Three-Player Betting Games

[iacas]

Sometimes - like, for example, my upcoming trip to North Carolina - I don't have a foursome. In this case and many others, I have a threesome.

I was wondering what kinds of betting games people play with threesomes. I know about skins, I'm not personally a big fan of bingo-bango-bongo, and I'm eager to give "Nines" a try (someone posted about "Nines" here a few weeks ago).

Any others? I never really bet big, but something that lets a few players of reasonably close skill levels (for the trip, handicaps are 4, 6, and 8) compete and have some fun.

Let's hear 'em.

[WhiteSoxFan]

I'm not a fan of skins with the whole carrying over thing - seems to add a decent amount of luck to who gets the big payout, or at least takes more of the control out of your hands. You could have 5 great holes, and win 5 skins, while your buddy can suck wind for 10 holes, and then win 5 skins by having one good hole.

You can always play best ball, putting a $ value on a won hole. If 2 guys have the best score, they cancel out, hell you know what best ball is. Last weekend I played with 2 buddies. After the round I looked at the scorecard for what best ball would've done - One guy won one hole, the other guy won 2 holes, and I won 5 holes. The other 10 holes all canceled out. At 2 bucks per man, per hole, nobody wins or loses more than $20 in that scenario, and you can always modify the hole value to your comfort level. Would definitely make some of those 4 foot putts a little more interesting. Even if you play another game, you could always make the best ball a side bet.

I don't have any other ideas, but I end up playing in 3somes quite a bit, so I'll be interested to get some other ideas from this thread.

[Ben]

Yeah, Nines is the way to go! Super fun game.

[iacas]

Good input thus far. Keep 'em coming!

P.S. The post about a shamble was removed. That's not a betting game and we'll still want to keep our own actual scores for handicap purposes.

[$2 Nassau]

Ever heard of Chairman?? I played it once, and was very skeptical as it seemed silly, but actually turned out to be quite fun and you can keep your own score:

Format: Individual

No. of Players: 3 or 4

The first player to win a hole (untied) becomes the Chairman. If the Chairman wins the next hole then the Chairman wins a point from the other players. Should the hole result in a tie there are no points earned and the Chairman keeps the chair. If one of the other players wins a hole then that player is the new Chairman with no points won or lost for that hole. The new Chairman can then earn points if he wins the next hole, etc, etc.

EDIT: I should also add, that if this situation occurs (which it did when I played) this is how it works. This is how we worked it anyway.

Situation: Player A is the Chairman for a particular hole (let's say it's a par 3 with no strokes given to any players). The Chair (Player A) scores a 4 on the hole, and players B and C both score a 3. In that case, no points are awarded, player A is stripped of his Chairman position. Since nobody actually won the hole (B and C tied) then the Chair position is up for grabs going into the next hole, meaning no points can be earned on the next hole.

We threw in $5 bucks each (there was 3 of us). Most total points wins.

Although if you want you could break it down into 2 nine hole matches, or even throw in total points as well to actually make it 3 games in all if you want to raise the stakes.

[NM Golf]

When we only have three we still play robins. Robins with a foursome means each six holes you get partnered with a different person in the foursome. With a threesome we just assign somebody "Joe Par". Joe Par means you have an invisible partner that always makes par on every hole. The trick is Joe can never win a hole he can just tie. The cool thing is if you win the robin with Joe as your partner you win $ from both people, the uncool thing is if you lose you end up paying both people.

I guess technically you could play several different games using Joe Par as the fourth player.

[iacas]

When we only have three we still play robins. Robins with a foursome means each six holes you get partnered with a different person in the foursome. With a threesome we just assign somebody "Joe Par". Joe Par means you have an invisible partner that always makes par on every hole. The trick is Joe can never win a hole he can just tie. The cool thing is if you win the robin with Joe as your partner you win $ from both people, the uncool thing is if you lose you end up paying both people.

We call that a "6-6-6" (or something kind of like that), and the problem I have with that is that the last six holes are often a bore. The two partners can't change their position relative to each other, and sometimes the team that's ahead often has to win only one hole to ensure that the one player wins.

[hurley9192]

we play Robins as 3 separate 6 hole matches...2 down presses and throw in junk pts (birdies, sandies, sandy birdies, etc)

[NM Golf]

We call that a "6-6-6" (or something kind of like that), and the problem I have with that is that the last six holes are often a bore. The two partners can't change their position relative to each other, and sometimes the team that's ahead often has to win only one hole to ensure that the one player wins.

We play each robin as a new set of bets, and we also play automatic one down presses.

So for instance player 1&2 play player 3 & Joe Par for the first 6 holes. At the end of those six holes players 1&2 win 2 ways so they would each be +2 and player 3 would be -4. Then a whole new bet starts and player 1&3 are a team and player 2 gets Joe Par. At the of those six holes player 2 and Joe Par win 1 way. So now on the day player 2 is +4 player 1 is +1 and player 3 is -5. On the last 6 holes players 2&3 are a team and player 1 gets Joe Par. Say its a blow out and player 2&3 win 5 ways against player 1 and Joe Par. on the day the players would stand: Player 1 -9 player 2 +9 Player 3 even We normally play a buck a point. So I don't see how it would get boring since each 6 holes you get a new bet and a new partner. We play it all the time and if your getting your butt kicked after the first two robins you have to go birdie hunting those last 6 holes to try and get even. Plus you get to hear this a lot, "you never made birdie that much when you were my partner."