Fun Variations for Your American Idol Pool

Every year at work, my co-workers and I have an American Idol pool. It's all for fun-no entry fee, and the losers pitch in to buy the winner lunch. Here are some different ways you can run your own pool.

Start by deciding when you want to start your pool. With the top 24? 20? Or will you wait until the top 12? This may depend on how many people you will include. You'll probably want to keep it even so that all the American Idol contestants are chosen, and each participant in the pool has one or two contestants, whichever you decide. It's nice to let each person have two so that they can stay in the game longer.

Once everyone has their American Idol contestants, keep track of the standings in a central place and keep everyone updated on who's still in the game, who's out, and any other important news.

Variation #1:
Print out the contestants page from the American Idol website (www.americanidol.com), with all the faces on it. You can just type or write the names on pieces of paper, but at the beginning of the season, most people won't remember which name goes with which face. Cut up the paper so that each face and name is on its on strip of paper. Fold them up and put them in a hat to let people draw their contestants.

Variation #2:
Have a draft pick. Have everyone draw numbers from a hat to pick their order of go, then let each person pick who they want. If each person gets more than one, let the last person go first on the second round and work your way backward through the lineup.

Who Wins?
The traditional way to determine the winner is the person who picked the winner of American Idol wins the pool. However, it's fun to have side bets and challenges along the way to keep up the American Idol excitement.

#1 Whoever loses the most contestants the first week has to buy donuts for the group (this works best with a small group, where each participant has 3 or 4 contestants).

#2 Everyone picks who will be voted off, and whoever has the most right wins a prize, or whoever picks the least right has to do something embarrassing.

#3 Whoever keeps all of their people the longest gets a prize.

#4 Whoever loses all of their people first gets a prize (or a booby prize).

Running an American Idol pool is a fun way to enjoy the season with your friends or co-workers. See what variations you can come up with--it's not to late to start a pool for this season!