Team Idea: Poker Walk to Vegas

1/24 -- Looking for a fun way to motivate your team? It's easy! Get a big map of the United States. Determine how many miles it is from your starting town to Las Vegas (using Map Quest or your map legend). Since there are about 2,000 steps in one mile, multiply your number of miles to Vegas by 2,000 to see how many steps you will have to take to get there.

Example: From Elyria to Las Vegas (Map Quest)
2,052.92 miles x 2,000= 4,105,840 steps

That may seem like a huge number of steps, but the more people you have working toward your goal, the quicker you'll get there.

Put the map up with the mile/step goal. Then put up a chart for people to log their step totals for the week on. At the end of each week, add up everyone's steps and mark your progress on the map.

To add a twist to the competition, in true Las Vegas style, make it a poker walk! At the end of the week, anyone with over 60,000 steps gets to pick a card to start or add to their poker hand. You need 5 cards for a full hand so the contest has to run at least 5 weeks. Then after you reach Vegas as a team (which would be a great reason to have a celebration lunch) you can lay your cards down and see who wins the poker game.

Feel free to put any kind of twist you want on this "Poker Walk to Vegas". The goal is to make your walking fun and to have people around you motivate you to get and stay active. With a small amount of effort you can have a huge amount of fun. Good luck!

For those of you who aren't card sharks, here are the rank of hands for your poker game:

These are in order of winning hands, from high to low.

Royal flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit

Straight flush: Straight with all five cards in the same suit (ex:2,3,4,5,6 of spades)

Four of a Kind: Four card of the same number or face value (ex: 9 of spades, 9 of hearts, 9 of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 3 of spades)

Full House: Three cards of one numer or face value and two cards of another number or face value. If more than one player has a full house, the full house with the highest ranking three of a kind wins. (ex: 4 of diamonds, 4 of hearts, 4 of spades, 7 of diamonds, 7 of spades)

Flush: Five cards of the same suit. If there is more than one flush, the hand with the highest card(s) wins. (ex: 4 of hearts, 2 of hearts, 9 of hearts, 6 of hearts, Ace of hearts)

Straight: Five cards in sequence. Cards can be in any suit. An Ace can be used in the highest straight (10,J,Q,K,A) and the lowest straignt (A, 2,3,4,5)

Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same umber or face value (ex: 5 of spades, 5 of hearts, 5 of diamonds, 9 of spades, 4 of hearts)

Two Pair: If two players have two pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. If they have the same high pair, whoever has the second highest pair wins. If they have the same two pair, whoever has the highest fifth card wins.
(ex: 4 of diamonds, 4 of spades, 9 of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 6 of spades)

One Pair: Two cards of the same number or face value. If two players have the same pair the highest outside card wins. (ex: 9 of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 7 of diamonds, 3 of diamonds, 8 of clubs)

High Card: The hand with the highest card(s) wins. (ex: King of diamonds, 4 of spades, Ace of diamonds, 9 of hearts, 6 of spades)