Poker Runs are boring....next time try a Poker Chip Run

We've all done it.  Signed up for a poker run, get three cards in and have a crap hand and lose all enthusiasm for the remainder of the ride.

Now, honestly if you sign up for a charity poker run with the expectation of winning and coming out ahead, then you're probably doing it for the wrong reason.  But, from a competitive spirit kind of thing, we all hate to lose and it's even worse when halfway through the game you know there's no way you can win.

That's why we like a slight variation on this old standard..the POKER CHIP RUN.

What makes this game better than a standard 5 card poker run is NOBODY has a clue if they have a good hand or a bad hand until they return to the starting point.

That helps you (as the event organizer) in several ways.  The first is the majority of your participants will enjoy the event all the way through, you'll ensure that almost everyone will return to the start (instead of dropping out halfway) and the old "I don't know how to play poker" excuse some people use for not attending your event.

How it works

The poker chip run is the simplest run you can set up.  Here's what you need to do.

1. Decide on the number of stops you will have.  Typically you can have as many as 5 or as few as three.  If you're short on volunteers to man your stops, then we recommend having only 1 additional stop someone along the route.  This gives you 3 draws from the poker chip bag.  One when they register and before they leave, one at the stop out on the route, and one when they return to the starting point.

For more info on how to organize a successful charity event, click here

Get a set of generic poker chips, or contact Custom Products Plus (478-299-4601) for custom printed chips.  

Divide the chips into equal numbers in a opaque bag so your participants can't see which color they're getting.  

At each stop have your participants draw out 3 chips.  Then note the colors drawn on their registration sheet.

That's it.  Pretty simple huh? 

Oh yea, once everyone leaves for the run, or (preferably) once everyone is back in and all the sheets have been returned, stage a public drawing where you put 1 chip of each color in the bag and have a volunteer reach into the bag and blindly draw out a chip.  The first chip drawn is worth 20 points, the second chip is worth 10 points and the third chip is worth 5 points.

For example, if the first chip drawn is red, then every red chip drawn on the ride is worth 20 points.  If the second chip is white then all the white chips are worth 10 points and the blue chips were worth 5 points.  

The beauty of this is that because the value of the chips wasn't established until AFTER the ride concluded, no one knew if they had a good hand or not.  They could've had all blue chips, or all red chips or all white chips and they either won big, or was a big loser!

Just make sure the person blind drawing the chips has no way to tell which color is which when they're in the bag and that person doesn't know anything about the participants scores or who has what colors on their sheets.  

But if it's a blind draw, it's still pretty hard for anyone to cheat with this system.

For more info on how to organize a successful charity event, click here

If you have questions, or need more info, call us at Biker Nation, 478-268-7528 and we'll be happy to answer any questions about this system.  We've used this dozens of times and it works great!