Game Concept by Jeremiah Zimmerman

What to do with question cards from those quiz games when your bored with the game they came with?

Play Quiz Poker, of course.

With Quiz Poker, you’ll be able to use virtually any set of quiz cards from any game or any quiz book.

       Before you sit down and play, you’ll need a few items.  Not many, but a few.  You will need chips, those poker chips that a lot of people have and use as often as the quiz questions – unless you play poker.   If you don’t have chips, any similar thing will do; mass of beads, buttons, etc. or raid that penny jar; whatever.

       You may also need a random way select a question from the cards, since many have more than one per card.  A die would function well, but you can do some other method of selection, as long as everyone agrees.

       Of course, you’ll need to have question cards, quiz book or something.

       No playing cards are needed for this – just questions, randomizer and chips/markers.

       There is one last ingredient.  At least three players are needed.  More would be better.  Not sure how your group would handle six or more players, but that is up to you, as long as you’re having fun.

Setup:  Select a set of question cards or a quiz book and them place on a suitable table that can handle the number of players involved.  Locate playing chips and place them on the table, as well as a die or some sort of randomizing mechanism, if necessary.

       Gather the players at the table. Oh yes, there are two other critical elements for Quiz Poker.  Munchies and drinks.  Don’t sit down until this crucial part is ready.  Good poker hats may be handy for atmosphere.

       Got food and drinks?  Hat?  Good, now sit, get comfortable, prepare your poker faces and select a banker.  That person will issue out an assortment of chips. The amount doesn’t matter, as long as it’s equal for all the players.

Questions:  A sort note on the questions.  Every quiz game is different and the manner of the question’s format may have to be settled before play begins.  Look at a few of the questions as a group and decide on how they are to be read and answered.  Many of the cards are straight forward, having one question and one answer.

       Other formats for questions are not so simple.  Many have several questions or presented in multiple, partial, staged variable ways.  Some answers are variable as well.  How much of the answer is needed to be correct must be settled in advance.  In most cases, if the player gets any part of the answer, it is good.

Play:  Decide on a player to be the first Dealer.  Anyone can start the game. After their ‘Deal’, the person to their left will become Dealer and so forth, going clockwise the same as classical poker.

       The Deal is not the same as classical poker.  The Deal is the drawing of a card and randomly selecting a question from it when there are more than one question on a card. If using a quiz book, the Dealer turns to a page randomly.

       Before selecting a card or page, each player ante-up, usually by placing one chip in the center of the table. This indicates who is ‘In’. After the ante is done, the Dealer selects a card/page/question and reads it to the player, mainly the one at their left, the ‘Mark.’ The Mark is the one that will be answering the question after all the betting is done.

       That answer is not given at the time it is heard. The Mark thinks about the question and decides how confident they are at answering it correctly. The Mark then decides on a bet value (a number of chips based on their confidence). They would then declare the amount, placing said chips in the center of the table with the ante.

       The question is not answered until all the players had chance to ‘Call’, “Raise’ or “Fold.”  From the Mark’s left, continuing around the table, each play would place chips in the ‘Pot’ as they would in regular poker.  Find a Book of Hoyle for rules on betting and raising.  They are generally the same here.

Call:  The player places an equivalent amount as the last bet from their right hand player.

Raise: When the bet gets to the player, they may add additional chips to raise the stakes.  If there was a raise, all the remaining players have to match the wage (Call) or Fold.

Fold:  If the player thinks the Mark has a good chance of answering the question correctly, they may not wish to toss any more chips into the pot. The player may Fold.  Since there are no playing cards set down, they would just announce “Fold”, maybe adding a slight hand gesture.

       Folding puts the player out of play until someone else wins the pot, answering a question correctly.

       If all the players folds except the Mark, the Mark does not have to answer the question and gains the pot anyway.  If the Mark folds, the player to their left that had not folded becomes the Mark and answers the question (the same question, not a new one).

       If the question goes back to the dealer and everyone failed to answer the question, the player to the dealer’s right pulls another question and reads it to the dealer.  There is no betting.  If answered correctly, the dealer gets the pot and a new anti it started, with the dealer being the player to the left of the original dealer.  If not answered correctly the same question goes to the next person, running clockwise.  This continues until someone answers the question correctly and takes the pot.

Wrong Answer: A wrong answer to a question does not eliminate the player from the round.  They are still part of the betting process and if per chance the round of questioning gets back to them (another question by that time) they get a chance to answer it.

       As the betting goes around the table, the players are deciding whether the Mark can answer the question correctly.  How each player bets will reflect that view.  The pot can grow quite large depending on how knowledgeable the players are, so the individual bets should be moderate.

       Once all the betting for the question is done, the Mark answers it.  If the Mark is correct, they scooped the pot there way, adding the chips to their collection.

       If the Mark is not correct, the pot ‘Stands’, remaining in the center of the table for the next player to the left to have a chance to answer the same question.  If the answer is partial, the dealer will ask for the Mark to be more specific.  The dealer will decide if a marginal answer is suitably correct. Some answers will be ‘close enough’.  The group as a whole may decide the guideline for this.

       Play continues as such until only one player has chips or some other limit, such as only two players remaining at the table or 4 A.M. has come and gone and exhaustion is taking hold.

Hope you enjoy Quiz Poker

Quiz Poker was created by JZ and presented through Galaxy Frontiers for your personal use only.

Copyrighted 2005

Thank you.