rankings to score the event. You don't need to know a great deal about poker to take part, other than what beats what in the scoring - and even that should be done for participants by the organisers. Essentially a poker run is an excuse to meet up, ride scooters, and have a good time at the stops (usually either five) en route.
The most popular poker runs thus far have been motorcycle runs.
Participants meet at a pre-arranged point (The Billing Mill), and pick up details of their route and the stops they need to make. Each participant is given a score card which will be filled in as they progress along the route. At each designated stop, the participants draw a card at random.
The card drawn or dealt is recorded on each participant's score card, and the winner of the event is the participant who makes the best five card poker hand at the end of the event.
Events usually end with some entertainment at the designated "last stop" of the route, along with the awarding of the prizes. The organisers raise their funds by charging a set amount to participate.
Poker Run Rules
To avoid confusion and disappointment, it is important that any poker run has clear ground rules which all participants understand:
* The first thing to stress is that although this is a "run", there are no prizes for speed - it does not matter who is first to complete the course. It is not a race.
* The winning hand is determined by standard poker hand rankings.
* It needs to be clear how many decks of cards will be used, and whether the participants can draw their own cards, or whether they will be dealt a hand, or passed an envelope with a card in it.
* There needs to be clear guidance on what happens if a player draws a hand that they already have. This is a situation which never occurs in "real life" poker, and it should not be allowed to happen on any poker run either. The reason is simple - poker hand rankings are based on the likelihood of each hand occuring, and if duplicate cards are allowed the probabilities of a given hand change. It becomes easier to get four of a kind if you are allowed to have two examples of the King of Hearts in your hand for example. The easiest and fairest solution is to have players re-draw any cards that are duplicates. For example, if you draw the seven of clubs and you already have the seven of clubs on your score card, then you must put the card back and re-draw another card.
* Each participant must have a poker score sheet / card, and this must be filled in by the organisers, not by the participant. It is unlikely that any participant in a charity event would seek to cheat, but in order to ensure there are no disputes about what cards a participant actually drew there needs to be a clear, written record of each card drawn.
It is the participants' responsibility to check their score sheet before leaving each checkpoint, to ensure that the card they drew is correctly recorded on their score sheet. Organisers may find it useful to use different colors on the score sheet for each checkpoint.
* A good score sheet will make it easy for both the participants and the organisers to clearly see which is the best hand.
By keeping to the above rules, a poker run should be a fun and enjoyable event for all concerned. Organisers should also ensure that the route of the run itself is safe, and the checkpoints are suitable establishments for large numbers of people to gather at.
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