Introduction

A game of Racing Horse or Horse Race, comes with a set of dice, poker chips, and a deck of cards.

The Aces, Kings and Jokers are not required for this game, and should be removed from the deck, leaving 44 cards per deck. When there are more than four players, you may need two decks of cards.

How to Play

Choose a dealer to shuffle and deal out all cards. (Players may not necessarily receive the same number of cards). Place all horses at the starting gate.
Four horses must be eliminated, or “scratched”, before the game starts. To scratch horses, have the player to the left of the dealer roll the dice. The total sum of both dice will be equivalent to the number of the horse that will be scratched (For example, rolling a #2 and #6 will result in horse number eight’s elimination).
The player moves the chosen horse to slot number 1 in the scratch lot. All other players will lay aside any cards matching the number of the scratched horse (For example, if the scratched horse’s number is eight, the players will lay aside all #8 cards). They will also put chips into the pot for every card held that belongs to the same number of the scratched horse.
The next player to the left rolls the dice to choose the next horse to be placed in slot number 2 of the scratch lot. All other players holding cards that match the number of the horse will need to contribute 2 poker chips per card into the pot and discard said cards. Repeat this procedure for the third and fourth roll of dice, but the contribution is 3 chips and 4 chips, respectively.
The next player to the left rolls the dice and moves the matching horse one space up. If the number is one of the scratched horses’, the player puts the same amount of chips into the pot that is shown on the side of the Scratch slot that that horse is in. Continue the game in clockwise rotation until one of the horses reaches the end of its run.
The winning players are the ones who finish the game with cards matching the winning horse. (Your cards are your “shares” of each horse in the race!) Winning players do not need to contribute any more to the pot. Any players who do not hold winning cards in their hand are required to contribute 1 chip for each card they hold into the pot.
The pot is divided four ways when one deck of cards is used and each card with the winning horse’s number wins 25% of the pot. If horse 8 should win and you have two eights in your hand, you win 50% of the pot. (If two decks are used, the pot is divided 8 ways).