Official Horse Race Game Thread (7 Viewers)

[Machine]

If you build your own, you can get the metal horses on Etsy and Amazon for between 12 and 22 for the set of 12

Why would you limit yourself to horses if you build your own?!!?

We'll see if I can complete this project or not =D
The black thing will be the base of the board, I'll have hills and rock debris, I was thinking 'Blood Run' and have a bunch of beasts for mini figs instead of horses.

It's a start anyway

 

[aggie]

Repurpose Blanton’s bottle tops?

 

[WedgeRock]

Why would you limit yourself to horses if you build your own?!!?

Zombie brain chase?
@Poker Zombie

 

[Littleluck55]

Repurpose Blanton’s bottle tops?

 

[legonick]

First I've heard of this. This. Looks. Awesome!

A few questions:

1) What's the least number of players you could reasonably play with?

2) How many rolls of the dice are typically required before a game ends?

3) What rule mods could make this suitable for 2 or 3 handed play?

4) Why are there 4 holes in each horses 'scratched' section? Once a horse is scratched why does it need to keep moving backward?

5) Is there any special prize for being the player who rolls the dice that puts a horse over the finish line? If not it seems like that could be an interesting variant.

6) Could there be a way to 'assign' a horse to each player... so if their horse wins then get some special prize?

7) I assume all dealt cards are exposed since there's no real reason to conceal your cards?

8) Aside from the links already posted, is there anywhere else boards can be purchased? $80 seems ridiculous.

I haven't played yet, but I'm like you, and intrigued, and have looked up a lot, so I can stab at a few of these.

#3 - not sure, I'd be interested in this too! I may play around once mine comes in.
#4 - different scratch amounts. You roll 4 scratched horses. The first one is for the 1st peg back, and is your lowest scratch amount, say $0.25, then the next horse scratched is 2nd line back, $0.50. 3rd is $0.75. 4th is $1.00. When those rolls hit, roller has to pay that into the pot. So say 2 was scratched in 1st spot, and 7 was scratched in 4th spot. If someone rolls a 2, they put $0.25 into the pot, and pass the dice. Next player rolls a 6, they move the 6 horse forward 1. Next player rolls a 7, they put $1.00 into the pot.
#5 - no, but people have been talking about having the "winning jockey" get any leftover chips that can't be divided by the true winners evenly. I'm going to try out having the player with the best poker hand amongst the winners gets the leftovers.

#7 - yes, no reason to hide. More fun to sweat it as a group anyways most likely.
#8 - the Amazon one looks the nicest from what I've seen, aside from the super-nice bourbon barrel lid version on Etsy which are like $180 or something I think. There are others, but make sure you have scratch spots! And I haven't seen any super-cheap ones. Someone should start making them, because these things are like printing money, although not sure how well they were selling before we got onto them, LOL.

 

[legonick]

No. But I suggested extra chips for rounding could be given to the roller as jockey pay. I kinda like the idea of giving the roller a set amount (10 units?) from the prize pool before splitting up shares.

I'm going to try my poker hand thing, but man, this seems like an awesome idea! Not sure what the right amount of "base units" would be though. Is 10 too many? But it seems like a good way to get everyone excited as they get close to closing out the race. Even if it's not looking good for their horses, you could still recoup a bit with a winning jockey roll!

EDIT: Ahh others saying have a 2nd jockey purse. Probably the best way to handle it. Maybe I'll play around with doing a $0.25 game ante, and a $0.25 jockey ante. If you had a bigger game, say 5 or 6 people, that'd be like $1.25 for the jockey. Not bad at these stakes, and only costing everyone $0.50 a game.

 

[WedgeRock]

Not sure what the right amount of "base units" would be though. Is 10 too many?

Each share is worth 25% of the purse, so somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% is probably good.

Pots were $40-$60 in the games I played, with each player contributing $10-$12 to the pot. Something like $5 (half your losses) might be better.

But YMMV.

 

[legonick]

Each share is worth 25% of the purse, so somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% is probably good.

Pots were $40-$60 in the games I played, with each player contributing $10-$12 to the pot. Something like $5 (half your losses) might be better.

But YMMV.

$0.25 base or $1 base? Must be $0.25 right?

 

[TheOffalo]

$0.25 base or $1 base? Must be $0.25 right?

I think $40-$60 is $1 base:

Playing $1/$2/$3/$4 scratches with five players, we were getting $60 pots four- and five-handed. I was thinking of maybe playing 25c/50c/75c/$1 scratch fines for more modest $20 pots.

 

[WedgeRock]

$0.25 base or $1 base? Must be $0.25 right?

No, we were playing $1 base, but I said YMMV because it depends on which board your using and how many winning rolls are required to get to the finish line (and of course, pots are dependent on which horses are scratches).

 

[Chipandchair]

Ordered one from scheel’s, they also have a walnut version but it is $100

 

[legonick]

How do you pronounce Fineni? "Fin-en-ee?" "Fine-nee"? "Fine-en-ee?" "Fi-any?"

 

[RowlettTexasChipGuy]

Yes

 

[CrazyEddie]

Just to make sure I'm not missing something, this is purely a game of chance, right? There are no decisions to be made?

Don't tap the glass.

 

[CrazyEddie]

While I guess there's plenty of people who find this game interesting as it is, one way to make it even more interesting (perhaps) would be to let people buy and sell cards from each other at any time, like trading players in a fantasy football league.

As it is you might as well be playing bingo, or Candyland (for money). Buying and selling cards would add some actual decisions to the game, and would give a savvy player an edge.

Or you could do something like: whenever anyone rolls doubles, they have to choose one of their cards to put up for auction; the highest bidder takes the card and the former owner gets the money. You could add a rule like: double ones means they have to auction their worst horse, double sixes their best horse, and any other doubles they get to pick which horse to auction.

 

[legonick]

While I guess there's plenty of people who find this game interesting as it is, one way to make it even more interesting (perhaps) would be to let people buy and sell cards from each other at any time, like trading players in a fantasy football league.

As it is you might as well be playing bingo, or Candyland (for money). Buying and selling cards would add some actual decisions to the game, and would give a savvy player an edge.

Or you could do something like: whenever anyone rolls doubles, they have to choose one of their cards to put up for auction; the highest bidder takes the card and the former owner gets the money. You could add a rule like: double ones means they have to auction their worst horse, double sixes their best horse, and any other doubles they get to pick which horse to auction.

The way I'm viewing this game is as a break from poker (before or after). Poker is the bread-and-butter. A game that blends skill and chance. You can get it in bad, and still win! (Hey, that's usually my strategy....) But this game is just mindless, gambling fun.

But...I haven't actually played yet, so can't say how it'll pan out.

 

[CrazyEddie]

If you want to make it even more strategic, and more like poker, and more like actual horse-racing, try this variation:

After all the scratches are done, everyone chooses one card from their hand and puts it in a pile in the middle. Shuffle the pile. Give the first player half of the cards in the pile to look at, then take them back and reshuffle the pile. Continue this until everyone has seen half of the cards in the pile (but everyone sees a different and random half). This pile represents the specialized knowledge that handicappers have about which horses are going to run good (because they've got good trainers, or good jockeys, or good drugs, or whatever). Horses with cards in the pile have an advantage, and the more of their cards that are in the pile, the bigger their advantage.

Then play like I described above, where players can buy and sell cards with each other at any time. Players can use their partial knowledge about the cards in the pile to make savvy trades. And they can try to fool the other players about what they know, making a horse they know is bad seem good (or vice versa) !

The advantage: whenever someone rolls doubles, draw one card off the top of the pile; that horse gets an extra move immediately. The drawn card is then auctioned off; the winning bid goes into the pot.

At the end of the race, there may be some cards still in the pile, which means that the winning horse might not have all four cards in play. Split the pot between however many cards are in play (i.e. in people's hands).

At the start of the game, you should deal out the cards evenly so everyone starts with the same number of cards. If some are left over, put them in the advantage pile.

Edit: Important rule! Everyone keeps their hands hidden! Otherwise everyone would know what's in the advantage pile. HOWEVER, everyone should show one card from their hand face-up to indicate that they're open to making a trade to sell that card. Plus anyone can make an offer at any time even without knowing who has the card they want or whether it's even out there - "I'm buying sixes, anyone got one? I'll pay five bucks. Okay, how about ten? Ten dollars for a six? Anyone?"

 

[BPTDirector]

Just unpacked my new game. Looks awesome!

Horses are heavy! Can’t wait to play.

 

[legonick]

For those who have played, especially short-handed, do you have a read on what the ideal number of cards-in-hand is?

Is there some "perfect balance" for removing suites based on number of players? For example, 2-4 players == 2 suites, 5-6 players == 3 suites, 7+ players == 4 suites?

If you are playing, say, 4-handed, 52 - 8 = 44, 44/4 = 11 cards per hand pre-scratch. 44 - (4*4) = 28. 28/4 = 7 cards per player. That seems like too much to even keep track of. But if you dropped the clubs and diamonds, you'd be at 52/2 = 26, 26 - 4 = 22, 22/4 = 5.5 pre-scratch, then 22 - (2*4) = 14, 14/4 = 3.5 cards per player. That might be too little?

 

[TheOffalo]

For those who have played, especially short-handed, do you have a read on what the ideal number of cards-in-hand is?

Is there some "perfect balance" for removing suites based on number of players? For example, 2-4 players == 2 suites, 5-6 players == 3 suites, 7+ players == 4 suites?

If you are playing, say, 4-handed, 52 - 8 = 44, 44/4 = 11 cards per hand pre-scratch. 44 - (4*4) = 28. 28/4 = 7 cards per player. That seems like too much to even keep track of. But if you dropped the clubs and diamonds, you'd be at 52/2 = 26, 26 - 4 = 22, 22/4 = 5.5 pre-scratch, then 22 - (2*4) = 14, 14/4 = 3.5 cards per player. That might be too little?

What if you scratch only 3 horses short handed? That'd be back to 4 cards per playing 4-handed, or 5 1/3 cards per player 3-handed.

 

[legonick]

What if you scratch only 3 horses short handed? That'd be back to 4 cards per playing 4-handed, or 5 1/3 cards per player 3-handed.

Interesting thought, I'll have to experiment with it. But it'd be smaller pots which might be the downside of going that route, although only a quarter smaller.

 

[TheOffalo]

Interesting thought, I'll have to experiment with it. But it'd be smaller pots which might be the downside of going that route, although only a quarter smaller.

Could always bump up the bets too. Instead of .25/.50/.75 could be .50/.75/1, or instead of 1/2/3, could be 1.50/3/4.50, or whatever.

 

[WedgeRock]

I'll just leave this right here for you guys... (cue it up to start at the 6 second mark of it doesn't do that automatically):

 

[Samuel]

If anyone was interested in the magnetic pieces from A Frame Games:

They are significantly smaller than the Derby Dash (brown plastic) and Fineni (shiny metal) pieces.

What they look like on the Fineni board with one of the Fineni pieces:

They give you 12 pieces, which was good because one of the magnetic bases was glued way off center (if you're anal/ocd about that kind of thing):

In order for me to use them, I'll need to screw some metal into the boards - maybe some set screws or allen head bolts. Not sure when I'll get around to that... (and then I'd have to make the original pieces magnetic too)

 

[TheOffalo]

What is this? Horses for ants?

 

[WedgeRock]

It's the equivalent of guys who only date women with small hands...

 

[ekricket]

If anyone was interested in the magnetic pieces from A Frame Games:

They are significantly smaller than the Derby Dash (brown plastic) and Fineni (shiny metal) pieces.

View attachment 879951

What they look like on the Fineni board with one of the Fineni pieces:

View attachment 879952

They give you 12 pieces, which was good because one of the magnetic bases was glued way off center (if you're anal/ocd about that kind of thing):

View attachment 879953

In order for me to use them, I'll need to screw some metal into the boards - maybe some set screws or allen head bolts. Not sure when I'll get around to that... (and then I'd have to make the original pieces magnetic too)

Those are the rare AnthonyMartino breed of horse

Known as Antino’s.

 

[Samuel]

It's the equivalent of guys who only date women with small hands...

 

[Chris Manzoni]

Bought the Across The Board version of the game and am looking forward to playing with my crew, not sure if they will take to it or not. Can’t decide if I should try it post or pre cash game OR perhaps as a pre-tourney warm up or even a satellite of sorts.

My idea to make it a satellite would be to have 8 players buy in for $5 each and get 40 NCV chips, then play the game as normal with the overall chip winner getting the $40 entry prize.

Any thoughts or opinions on this?

 

[philhut]

Bought the Across The Board version of the game and am looking forward to playing with my crew, not sure if they will take to it or not. Can’t decide if I should try it post or pre cash game OR perhaps as a pre-tourney warm up or even a satellite of sorts.

My idea to make it a satellite would be to have 8 players buy in for $5 each and get 40 NCV chips, then play the game as normal with the overall chip winner getting the $40 entry prize.

Any thoughts or opinions on this?

Have you or any other players here considered some method whereby players draw cards btw Ace thru Queen (1-12) or however many horses are in the game and use this as a method to race of chips during color ups in tournaments instead of just drawing for high cards. You could literally race your chips as horse entries......drawn randomly with cards?