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Game type events, lessons learned


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With the number of events we've attended, I thought I'd start a quick thread to share the lessons learned (both good and bad) with others to help bring up the enjoyment level and reduce the frustrations.

I'm also looking for other lessons learned which can make an event better, and or things to watch out for.

 

In no particular order....

 

- Alternative games

If you are doing a poker run, or other type of cache find challenge, have a couple local games which the cachers can enjoy. Some may not be physically fit enough to find all the poker hand caches, so games like closest to the pin or similar add to the event and give those cachers something they can enjoy (as well as those who can complete the event finds).

 

- Stick to the schedule

Be clear on the scheduling and make sure to stick to it. If you have instruction sheets going out to the cachers, include the scheduling on or with it. If cachers venture off the grounds to do other caches, or something else, and miss the closing events (in full or part), it will not fall back on the event host(s) or others. It's really hard to keep track of event cachers and a roll call should not be required.

 

- Group Photos

If you are looking to get a group photo of those attending your event, get the photo at the beginning of your event closing. Once he prizes start being handed out, cachers will start to leave.

 

- Bigger Ticket Prizes

This can be a touchy issue. Try to be very clear as to how you plan to award any really big ticket prizes. I personally had received a load of flack almost a year after the fact because my wife and I decided to raffle off a GPS as a door prize instead of giving it to the top place on our challenge. Even though it is your event, and your prizes to decide how to distribute them, there can and will be someone who might complain up to 9 months after the fact that they were cheated out of a prize they were expecting.

 

If anyone else has any lessons learned or tips and tricks, please add them.

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Sorry if it's a dumb question, but what's a "poker run?"

 

I have done geocaching "races". When it was over the organizer announced it really wasn't a race.

 

Being clear on things at the beginning of an event is really important.

 

At the geocaching events I've been at that have done this, playing cards are put into envelops and placed in the event caches. Cachers pick an envelop from each cache and when they return to the event area, the person who obtains the best poker hand gets the prizes, in order of highest and to lowest (or however the host decides to play it).

Basically its picking cards from each cache and discovering your hand at the event closing.

 

Alternatively, I have seen where a piece of paper was retrieved from each cache, and exchanged at the event close for envelops with cards in them. This helps resolve cheaping (exchanging cards, etc) in the field.

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I like geocacher bingo as an ice-breaker. The last event I attended used the completed geocacher bingo cards as raffle tickets, which worked nicely.

 

I've never seen a poker run as part of a geocaching event, but I have seen them as part of gimmick car rallyes. One rallye used Pinochle decks for the poker run, which had the interesting effect of producing a lot of very good poker hands.

 

One event had a pin swap. Each attendee received a lanyard with a number of identical pins on it. The goal was to mingle with others who had received pins with different designs, and to swap pins so everyone ended up with an assortment of pins with no duplicates. That was an excellent ice breaker and door prize all in one.

 

Another "drop in" game that I've heard of is to display a dozen or so trade items, and to have people rank them from least expensive to most expensive. At the end of the event, the closest to the official ranking wins a prize (which could simply be the trade items used for the game).

 

You could challenge people to write a geocaching limerick (perhaps specifying several words that must appear in the limerick). This too could act as a "drop in" game. At the end of the event, read the best ones aloud.

 

Raffles with too many prizes get boring. It's better to have a few raffle prizes, or to give everyone a door prize when they arrive. A raffle with so many prizes that most people receive something (and some receive multiple prizes) will take too long and get boring.

 

White elephant exchanges are okay, but can suffer the same problem as raffles with too many prizes. Plus, half the white elephant gifts will be variations on the same thing.

 

Most importantly, leave time for people to mingle and visit. If you build plenty of extra time into the schedule, then it will be easier to stay on schedule, and people will have time to visit with each other.

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Poker runs are awesome!! Albeit, Ive only attended one, but it was very well put together and got competitive amongst the attendee's!

There were temp caches placed Sun - Sat along with moving Joker cache!

All the temps had special tokens and occasionaly and speciialty card (5 Card Draw, Holdem, Wild) which allowed the possesser to partake in extra games! And the Joker was moving about two, three times a day, so it was always a mad dash for FTF as he usually had one of the specialty cards.

The event itself ran w/o a hitch and had about 28 attendants at the end.

Very awesome and a lot of work went into it by the 3 hosts!

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I like geocacher bingo as an ice-breaker. The last event I attended used the completed geocacher bingo cards as raffle tickets, which worked nicely.

 

I've never seen a poker run as part of a geocaching event, but I have seen them as part of gimmick car rallyes. One rallye used Pinochle decks for the poker run, which had the interesting effect of producing a lot of very good poker hands.

 

One event had a pin swap. Each attendee received a lanyard with a number of identical pins on it. The goal was to mingle with others who had received pins with different designs, and to swap pins so everyone ended up with an assortment of pins with no duplicates. That was an excellent ice breaker and door prize all in one.

 

Another "drop in" game that I've heard of is to display a dozen or so trade items, and to have people rank them from least expensive to most expensive. At the end of the event, the closest to the official ranking wins a prize (which could simply be the trade items used for the game).

 

You could challenge people to write a geocaching limerick (perhaps specifying several words that must appear in the limerick). This too could act as a "drop in" game. At the end of the event, read the best ones aloud.

 

Raffles with too many prizes get boring. It's better to have a few raffle prizes, or to give everyone a door prize when they arrive. A raffle with so many prizes that most people receive something (and some receive multiple prizes) will take too long and get boring.

 

White elephant exchanges are okay, but can suffer the same problem as raffles with too many prizes. Plus, half the white elephant gifts will be variations on the same thing.

 

Most importantly, leave time for people to mingle and visit. If you build plenty of extra time into the schedule, then it will be easier to stay on schedule, and people will have time to visit with each other.

 

This is a very important piece I forgot to include in my OP.

I try to make sure there is plenty of time before everyone heads out to the games and plenty afterwards for chatting.

The plenty of time at the end before the closing is also good in case there are some slower cachers. Gives them a chance to get back and still meet other cachers.

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Sorry if it's a dumb question, but what's a "poker run?"

 

I have done geocaching "races". When it was over the organizer announced it really wasn't a race.

 

Being clear on things at the beginning of an event is really important.

 

Never a dumb question, but who thought Poker Runs might be somewhat regional? I'll tell you what, no one outside the Pacific NW knows what a Cache Machine is. I do, but I spend too much time around here. :unsure:

 

Mike and Jess (who already explained them) are in Ontario, racettes is in Minnesota, and we KNOW they have them in North Carolina, as that's what all the drama was about in that event thread started about a week ago. I really never thought about how widespread they might be as event entertainment. Or who even came up with the idea.

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Sorry if it's a dumb question, but what's a "poker run?"

 

I have done geocaching "races". When it was over the organizer announced it really wasn't a race.

 

Being clear on things at the beginning of an event is really important.

 

Never a dumb question, but who thought Poker Runs might be somewhat regional? I'll tell you what, no one outside the Pacific NW knows what a Cache Machine is. I do, but I spend too much time around here. :unsure:

 

I think I first heard of a "poker run" about 40 years ago, and it generally involves going to five (sometimes a few more) selected locations where one acquires a playing card, then meets up at a final location where the person with the best poker hand "wins".

 

Most of the poker runs that I had heard of involved alcohol. The first one I heard of involved going to several bars in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta (by boat) where presumable one had a drink at each (or most) of the bars while collecting their card.

 

I've done one poker run which had two person teams, one acting as a designated driver. Each team put in $10 to enter the poker run. It involved stopping at five pubs/bars where each player played a game of darts (a simple game consisting of 8 rounds and counting up the total score). At the final location, each team totaled up all their games and a winner of the "count up" games won 1/4 of the pot of money that was put in. Then the poker game was played and the winner got another 1/4 of the money. Then there was a double elimination tournament played and the winning team of the tournament got the remainder of the money.

It was a *lot* of fun (speaking as a non-designated driver participant).

 

In case someone is wondering, playing darts and drinking are pretty much inseparable. I've played in dozens of tournaments and can't think of a single one where alcohol wasn't served, though I would imagine there might be exceptions for international professional tournaments at the highest level. Pretty much my greatest success at a dart tournament was a three event tournament in a bar that lasted from about noon until 9:00PM. I was "pacing myself" but probably had quite a few beers that day. My dart partner and I took second in the first team event, I lost in the semi-finals (taking 3rd place) and he won the singles event, then we won the last event. My winnings easily paid for a cab ride and a hotel that night.

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Are poker runs the in thing now? I've seen a few of them popping up here and there.

 

They have been "in" for the several decades I have played them. And with alcohol they are even better.

 

I've done it as an alcohol game in my younger years. Hadn't heard boo about them in forever. Then I noticed this summer it seemed to be all the rage with geocachers this summer. Not the other couple summers.

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Are poker runs the in thing now? I've seen a few of them popping up here and there.

 

They have been "in" for the several decades I have played them. And with alcohol they are even better.

 

The first time I had heard about poker runs was back in the early 80's. Attended two, one via snow mobile and the other via motorcycles (as a passenger for both, was a kid then).

Was basically the same ideas as the geocaching events, where you traveled via map to various check points to obtain your cards. Wasn't much alcohol consumed at the ending event, but there was still some.

 

Poker runs for events are easy to setup and cheap for the host. 5+ containers, 5+ packs of playing cards (dollar store), and business card envelops (office supply store).

Put the playing cards in the envelop and number the envelop so you can later identify which cache each card was from (helps prevent someone getting all their cards at one cache). Toss a deck of envelopped cards into each container, hide and go.

 

Our first couple events, we where able to reuse the cards as we didn't seal the envelops. After a bit of cheating by one team, I've had to seal the cards or look for alternative means of distributing the cards.

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Our first couple events, we where able to reuse the cards as we didn't seal the envelops. After a bit of cheating by one team, I've had to seal the cards or look for alternative means of distributing the cards.

When someone does some blatant, clever cheating and it's allowed, I'm embarrassed to have come. I've taken a hiatus from events, due mainly to the fact that “prizes” seem to bring out the worst in people and then I feel like an accomplice.

 

Typically, everyone pitches in for an event. But consider excluding the event coordinator's family from at least the bigger prizes.

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Our first couple events, we where able to reuse the cards as we didn't seal the envelops. After a bit of cheating by one team, I've had to seal the cards or look for alternative means of distributing the cards.

When someone does some blatant, clever cheating and it's allowed, I'm embarrassed to have come. I've taken a hiatus from events, due mainly to the fact that “prizes” seem to bring out the worst in people and then I feel like an accomplice.

 

Typically, everyone pitches in for an event. But consider excluding the event coordinator's family from at least the bigger prizes.

I can't stand how prizes have become the focus for some. I'm all about the bragging rights. The prizes... if I can't pass off my winning ticket to someone near by, I'll either ask that the prize be given to someone else, or add it to my collection to give away at my next event (or donnate to an event).

It's unfortunate that we had to seal the envelops for our poker runs. We had been able to use the same cards and containers for 4 events without having to replace them.

 

I won't say cheating is common, but there tends to be at least one cacher or group in every area that will stir trouble.

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