This event begins promptly at 8am and will last one hour, ending at 9am on Saturday Aug 2nd.
We won't be hosting any food, but there are plenty of options nearby if you so choose to grab whatever you consider nourishment before we begin the event. There is a Legends (breakfast burritos are fab), donut shop, bagel shop, Stater Brothers and a few other potential options in the center.
Once the event begins, everyone will receive a handout with coordinates to all the card decks and newly published geocaches, just in case you don't have a very smart phone. All information will be made available on this cache page after the Poker Run Event begins. There will be seven locations at which you will find playing cards, sealed in an envelope. Take just one from each location. You do not need to visit all seven locations, but you will need to visit five of them to have enough cards to complete a hand. Each individual may pick a card. You do not have to play poker as a team. The cards will be sealed and must remain so until the end of the poker run. They shall be opened only by the designated WEG official at the end of the day.
We don't want to give away much ahead of time to keep everyone even when we start.
We will tell you that you'll generally be within our four major freeways.
If you want to play along and can't drive for some reason, want to share the fuel expense or want to ride with someone who has internet capability, be sure to include that in your "Will Attend" log. I'm sure some other fun loving geocacher would love to have someone join in as a backseat geocacher. You don't need to bring anything extra with you that you wouldn't need to bring on any other ordinary day of geocaching, whatever that may be. Although a smartphone or other internet capable device might be of use. There will not be any hiking involved, though you will be visiting some local parks and parking lots. You will have ample time to geocache along the way, in fact we encourage it. Remember, it's not required to go geocaching after this event even though we encourage you to do so. We are geocachers after all!
This 7 card stud Poker Run just happens to coincide nicely with the new 7 Souvenirs of August geocaching mission from Groundspeak. You will be able to earn all seven souvenirs in one day if you are so motivated. If you are really motivated, you might even be able to get seven or more different icons today as well.
Once this event ends, you will have until the Day's End Celebration begins to have tons of fun in the West End, which for us will be 6pm. When you arrive, turn in your poker cards to the designated WEG official. We'll hold the raffle and look at our hands. The link to that event is near the top of this cache page. Just click "Related Web Page" for more info. You do not have to attend that event either if you don't want to. Just show up and chat if you like or don't show up at all. This sounds like a long day, and it is. But again, you don't have to participate in the rally/poker run or even go caching after this event.
This is a High/Low card game, so once your cards are made visible, you get to decide whether to go for "high hand" or "low hand." Winners will be allowed to choose their prize from those available. Winning hands will include; High Hand (natural), Low Hand (natural), High Hand (wild card), Low Hand (wild card). For today's event, Five of a Kind beats Royal Flush and lowest hand is 6, 4, 3, 2, A. In the event of a tie we'll use the Bridge/reverse alphabetical ranking of the suits: (highest rank) Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs (lowest rank). Several donated prizes are visible on the Day's End Celebration cache page.
Some Do's and Don't's for today's Poker Run
Don'ts include:
Speeding. Really, it's not a race. There is plenty of time to get wherever you need to go or do and to pick up a card for your poker hand.
Don't look at your poker hand. The cards must remain sealed until the Day's End Celebration event.
Do's include:
HAVE FUN: You should be having fun. Get with a friend or two, pick a great playlist, turn up the volume and enjoy your time together.
Pick up some poker cards If you're participating in the Poker Run, you'll need at least five cards to complete a hand. Picking up seven cards gives you two discards, just like in Seven Card Stud. Put your name on each envelope as you pick them up.
Come to the Day's End Celebration If you're participating in the Poker Run or end up with some raffle tickets, you must be present to win. We just can't mail things to you nor can we accept absentee poker hands. If you collect cards and don't show up, you just "fold" your hand.
Sign Log Sheets. If you stop to find some geocaches or attend other events that might be scheduled today, don't forget to put you name on the log sheets. That's what we do; find cache, sign log, repeat.
We think this is going be a super fun filled day with a few challenges along the way. But remember, the most important thing about this event is to show up, meet some friends old and new, and have fun before you go on about your day!
We'll be creating a downloadable gpx file for your pleasure. The day of the event, it will contain the locations to all the hidden Decks of Cards for the Poker Run, events scheduled in the area today, and geocaches we have planned to be published in the area on the day of the event as well. You can upload this into GSAK or any program you use on your smarphone or tablet that accepts gpx downloads. This file was created using GSAK, exported as a gpx file and uploaded to the West End Geocachers google drive. It contains no viruses. Use this file at your own risk. Groundspeak disclaimer: Alert: You are about to download a file that contains further details needed to find this geocache. As the geocache owner, I represent that this file is safe to download although it has not been checked by Groundspeak or by the reviewer for possible malicious content. Download this file at your own risk. The POKER RUN GPX FILE
The event difficulty and terrain is based on being able to access the various Decks of Cards, not on the event location (which is 1/1). We consider this a wheelchair accessible event despite this. Handicapped geocachers can easily have a partner retrieve a poker card for them, as we (perhaps incorrectly) assume that handi-cachers will not be participating solo. If you are handicapped and participating solo, please let us know and we will make appropriate accommodations.