PT Poker

Note: My son, who is studying to be a teacher, invented this game to keep physically fit. He is a Marine Corps cadet, and, like me, knows that physical fitness is a key element of teaching performance.

PT poker is a two-player game. Players bet in pushups. The loser takes the pot. If player A owes 100 pushups and there are 50 pushups in the pot and player A wins the hand, 50 pushups are not subtracted from his total. Player B simply owes 50 pushups.

Since pushups can get tiresome, players may exchange a number of pushups for other exercises. In our version, five pushups are equivalent to one eight-count-body-builder. 100 pushups equals a sprint up a very steep hill. Ab workouts or different types of runs can also be applied.

We keep track of pushups owed on paper. Players are not required to complete all pushups instantly. They may do them at any point during or after the game.

There is an additional penalty if player A does not fold and player B has some rare combination. The penalties we play with are the following: 10 pushups for a straight, 50 pushups for a flush, 100 pushups for a full house, 200 pushups for quads, 500 pushups for a straight flush, and 1000 pushups for a royal flush. So far, nobody has ever owed more than 500 or 600 pushups.

A winner is never declared. If someone wants to quit they can quit, but they must complete all pushups owed at some point during the day.