Poker Darts

    Poker darts is an interesting game that can be played by anybody who can throw darts.  Sometimes it is a good idea to include people games like this at a run or event.  It gets people invloved and having fun who might be a little leery of trying some of the field events on their bike.

     A poker darts board is made by taping, stapling, or gluing a deck of cards to a board.  Spread the cards out evenly with about an inch of space between cards.  You can use jokers or not as you choose.  Do not place like cards or suits together.  For instance placing all the aces together or all the jokers together will skew the results of the game.

     Now that you have your board set up.  Find a place to set it up where the middle of the board is about 5 1/2 feet high, and out of the wind.  Mark a throw line at least six feet from the board.  The exact distance doesn't matter, but too close and its too easy.  Too far away and the wild dart throwers will never hit the board.

     Each participant pays to enter and throws one hand of darts.  Usually this is five darts, but it can be seven darts if you wish.  One person should watch the players and call off the cards hit.  Another should write down the names of the players and the their final hand.  Whether you use five darts or seven darts a poker hand can only be five cards.  If you have wild cards the best hand is five of a kind.  If you do not have wild cards then the best hand is a royal flush. 

     There are two major variants that you need to decide. 

1st:     Can a player hit the same card over and over again, or must they hit a different card on the board for each card in their hand.  The advantage to allowing more than one dart on the same card is that it makes it an easier game.  The disadvantage of course is that a decent dart palyer can usually hit very close to their last throw after they get the range down.  This gives experienced dart palyers a small advantage, but if you add a rule that only the darts still sticking in the board at the end of the round count this can be a small disadvantage. 

2nd:     Can players buy additional hands, and try again.  This may be a touchy subject.  Of course it gives an opportunity to make more money off the contest.  It also allows experienced players to get a feel and the range the first round and then nail the board the second round.  Of course if you have two or three hot shot dart players toward the end who really want to win they may dump quite a bit of money shooting extra rounds in order to one up the other guy.  I have had these things happen.  At a biker memorial party in Brawley California, I played three rounds of darts and managed to move into first place each time.  A local hot shot dropped sixty dollars at five dollars per round in order to finally beat me.  I didn't mind losing that one though.  It raised several hundred dollars extra that would definitely not have been raised if it had been a single hand only contest.  On the flip side of that.  At an ABATE function in Bouse Arizona a poker darts board was setup.  I was one of the first to throw.  Didn't throw very good and only wound up with three sevens.  After everybody had thrown the guy running it asked if anybody else wanted to play or if anybody wanted to throw another round.  I paid another round and threw five of a kind.  I felt that it was almost taking advantage fo the situation.  I would have felt guilty if there weren't several other dart players there who I know are better dart players than me.

     There are a few things you can do to equalize the playing field.  Most (not all) decent dart palyers like a fairly heavy dart.  Use cheap light weight plastic darts.  This means that people have to throw harder (less control) and are using an unfamiar feeling dart.  Don't allow people to play a second round right after their first round unless most interested parties have already played a round or unless you have a couple guys having a pissing contest trying to beat each other and paying for every round.  Use a fairly firm board for your darts.  Not something as hard as a sheet of plywood that requires a full strength throw to stick, but not something that the dart will sink to the hilt in either.  This will cause dart players that are used to a regular dart board or "Mark Dart"(c) board to lose a couple darts because they do not stick, and then miss one or two when they have to adjust to a harder throw.

     If anybody complains that about the darts or the board just remind them politely that everybody else is throwing the same darts at the same board, and absolutely do not let somebody use their own darts.  That gives an incredibly unfair advantage.

     To kind of rap things up I'll list out the ranking of poker hands below.  Remember there are two purposes to running a game at an event. The most important thing to most people is to have lots of fun.  The second is to raise money for your organization, charity, etc...

Hand Ranked from Highest to lowest:
Five of A Kind         Example:   Five Aces
Royal Flush             Example:   A,K,Q,J,10 = all of the same suit
Straight Flush          Example:   3,4,5,6,7  = all of the same suit
Four of a Kind         Example:   5,5,5,5,6
Full House               Example:   3,3,3,k,k = said as 3s over kings
Flush                      Example:   Any five cards of the same suit
                                  2,6,9,10,K all spades would be
                                  said as King High Spade Flush
Straight                   Example:   4,5,6,7,8 of different suits.
                                  Would be said as
                                  eight high straight
Three of a kind         Example:   9,9,9,3,k
Two Pair                 Example:   K,K,6,6,A
One Pair                  Example:   7,7,3,6,4