Horserace Card Drinking Game

Horserace is a card drinking game in which cards take the place of horses. In this game, players bet on a specific card suit, they cheer their selected “horse” as the race begins, and they drink based on the outcome. This game can be made more exciting when there are more people involved, such as a talented announcer, a participative crowd, and consecutive rounds. This game doesn’t require a lot; all you just need two things: a pack of cards and beer.

Horserace doesn’t require a lot of participation from the players who bet. When choosing an announcer you should make sure that he or she is exciting, talented, and has a way of revving up the crowd. Aside from having to get the crowd going, the announcer also has to be in charge of preparing the “field” by pulling the cards out of the deck. The preparation of the field consists of the announcer looking through the deck of cards, taking out the ace, which is the horse, of each suit and making them lay face-up beside each other at one end of the table, representing the gates. Then, he shuffles, takes eight cards and lays them facing down (to form the 8 links of the race) in a straight line that is at an angle with the row of aces. The cards are supposed to end up looking like two legs of a right triangle.

When it comes to betting, every player makes a bet that is based on his or her preferred horse/suit before the game begins. These bets are simple and straight to the point like “five on hearts”. Bets that are correct will allow the better to give out twice that number in drinks at the end of the game and incorrect bets force the better to drink the exact amount that was bet. Players must drink half of what they bet before the game starts. This is to ensure that absurd betting amounts will not happen. Based on the announcer’s preferences or on the house rules, the betting part of this game is highly subject to adjustment. Like a true horse race, betting in this game can be complicated because announcers are allowed to choose what kind of betting is allowed (Daily Doubles, Exactas, Trifectas). The most popular kind of betting that gets the crowd excited early is “first horse out of the gates” where small bets are usually placed.

The announcer starts the race when all the players put their bets in and he then turns over the top card from the deck. It should be kept in mind that the suit of the card is the only thing that matters. The ace/horse of that suit moves forward to the first link. While the crowds cheer on their horse, the announcer describes the happenings of the game. While he is doing this, he still turning cards over and moving horses appropriately until one of the horses win by passing the last link into the circle of the winners.

Faltering is an important element of this game. This is when a horse, for the first time and only the first time, moves up to a new link and the announcer turns over the card that is on the side of that link, and the suit shown on this card must move back one space. There are eight instances of faltering when a horserace is an eight link one and it can absolutely change the aftereffect of the game. If a horse is still in the gates it can’t be knocked back by faltering.

This game is a great game to play due to the fact that it doesn’t require much, and the players don’t need to participate a lot. All they have to do is sit back, relax, hope their horse wins, and get drunk.