Intro To Three-Putt Poker
Looking for a golf betting game that allows all skill levels to compete against each other? Well, Three Putt Poker is the perfect side game for your next golf match. All you need to take the pot is a hot putter and a little bit of luck. In this blog post, I will explain what you need to play, how to play three-putt poker, and how to keep score and determine the winner.
Table Of Content
What You Need
Three Putt Poker can be played with a minimum of two players and a max of four. To play, you need a deck of cards and a way to keep track of the game. You won’t need the deck of cards till the end of the match, so keep them in your golf bag. To keep track of three-putt poker, you can use a scorecard from the course, or you can get a digital Three-Putt Poker scorecard that is reusable; CLICK HERE.
How To Play
The goal of one-putt poker is to get the best poker hand by gaining cards throughout your round.
One Putt Poker starts when your ball is on the green, so it doesn’t matter how many strokes it takes you to get to the green; all that matters is how many putts it takes to put that ball in the hole.
To gain cards, you must one-putt or better. If you one putt, you get one card. If you manage to hole out from off the green, it doesn’t matter how your ball just can’t be on the green; you get two cards (this also applies to a hole-in-one).
If you two-putt, nothing happens. You get to move to the next hole with no punishment (unless you get the chip for having the most putts on that hole).
Three-putt or worse, If you are stick handling on the green and manage to make a three-putt or worse, you need to pay the three-putt fee.
Three-putt penalty, make sure every player agrees to this price because anytime a player makes a three-putt or worse, they must add the three-putt fee to the pot.
Worst Putter Fee. The player who finishes the round with the chip (you can use anything as the chip) must pay the worst putter fee, which is usually set at the same price as the buy-in price. On every hole, the player with the most amount of putts gets the chip, and if there is a tie, break it with rock paper scissors. The player who finishes the round with the chip pays the fee.
- Chip-In/Hole Out = Two Cards
- One-Putt = One Card
- Two-Putt = Nothing
- Three-Putt or worse = Pay The Three-Putt Fee
- Worst Putter Fee = The Player with the most putts on the last hole
Before You Start
First, determine the number of holes you want to play three-putt for. If you are playing a full 18 holes and want to play three-putt poker for all 18, I recommend splitting it up into two hands that are played for nine holes each.
Before you start, there are a few things you need to do. First, Set a Buy in price; this is the pay-to-play price, and every player must pay the buy-in fee.
Next, Set the Three-putt penalty fee and make sure every player agrees to this price because anytime a player makes a three-putt or worse, they must add the three-putt fee to the pot.
Finally, before you can start, set the Worst Putter Fee the player who finishes the round with the chip (you can use anything as the chip) must pay the worst putter fee, usually set at the same price as the buy-in price. On every hole, the player with the most putts gets the chip, and if there is a tie, break it with rock paper scissors. The player who finishes the round with the chip pays the fee.
Keeping Track and Dealing Out The Cards
To keep track, you can use a scorecard from the course, or you can use a reusable digital Three-Putt Poker scorecard. Just make sure to record the amount of Putts for each player on every hole.
To better understand how to keep track of the score, I will quickly explain an example scorecard.
As you can see, Tiger got a total of 6 cards. To get that number, you add up all the one-putts made during the round and the amount of off-green hole-outs. You can see that Tiger holed out on the sixth hole and has a zero on the scorecard because he didn’t need to putt; this awards Tiger two cards.
Spieth, on the other hand, didn’t have as good of a round making four one-putts, two three-putts, and got the Worst Putter Chip on the last hole. This means Spieth has to add $25 to the pot, $10 for two three-putts, and $15 dollars for the Worst Putter Fee. However, all hope is not lost for Spieth because he still has a chance a getting the best poker hand and winning the pot!
When you’ve figured out how many cards each player gets, deal them out. Once each player has their cards, they must make the best poker hand possible with their cards; the player with the best poker hand wins the pot!
Conclusion
Three-Putt Poker is a game that rewards a good short game, but with the added element of poker, it adds a little bit of luck to the game keeping everyone in it till the very end. It’s the perfect game to play if you have a miss match of skill levels or if you want to put your short game up against your friends.
If you want a digital reusable Three-Putt Poker scorecard just like this one, CLICK HERE or subscribe to the newsletter!
