People are never satisfied. You can give a guy a Ferrari and he’s gonna wanna add a jet engine to make it faster. Now people are combining two ways to lose money… Golf and poker. This isn’t some liquored up guys during a bachelor party weekend jerking around on the links. Two networks are running with the idea.
NBC will air the World Series of Golf, a made for tv event, on June 23rd and 24th. Fox is raising the stakes with the Ultimate Game at Wynn Las Vegas which will air June 9th and 10th. The “Ultimate Game” was originally thought up over 10 years ago by former NFL quarterback Steve Bartkowski.
“We were watching a PGA Tour event, and someone was standing over a 5- or 6-foot putt. One of the guys at the table commented, ‘That’s no pressure. If he misses this putt, the worst he can do is second place. Pressure is when you’re playing for your own cash.’ “
Both the NBC and Fox version of Golf/Poker (Goker?? Polf??) require the entrants to put up their own money. The Fox entry fee is 50k apiece for the 40 contestants. The 40 is whittled down to 12 through match play, and then there’s a 36 hole stroke-play tournament for the 2 million dollar check.
The NBC tournament requires 10 grand from each of the 180 participants with the winner taking home $250,000. Players can bring a caddy, a poker player, or financial adviser with them. Here’s how the NBC golf/poker game works:
Each player starts with $10,000 and antes $100 on the first hole. The ante doubles every three holes (that means holes 16-18 require a $3,200 ante). On the first tee, each player is assigned a number in a rotation that determines the hitting (and betting) order for the rest of the hole (and round), regardless of who is away. In this hit-and-bet format, once the players have hit their tee balls, the player who led off leads off the betting. A player can check, raise, fold — and even go “all-in.” The betting follows the rotation, just as on the poker felt. If you don’t like where your golf ball is, you fold — and lose only what you have bet to that point. If players who are still in the betting action tie at the end of the hole, the pot is split. Players are eliminated when they do not have enough left to ante; the game continues until one golfer has all the money.
I hope you followed all of that because I’m not gonna copy and paste it again. I hate repeating myself.
So, if you’re an over 21 amatuer that has never been fully exempt on the PGA, Champions, Nationwide or European tours, and you have 10 or 50 thousand to waste, this is the game for you. If you’re ballin on a budget, you can meet me over at the $5 dollar blackjack table. COCKTAIL!!
Golf tournaments team up with poker to put aces on the green. Courtesy of USA Today
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