Official Horse Race Game Thread (5 Viewers)

Accidentally snapped one of my horses in the Derby Dash model.......anybody happen to have a 3d scan or an stl file of one of these things?
 
Ran a high speed test fit. The supports got stuck to the overhangs, and I forgot to resize the jockey/horse scale, but ultimately a pretty good template for being able to print out some custom racers, or replacements in the case of this broken one.

1695675414028.png
 
Any true god-tier degens figure a way to fully integrate this into a NLHE variation instead of separately?(to keep the night focused on poker). I have a monthly 25c/25c home game with friends that lasts a few hours and this as a side game that slowly builds up a pot throughout the evening would be very interesting. I have no idea how I would go about it though... I'd love to hear some ideas!
 
Played this quite a bit over Christmas. Seems like the edges win a lot more than the middle horses. I don't mind when I'm dealt 3s or Js.
Fun game for everyone tho.
 
Played this quite a bit over Christmas. Seems like the edges win a lot more than the middle horses. I don't mind when I'm dealt 3s or Js.
Fun game for everyone tho.
Thanks to @Darson's post (#253), I gave 2 and 12 and extra hole but they still win a lot. Considering to fill a couple of the middle ones now.
 
Well Amazon just dropped off my cherry Fineni board!! It has the slight warping issue many have noted but it's not terrible. I'll probably add rubber feet to the board anyway which will eliminate the rocking. Can't wait to bust this out next poker night!
I thought the Cherry one didn’t have the warping issues.
 
Thinking about getting a Fineni board and I'm wanting to plug some holes for a more statistically satisfying experience. Does anyone have an idea of pegs or something to put in the holes? I would prefer something that is not permanent.
 
Thinking about getting a Fineni board and I'm wanting to plug some holes for a more statistically satisfying experience. Does anyone have an idea of pegs or something to put in the holes? I would prefer something that is not permanent.
If you have a drill, it's not really permanent...
 
If you have a drill, it's not really permanent...
Ha, I suppose so, but I am all thumbs.

I went ahead and ordered a board and I've written what I feel are better rules. I like some player agency in the mix. I'll be putting everything to the test in the next couple of months. If it goes over, I think I'll have a new board designed and have it printed on a neoprene mat.
 
I made some modifications to the rules and then ran a couple games of 6 people with different amounts of cards to see how things would play out. Each sessions was 6 races to complete a full orbit of players. Since a full orbit was played per session, I used the Scratch rules that dictate a player that rolls an already scratched horse must pay the ante and pass the dice to the next player, resulting in larger pots.

I am using a Fineni board with the following modifications to the pegs: 3,5,6,8,9,10,9,8,6,5,3

Rules modifications:
Kings may be played to pass a Scratch ante to a player's left or right.
Aces may be played to ignore a Scratch ante.
Jokers may be played to move a horse forwards or backwards one space.

If an ante is passed more than once, it doubles each subsequent time.

I also use a Jockey pot that goes to the player who moves the winning horse over the finish line. The Jockey pot also gets any leftover evenly-split race pot.

Advantage Die
If a player rolls doubles, they complete their turn as normal, but also receive an Advantage Die. These should be dice a different color than the regular dice so they can be differentiated. An Advantage die can be used on a subsequent turn by rolling it with the regular dice. The player can then add any 2 of the 3 dice together to determine which horse is moved. The Advantage Die is then lost.

The Advantage Die must be rolled with the regular dice, not added after the player doesn't like their results. A player can have more than one Advantage Die in their possession, but can never add more than one to a roll.

If doubles are rolled using the Advantage Die, the player may only gain the benefit of doubles if the dice they decide to use are the regular dice and they match.

Drafting Cards
Each player looks at the hand they were dealt and chooses one card to keep. They place that card face down in front of them and pass their hand to the player to their left. The process continues until all the cards have been chosen. The face down cards in front of each player is now the hand from which they will play the game.

After the Race
Firstly, anyone with Kings, Aces, Jokers, or Advantage Dice must discard them and ante into the race pot for EACH as follows:

Advantage dice: 1x
Kings: 2x
Aces: 3x
Jokers :4x

The player that moved the winning horse to the Finish Line receives the Jockey Pot.
Any player with cards that match the winning horse win one share per card of the race pot.

Session One: Used two suits of cards and 2 Jokers. Each player gets 4 cards, 4 cards set aside.

Chart shows number of shares one and money balance after race. JP= Jockey Pot. No cards means that the player had no cards representing horses after the Scratch round.
Base ante was .25 and .50 for Jockey Pot.

Player (Each Player $20 buy-in)​

1

2

3

4

5

6

Winner

0 ($19.00)​

0 ($17.75)​

No cards​

1 ($21.00)​

0 ($19.25)​

0 ($19.25)​

JP/1 ($24.75)​

Horse 10​

0 ($17.25)​

0 ($14.00)​

0 ($19.25)​

JP/1 ($27.75)​

0 ($15.75)​

1 ($28.00)​

Horse 8​

1 ($22.00)​

0 ($8.75)​

0 ($16.25)​

1 ($31.75)​

0 ($13.00)​

no cards​

JP/0 ($28.00)​

Horse 6​

0 ($18.50)​

0 ($5.00)​

no cards​

JP/0 ($13.75)​

0 ($29.50)​

0 ($12.25)​

1 ($41.00)​

Horse 2​

0 ($16.50)​

JP/0 ($6.75)​

0 ($10.00)​

1 ($34.00)​

0 ($8.75)​

1 ($44.00)​

Horse 10​

0 ($14.00)​

1 ($9.50)​

JP/0 ($10.25)​

no cards​

0 ($31.00)​

0 ($7.25)​

1 ($48.00)​

Horse 12​

Down $6.00

Down $10.50

Down $9.75

Up $11.00

Down $12.75

Up $28.00


Session 2: Used three suits of cards and 2 Jokers. Each player gets 6 cards, 5 cards set aside. I didn't track money on individual races, but just the total at end of session.


Player (Each Player $20 buy-in)​

1

2

3

4

5

6

Winner

1​

0​

JP​

0​

1​

0​

Horse 9​

0​

2​

JP​

0​

0​

1​

Horse 12​

1​

JP​

0​

1​

1​

0​

Horse 10​

JP​

1​

1​

1​

0​

0​

Horse 6​

1/JP​

0​

1​

0​

0​

0​

Horse 2​

0​

0​

JP/0 ($10.25)​

no cards​

0​

0​

JP/2​

Horse 6​

Up $14.50

Down $00.25

Up $1.00

Down $9.25

Down $7.00

Up $1.00




Thoughts:
With only 4 cards per player, the first session's drafting phase was crucial. Jokers always seem like a no brainer and Aces are nice, but you run the risk of not having enough cards that represent horses. In fact, as you can see, there were 4 instances where a player had no horse cards after the scratch phase. Additionally, you don't even select your last card--it is passed to you. More casual players may be dismayed when they find themselves in a situation with no horse cards. They still must roll and ante as usual and just hope to win the Jockey Pot.

The second session with 6 cards per player made the drafting phase a little more forgiving, but also added more Aces and Kings. Players were hesitant to use Kings early on as there was more of a chance it would be thrown right back at them with another King, thus doubling the ante. However, players also didn't want them in their hand at the end of the race, either.
 
I like these ideas. Does playing a Joker count as a turn or does the player still roll the dice? Can a joker be played out of turn? i.e. If player 3 rolls a 2 and that horse is about to go over the finish line can someone else play a joker to make it stand at the last hole?
 
I like these ideas. Does playing a Joker count as a turn or does the player still roll the dice? Can a joker be played out of turn?

From my (ever-evolving) rules:
"Typically, a card may only be played on your turn after you have rolled the dice, however, the exception is you may play an Ace or King in response to the active player passing a Scratch ante to you. You may either use an Ace to ignore and cancel the ante or play a King and pass the ante forward to the next player or back to the player who passed it to you. The ante can continue being passed along as long as players have Kings to do so, an Ace cancels it, or a player simply chooses to pay the ante into the race pot."

So rolling the dice is always the first thing a player has to do, and a Joker can only be played after the dice are resolved.
 
I made some modifications to the rules and then ran a couple games of 6 people with different amounts of cards to see how things would play out. Each sessions was 6 races to complete a full orbit of players. Since a full orbit was played per session, I used the Scratch rules that dictate a player that rolls an already scratched horse must pay the ante and pass the dice to the next player, resulting in larger pots.

I am using a Fineni board with the following modifications to the pegs: 3,5,6,8,9,10,9,8,6,5,3

Rules modifications:
Kings may be played to pass a Scratch ante to a player's left or right.
Aces may be played to ignore a Scratch ante.
Jokers may be played to move a horse forwards or backwards one space.

If an ante is passed more than once, it doubles each subsequent time.

I also use a Jockey pot that goes to the player who moves the winning horse over the finish line. The Jockey pot also gets any leftover evenly-split race pot.

Advantage Die
If a player rolls doubles, they complete their turn as normal, but also receive an Advantage Die. These should be dice a different color than the regular dice so they can be differentiated. An Advantage die can be used on a subsequent turn by rolling it with the regular dice. The player can then add any 2 of the 3 dice together to determine which horse is moved. The Advantage Die is then lost.

The Advantage Die must be rolled with the regular dice, not added after the player doesn't like their results. A player can have more than one Advantage Die in their possession, but can never add more than one to a roll.

If doubles are rolled using the Advantage Die, the player may only gain the benefit of doubles if the dice they decide to use are the regular dice and they match.

Drafting Cards
Each player looks at the hand they were dealt and chooses one card to keep. They place that card face down in front of them and pass their hand to the player to their left. The process continues until all the cards have been chosen. The face down cards in front of each player is now the hand from which they will play the game.

After the Race
Firstly, anyone with Kings, Aces, Jokers, or Advantage Dice must discard them and ante into the race pot for EACH as follows:

Advantage dice: 1x
Kings: 2x
Aces: 3x
Jokers :4x

The player that moved the winning horse to the Finish Line receives the Jockey Pot.
Any player with cards that match the winning horse win one share per card of the race pot.

Session One: Used two suits of cards and 2 Jokers. Each player gets 4 cards, 4 cards set aside.

Chart shows number of shares one and money balance after race. JP= Jockey Pot. No cards means that the player had no cards representing horses after the Scratch round.
Base ante was .25 and .50 for Jockey Pot.

Player (Each Player $20 buy-in)​

1

2

3

4

5

6

Winner

0 ($19.00)​

0 ($17.75)​

No cards​

1 ($21.00)​

0 ($19.25)​

0 ($19.25)​

JP/1 ($24.75)​

Horse 10​

0 ($17.25)​

0 ($14.00)​

0 ($19.25)​

JP/1 ($27.75)​

0 ($15.75)​

1 ($28.00)​

Horse 8​

1 ($22.00)​

0 ($8.75)​

0 ($16.25)​

1 ($31.75)​

0 ($13.00)​

no cards​

JP/0 ($28.00)​

Horse 6​

0 ($18.50)​

0 ($5.00)​

no cards​

JP/0 ($13.75)​

0 ($29.50)​

0 ($12.25)​

1 ($41.00)​

Horse 2​

0 ($16.50)​

JP/0 ($6.75)​

0 ($10.00)​

1 ($34.00)​

0 ($8.75)​

1 ($44.00)​

Horse 10​

0 ($14.00)​

1 ($9.50)​

JP/0 ($10.25)​

no cards​

0 ($31.00)​

0 ($7.25)​

1 ($48.00)​

Horse 12​

Down $6.00

Down $10.50

Down $9.75

Up $11.00

Down $12.75

Up $28.00


Session 2: Used three suits of cards and 2 Jokers. Each player gets 6 cards, 5 cards set aside. I didn't track money on individual races, but just the total at end of session.


Player (Each Player $20 buy-in)​

1

2

3

4

5

6

Winner

1​

0​

JP​

0​

1​

0​

Horse 9​

0​

2​

JP​

0​

0​

1​

Horse 12​

1​

JP​

0​

1​

1​

0​

Horse 10​

JP​

1​

1​

1​

0​

0​

Horse 6​

1/JP​

0​

1​

0​

0​

0​

Horse 2​

0​

0​

JP/0 ($10.25)​

no cards​

0​

0​

JP/2​

Horse 6​

Up $14.50

Down $00.25

Up $1.00

Down $9.25

Down $7.00

Up $1.00




Thoughts:
With only 4 cards per player, the first session's drafting phase was crucial. Jokers always seem like a no brainer and Aces are nice, but you run the risk of not having enough cards that represent horses. In fact, as you can see, there were 4 instances where a player had no horse cards after the scratch phase. Additionally, you don't even select your last card--it is passed to you. More casual players may be dismayed when they find themselves in a situation with no horse cards. They still must roll and ante as usual and just hope to win the Jockey Pot.

The second session with 6 cards per player made the drafting phase a little more forgiving, but also added more Aces and Kings. Players were hesitant to use Kings early on as there was more of a chance it would be thrown right back at them with another King, thus doubling the ante. However, players also didn't want them in their hand at the end of the race, either.
Not sure if you came across my variation but that may fix your issue of card amount?
I use a d6 numbered 0-5 and a d8 numbered 1-8 for a total of 13 horses (roosters in my case) This uses all cards Ace through King. The Jokers could be used for actions yet if decided.
20240208_004516.jpg
 

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