Cowboy Poker - Can You Handle It?

Cowboys and poker surely seem like a natural combination. Lonely cowboys with no family to spend their meager earnings on, a card game to pass the time when they're not riding the dusty trail. However, the actual sport of cowboy poker is an entirely different species of sporting event. It takes guns, nerves of steel, and more than a little bit of luck to come out with the best hand in this adrenaline-inducing event.

Imagine trying to hold your seat and not stand up and run for the hills with 2000 pounds of angry bovine flesh charging at you. Try concentrating on the cards, and your fellow opponents, when you have a massive beast breathing down your neck. Think how difficult it has to be to hold your ground and your nerves all the while seeing that bull out of the corner of your eye, bearing down on you.

The game of cowboy poker (also widely known as bull poker, due to the rather large contestants) began innocently enough with a group of cowboys who decided one evening to spice up a rather boring round of cards. They placed their poker table and chairs in the middle of an arena (for those who do not know, an arena is a large, secure fenced in area in which riding and rodeo competitions are normally held), and proceeded to start a normal game of poker. They had a fellow player turn one of the bulls loose from the day's rodeo events, and bull poker was born.

The rules of this seemingly insane game are simple. Four competitors enter the arena and sit at a normal-sized table placed near the center. They are dealt a regular poker hand, and the bull is released from the chute. The object of the game is not to have the best poker hand. The way to win cowboy poker is simple: stay in your seat the longest. The last man out of their seat wins. Whether the cowboys are knocked out of their seats or turn tail and run, being dislodged from your seat automatically eliminates you. Last man sitting wins the jackpot.

Cowboy poker has become a highly requested sport at rodeos and fairs across the country. People line up by the thousands to see, and to participate, in this crazy game. Would be competitors often pay a small entry fee, which is placed into a jackpot of sorts for the last man sitting. The game is open to players of all ages and genders, and has no limitations besides the limitations the players place on themselves. There are safety precautions in place in most games, which include well-trained rodeo clowns, but it's certainly not without risk.

Cowboy poker is surely an event to make a big splash across the country. After all, who wouldn't want to watch a bunch of brave (or foolhardy) cowboys try and stay sitting with a massive bovine zeroing in on them? Spectators and competitors alike feel the adrenaline rush of this highly entertaining sport.