Team Hold-Em a table top communication activity

Activity Objective: For each team to take a single deck of cards and lay them out in such a way that will show all possible poker hands at once in the fastest time possible.

Facilitated Objective: To share and compare resources, to work within the group on communicating needs and to discover there is more than one option.

Needs:

One deck of playing cards per team.
Poker hand descriptions for each team. Attached below.
Flat playing surface for each team.
One stop watch or smart phone with a stop watch feature for each team.

Optimal Group Size: 2 – 10 per team

Time:10 – 25 minutes depending on variation of play.

Procedure:Divide the group into teams. If you have 10 people, then have two people per team. For larger groups, divide each team into no more than 10 people.

Instruct the group that this activity will be a timed event to see how long it will take them to match the playing cards to the poker hand descriptions given in the hand out. All playing cards have to used and displayed at once to show all the poker hands depicting what hand beats what.

The instructions are as follows:

When the facilitator says go, start the stop watch.
Pass out a copy of the handout sheet labeled Figure A to every team.
The goal is to see how fast the team can take a deck of cards and lay them down in the order given by the instructions to the right of the handout. Explain to the whole group that the goal is to use the wording on the right as the instructions and the left side is only to give an example for each hand.
Stack each row from top to bottom. Each row will represent a poker hand matching its description.
50 cards will have to be used, leaving two cards to be laid off to the side.
When done, stop and record your time.

Safety:Before starting, please remind the group to clear off any items on the table. This is to prevent breaking or spilling anything personal.

Facilitation:I have found that in most groups, there is a least one person who does not know what the symbols on the cards represent. You as the facilitator will need to quickly describe them for the group if needed. This is so that every team uses the same vocabulary when playing.

Card Descriptions:

There are four symbols in the deck of cards. Each symbol is called a suit and it represents the grouping of cards.
Each suit has 13 cards. The sequence of cards runs from Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King.

The suites are Hearts , Spades, Diamonds and Clubs
A poker hand, at least for this game is five cards placed side by side in a row representing its discription.

Observations/Questions:

Instruct the group to stand and walk around to other tables. Ask if the solutions are the same or different at each table? Was there more than option? What does that say about people using the same resources but get different results? When that happens
What was the communication like during the activity? Was there any confusion in communication? Was there any time when the activity perfect clarity in regard to communication? When did or how did this occur?
If you play variation 2, what was the planning and execution like? What was it like to get on the same page?

Variations:

If you wish to run this as a fun exercise, then play by the instructions above. Play multiple rounds to get the fastest round possible.
With each team, after round one, they will notice that each group came up with different solutions. Invite one representative from each team to come to you. Tell only the representatives that the goal for each team is to have the exact same solution for each table. They only have 7 minutes to complete the task together at the same time. Also, have them go back to explain that in order to plan and play the game, each team has to stay at the table and their chair. Some may try to hop or slide their chair to another table to see what they have. But they can talk across the room.
With each team, divide and pass out the individual poker hand descriptions evenly. This can be found as individual cards at the bottom of this document. Ask each group to NOT share at any time what kind of description(s) they possess with the other members on their team. In silence can they solve the puzzle without talking and showing their card? If you have less than 10 people, then some players will need to pick up more than one card. Show the group the handout. Explain that you took the poker hand descriptions on the right and placed them on individual cards and for them to recreate the display on the left. Do not let them use the handout as a guideline.

To see the full write up with template cards CLICK HERE!

Comment below and let me know what other variations you can do with this activity and or what type of activities you would like to see.