Official Horse Race Game Thread (7 Viewers)

[wonderpuddle]

Now that it appears we’ve gotten a bunch of PCFers hooked on the amazingness that is the horse race game, I guess it’s time for a dedicated thread.

Feel free to post pr0n of your horses in action, as well as any thoughts on modifications to the rules, or how you are incorporating the game into your poker nights.

I’ll start us off. We started making players that roll doubles roll again. Nothing better than watching someone keep rolling a number of a scratched horse who has to keep rolling (and paying the pot).

 

[RainmanTrail]

Mine is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Pretty excited to give this one a try. Looks like a blast!

 

[Geremie]

Mine is supposed to be delivered mid-week! Can’t wait to play

 

[WedgeRock]

as well as any thoughts on modifications to the rules

During the period where four scratches are identified, how do you handle rolling a horse that's already been scratched? Pay the scratch fine, or re-roll?

 

[Samuel]

WP, you are a bad/good influence on me!!

Haven't had a chance to play yet, but hopefully soon! (the lines on the right hand board are tentative cut and drill lines - thinking about cutting it and adding hinges to make it more portable and also need to add some scratched holes below the starting gate).

 

[wonderpuddle]

During the period where four scratches are identified, how do you handle rolling a horse that's already been scratched? Pay the scratch fine, or re-roll?

Oooh….. We have just passed the dice and waited for the next legit scratch roll. But I like forcing the roller to pay the fine there. Build that pot.

 

[AnteAndy]

So what are the rules?

 

[Geremie]

During the period where four scratches are identified, how do you handle rolling a horse that's already been scratched? Pay the scratch fine, or re-roll?

I would say build the pot! Degens gotta degen

 

[Littleluck55]

We play if 2 or 12 is scratched and you roll those, you pay double the scratch cost.

 

[BPTDirector]

Getting one for my birthday to use at a team building dinner at work. Can’t wait.

 

[wonderpuddle]

So what are the rules?

 

[WedgeRock]

Oooh….. We have just passed the dice and waited for the next legit scratch roll. But I like forcing the roller to pay the fine there. Build that pot.

I would say build the pot! Degens gotta degen

My thoughts as well.

We play if 2 or 12 is scratched and you roll those, you pay double the scratch cost.

Nice.

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.

Other house rules I have considered to start everyone one more equal footing:

• I was considering doing the scratches (and removing the scratch cards from the deck), then dealing out the cards. That way, no one gets hit with too many scratches (and therefore, too few shares).
• I also considered giving everyone an even number of cards and just killing the extra cards (44 cards less 16 killed on scratches = 28 cards; if you have 5 players, each player gets 5 share cards and the extra three cards are dead; if one of the horses with only three cards out there comes in, share holders get one-third the pot each instead of one quarter).

 

[Geremie]

You could also do hardways doubles scratches must pay double

 

[Geremie]

I also considered giving everyone an even number of cards and just killing the extra cards (44 cards less 16 killed on scratches = 28 cards; if you have 5 players, each player gets 5 share cards and the extra three cards are dead; if one of the horses with only three cards out there comes in, share holders get one-third the pot each instead of one quarter).

You could also give a portion of the pot to the burn cards and use those funds as carryover to sweeten the next race

 

[TheOffalo]

Anyone do side bets on which horse will win? I guess at the beginning of the race each horse has an even chance so it’d be hard to get people to pay odds…

 

[WedgeRock]

They don't have an equal chance, though...

You need to roll 17 x 7 to win. 7 has a 1:6 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 102 rolls to hit seventeen 7's.

You need to roll 3 x 2 to win. 2 has a 1:36 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 108 rolls to hit three 2's.

 

[Littleluck55]

My thoughts as well.


Nice.

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.

Other house rules I have considered to start everyone one more equal footing:

• I was considering doing the scratches (and removing the scratch cards from the deck), then dealing out the cards. That way, no one gets hit with too many scratches (and therefore, too few shares).
• I also considered giving everyone an even number of cards and just killing the extra cards (44 cards less 16 killed on scratches = 28 cards; if you have 5 players, each player gets 5 share cards and the extra three cards are dead; if one of the horses with only three cards out there comes in, share holders get one-third the pot each instead of one quarter).

We play .25/.50/.75/$1 stakes. But I have never played just with my poker group. It has always been a family or couples game. Usually the big loser for the night is around $20/$25 and everyone has a lot of fun. A whole bunch of smiles and laughing for very little money.

 

[Littleluck55]

They don't have an equal chance, though...

You need to roll 17 x 7 to win. 7 has a 1:6 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 102 rolls to hit seventeen 7's.

You need to roll 3 x 2 to win. 2 has a 1:36 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 108 rolls to hit three 2's.

I was curious about odds. I have boards with different set of holes for each number.

 

[DrDysfunctional]

During the period where four scratches are identified, how do you handle rolling a horse that's already been scratched? Pay the scratch fine, or re-roll?

I would say build the pot! Degens gotta degen

We pay the fine as well.

 

[WedgeRock]

You could also give a portion of the pot to the burn cards and use those funds as carryover to sweeten the next race

We usually leave whatever rounding there is in the pot for the next race.

I guess you could also award those chips (3 at most) to the roller who got the horse across the line. Jockey pay.

 

[TheOffalo]

They don't have an equal chance, though...

You need to roll 17 x 7 to win. 7 has a 1:6 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 102 rolls to hit seventeen 7's.

You need to roll 3 x 2 to win. 2 has a 1:36 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 108 rolls to hit three 2's.

I guess they try to get it close with the varied number of holes but there has to be some rounding…

 

[DrDysfunctional]

A buddy of mine plays this at a club he belongs to. They have numbered chips that they pull out of a bag to determine the scratched horses. We played two games with his chips. I didn't care for that so it was eliminated. Maybe we'll try it again sometime.

 

[WedgeRock]

A buddy of mine plays this at a club he belongs to. They have numbered chips that they pull out of a bag to determine the scratched horses. We played two games with his chips. I didn't care for that so it was eliminated. Maybe we'll try it again sometime.

One chip per horse? So each horse has the same chance of being scratched? I think that goes against the point of probabilities.

 

[Jonesey07]

They don't have an equal chance, though...

You need to roll 17 x 7 to win. 7 has a 1:6 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 102 rolls to hit seventeen 7's.

You need to roll 3 x 2 to win. 2 has a 1:36 chance of being rolled. So on average, it takes 108 rolls to hit three 2's.

Wouldn't most of that be negated with the amount of times they would need to be rolled to win?

You need 17 7's vs 3 2's.

 

[TheOffalo]

One chip per horse? So each horse has the same chance of being scratched? I think that goes against the point of probabilities.

So with dice, the 7 horse has the highest probability of scratching and therefore generating more money for the pot. Maybe that’s part of the pot building.

But since the share cards are random and scratched numbers are discarded, the chance for each non-scratch horse to win is relatively similar (not exactly the same as you pointed out). So picking the horse randomly using chips probably doesn’t alter the way the game works too much, except for the size of the pot?

 

[WedgeRock]

But since the share cards are random and scratched numbers are discarded, the chance for each non-scratch horse to win is relatively similar (not exactly the same as you pointed out). So picking the horse randomly using chips probably doesn’t alter the way the game works too much, except for the size of the pot?

If the 7 horse is scratched, its much more likely (theoretically), that a 7 horse will generate more fines.

If the 3 horse is scratched, the pot will theoretically be much less.

The likelihood of a bigger pot should be related to the likelihood that a particular horse will be scratched, IMO, not an even likelihood.

 

[JMC9389]

View attachment 878162

Sounds like a great excuse to have some one cent chips made. This game sounds like it can get expensive.....fast.

 

[TKEUofM]

It looks like adding the metal grommets to the holes is a good idea to help protect the wood and keep the horses from getting wobbly.

 

[Samuel]

I was curious about odds. I have boards with different set of holes for each number.

ROLL A…	PROBABILITY
2​	1/36 (2.778%)​
3​	2/36 (5.556%)​
4​	3/36 (8.333%)​
5​	4/36 (11.111%)​
6​	5/36 (13.889%)​
7​	6/36 (16.667%)​
8​	5/36 (13.889%)​
9​	4/36 (11.111%)​
10​	3/36 (8.333%)​
11​	2/36 (5.556%)​
12​	1/36 (2.778%)​

On my Derby Dash game board, the number of holes match up with the chart above (3x each probability - e.g. 3 holes for #2, 12 holes for #5, 18 holes for #7, etc) - that board has no Scratched area/holes. I think this is intentional in order to run full 11 horse races with true probabilities/chances for each horse.

On my Fineni game board (with a Scratched area/holes), there is one less hole for horse #'s 4-10 than 3x each probability - so e.g. the #4 has 8 holes, the #5 has 11, and the #7 has 17, etc. I'm guessing that the one less hole per lane is supposed to offset the greater chances for the "middle" horses to be scratched (and not finish at all) when running less than full field races?

 

[Samuel]

It looks like adding the metal grommets to the holes is a good idea to help protect the wood and keep the horses from getting wobbly.

This set has metal grommets and magnetic base horse pieces.

https://www.a-framegames.com/product-page/magnetic-horse-race-board-game-winner-s-circle

https://www.etsy.com/listing/834068...UeiZUinjxHoNND2Dl8Pg4PjU8-7y4epUaAknuEALw_wcB

And you can buy the magnetic horse pieces separately:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1065597649/12-replacement-horses-for-our-board-game?click_key=11f63b8571af8aa06b5b60680201ddbc5f4b1378:1065597649&click_sum=c85f0146&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=horse+game+piece&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&sts=1

(They look smaller than the Fineni or Derby Dash horse pieces)

I am considering buying a set of those (the alternative would be to glue/weld some small neodymium magnets to the bases of the Fineni (metal) or Derby Dash (plastic) horse pieces) and screwing some shorty allen head bolts (or something similar) into the holes of the game boards...