License Plate Poker

[QuikSand]

Okay, Mrs. Q and I, both known to take a seat at a poker table from time to time, stumbled onto a drive-time activity during a rush of traffic recently. The core idea is to create a game that people might be able to play while on the road. (I may have poated a thread some time ago about the long-standing "Spot the Flag" game, which can get downright cutthroat in its competitiveness)

Anyway -- the core idea is built around the concept that the numbers and letters in license plates could theoretically be construed to (in some cases, at least) represent a scattering of cards from a deck. After some thought, we came up with some conventions:

numbers 2-9 = cards 2-9
number 1 and letter A = ace
number 0 and letter T = ten
letter J = jack
letter Q = queen
letter K = king

plate starting with the letters C, D, H or S = flush, with component cards as above
(e.g. HQR 935 = a heart flush, with a queen high)


Okay, after working through the various combinations, we tried to build this into a game that could actually be played competitively. This is just a working draft so far (I am open to suggestions) but here is the game we developed:

- - -

A point starts, and either of two players (could be expanded to more, easily) may identify a plate that contains a playable poker hand.

When that player spots a hand, he announces it: "pair of aces."

The other player now must find a plate with a better poker hand -- in this case, to beat the pair of aces, he must have at least two pair in the next hand he finds. If he finds a better hand, he announces it, and takes the lead in the hand.

While the second player is trying to beat the first player's "made hand," the first player is now looking to close out the hand by finding any license plate with the letter X in it.

If the player with the leading made hand finds an X, he wins the hand, and scores one point. At that point, the hand resets, and the first pklayable hand called out takes the lead for the next point.


The game could conceivably be played to a certain score (first to six wins) or over a period of time (play until we get to Mizzoula).

- - -


I'm not 100% sure how easy it shoudl be to "close ou" a hand -- in early trials, the letter X seemed to be frustratuingly rare -- we were going 10-15 minutes between points. We decided that maybe either X or Z should end the hand... but have not had a chance to try that out to see if it works well (or perhaps it's too easy to find).


In any event... if you mind works like mine at all, and this sort of thing interestes you - I'm open to thoughts on how to fine tune the concept.

Mrs. Q also thinks that there's a possibility of a Yahtzee derivative here, though that presumably adds a paper-and-pencil element that pushes it to a realm beyond a driver and passenger combination. (I have other reservations there, but am still thinking about it)


Thoughts? Ideas? Mockery? Personal attacks?

[QuikSand]

Incidentally, here in MD we have a mix of plates that follow different letter-number conventions, which keeps things mixed up a bit for this game. There rae several different styles, based on the type of plates you select: AAA-111, 111-AAA, and others all abound.

In states where the local plate always starts with a letter, or always with a number, that might tilt the game somewhat, requiring an adjustment to keep certain hands (like flushes, for instacne) from being too common.

We also thought about making flushes altogether harder to come by -- my first idea was that the plate needed two Cs to be a club flush... but that turned out to make them completely irrlelevant. It has seemed that adding the A/1=ace and 0/T=ten has made hand better than flushes common enough that the game does not simply run up to an ace-high flush, and then stop there (at least in limited play so far)

[Mr. Wednesday]

You'd need to do adjustments to get a working game in Indiana -- our plates have only one letter in them, the rest are numbers (aside from the special plates, anyway). The first one or two numbers are for the county of issue, then there's a letter, then up to four numbers.

[QuikSand]

Fuckin' Indiana. The clock thing, and now this.

[Passacaglia]

So it would be possible to have a flush AND a full house in the same hand? That'd be pretty sweet.

[QuikSand]

So it would be possible to have a flush AND a full house in the same hand? That'd be pretty sweet.

Ever played poker games with eight or more cards?

[Passacaglia]

Yeah, but in this case, you'd have it with only 5 cards.

[QuikSand]

Technically, you'd need six -- a starting H and then five other cards that constitute a boat. But I see your point. I'm thinking you'd just play the full house... but what do I know from strategy?

[henry296]

I'd be interested to see who here might have the best hand with their own license plate. My hand would just be ace high but would be 1 card away from a straight.

Todd

[wade moore]

Incidentally, here in MD we have a mix of plates that follow different letter-number conventions, which keeps things mixed up a bit for this game. There rae several different styles, based on the type of plates you select: AAA-111, 111-AAA, and others all abound.

In states where the local plate always starts with a letter, or always with a number, that might tilt the game somewhat, requiring an adjustment to keep certain hands (like flushes, for instacne) from being too common.

We also thought about making flushes altogether harder to come by -- my first idea was that the plate needed two Cs to be a club flush... but that turned out to make them completely irrlelevant. It has seemed that adding the A/1=ace and 0/T=ten has made hand better than flushes common enough that the game does not simply run up to an ace-high flush, and then stop there (at least in limited play so far)

Something that comes immediately to mind:

For VA (and maybe a few other states, but mainly VA) you could really pull a tie in for "specialty tags". I'm sure you realize this QS, others may not, but VA has a ton of specialty tags for anything from the arts, to college alumni, to supporting the cleaning of the chesapeake bay, etc, etc... you could tie those into being "suits" in theory, but that would involve more combining plates than getting a hand from one specific plate...

[RPI-Fan]

This would need a lot of adjustment in NY, also.

As of a couple years ago, the format is:

AAA-####

But, they started with AAA, and have lettered upwards (therefore everybody's plates, pretty much, start with A thru E).

~rpi-fan

[Critch]

I've just got my little state maps of the US so I can color in the states when I see the plate to keep me happy on long journeys.

Alaska is a bitch to get.

[QuikSand]

There's a car with AK plates around my area, critch... if you're ever desperate, you might consider just driving along Route 3 from Bowie Md north. You're bound to run into her within a month or two.

[Ryan S]

Alaska is a bitch to get.
Strange as it may seem, I parked next to a car with Alaskan plates last month. I don't know how it got here. :)

[Buccaneer]

I have been a voyeur of license plates since the 1960s (back when each state had ONE design). Nowadays, to get my fix, I just go down the street to a couple of apartment complex (we live right near Ft Carson, a large army base) and in their parking lots, I would surmise that I can count 35 of the 50 states. Just driving around the Springs (with all of our military complexes and relatively central location), one can get all 50 states in one day. Truly a wet dream for state plates enthusiasts.

My plates:

KBP2893 (K High Card)
278 ADV (what would that be??)