Five stops, five cards, best hand at the finish line — the poker run is the rare event where the paperwork is the game. This sheet tracks fifteen riders across five checkpoints with the hand rankings printed where the finish-line argument happens.
| Rider / entry # | Stop 1 | Stop 2 | Stop 3 | Stop 4 | Stop 5 | Best hand | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Royal flush — A-K-Q-J-10 suited 2. Straight flush — five suited in sequence 3. Four of a kind 4. Full house — three + a pair 5. Flush — five of one suit |
6. Straight — five in sequence 7. Three of a kind 8. Two pair 9. One pair 10. High card |
Map a route with five stops. At each, a marshal deals or lets each rider draw one card, records it on the sheet (initials prevent finish-line creativity), and waves them on. When the last rider clears the last stop, every line on the sheet reads as a five-card poker hand — best hand takes the pot, and by hallowed tradition the worst hand takes home something embarrassing.
Poker runs live or die on record-keeping: cards get lost in jacket pockets, memories improve with beer, and the pot is real money for a real charity. One master sheet — or one sheet per stop, merged at the finish — with initials at every box is the entire integrity system. The rankings table is printed beside the rows because the finish line is exactly where "does two pair beat three of a kind?" gets asked, loudly.
The classic is five stops, five cards. Bigger runs deal seven and keep the best five (the sheet's extra columns absorb it — relabel two). Fundraisers sell extra cards at the finish, which is painless profit. And the format is vehicle-agnostic — the same sheet has run motorcycles, pontoons and office pub crawls without changing a line. Brush up before the run with the hand rankings chart or a few hands of hold'em.
Is a poker run gambling? Where entry fees and pots are involved, local rules apply — most jurisdictions have charity-event provisions. The organizer's job is to check first.
Sealed envelopes or open draws? Sealed cards opened at the finish add suspense and prevent mid-route despair; open draws are more social. Both are standard.