Lots of sports naturally break into rounds. For example, baseball innings (or half innings), football drives, and tennis sets. Other sports, like soccer (futbol), hockey, and basketball don’t have an obvious way to divide the game, unless you want the rounds to be halves, periods, or quarters. The trouble with halves, periods and quarters is that the number of hands you can play during the game is small. This doesn’t mean you can’t design a Sports Poker game like that, but our current thinking is that more hands (up to a point) is better.
For soccer we chose “Next Score”, analogous to Next Score in football described in the previous post. Rounds start when there’s a kickoff (at the beginning of each half, and after each goal) and end when there is a goal, or at the halftime or final whistles. There are a bit more than 3 goals total (on the average) in MLS and Premier League matches, so (including the start of each half) that’s at least 5 hands during most matches. Not nearly as many as for football, but that’s the natural pace in soccer! Remember, there can be a lot of betting and other excitement in long rounds!
There isn’t always a lot of time between a goal, and the subsequent kickoff, to settle the hand (last call betting and the showdown) and deal the cards for the new hand -- but there is no need to hurry. There isn’t much scoring in soccer, so if the deal is a little late it doesn’t matter.
With that said, let’s take a look at the Futbol Poker deck. There are 90 cards corresponding to which team scores next, and also goal kicks and corner kicks. Additionally, there are cards that are worth points if the half or match ends before the next score. Like the Football Next Score deck, the cards are color coded. Red cards correspond to the Red team, blue cards correspond to the Blue team, and purple cards correspond to either team (red + blue = purple).
For example:
The first card is worth 21 points if the round ends with a Red goal, and second card is worth 13 points if the round ends with a Blue goal. The third card is worth 4 points per Red goal kick during the round, and the fourth card is worth 3 points per Blue corner kick during the round. Some purple cards:
The first card is worth 5 points per corner kick by either team, and the second is worth 5 points per goal kick by either team. Very good cards to have in your hand! The third card is worth 18 points if the round ends with the halftime or final whistle, a good card to have, especially towards the end of the half or match.
The Futbol Poker deck is the easiest to explain of our current batch of Sports Poker decks since there are only four kinds of cards: Goal, Goal Kick, Corner Kick, and Clock. Of course, the cards come in different point values and colors, so there are 90 cards all together in the deck.
Soccer is very different from football since scores (goals) happen suddenly, with very little warning. This makes the strategies in Football Poker games (Drive and Next Score) very different from the strategies in Futbol Poker. With Football, the important factors are things like which team has the ball, and the field position. Those things are not nearly as important in Futbol Poker since they change so often. Instead, the important things are which team is dictating play, a running count of goal and corner kicks in the round, and time left on the clock.
Like all our current Sports Poker games, Futbol Poker hands consist of 5 cards. Players can exchange up to three cards during the round – one at a time, or all at once. The value of a hand is the sum of 5 card values.
Here are two example hands.
If the Red team is dictating play and there is lots of time left in the half then Player One (with the first hand) has a strong hand. The hand is worth 36 points plus an additional 4 for each Red corner if Red scores first. An early bet is probably a good idea. Player Two only has a chance if neither team scores before the halftime whistle. How should Player Two answer Player One’s bet? A fold might be wise, but unless Red is really dominating, I think I would call the bet. As the clock ticks down, Player Two’s chance of winning increases. If nobody has scored with just a few minutes to go, Player Two’s hand is probably going to be worth 50 points plus some from the Corner card. Now Player Two should probably raise the stakes with a bet! What should Player One do? Probably fold! But what if Player One is bluffing? Futbol Poker can have some exciting hands! And there will usually be more than two players!