Stick Draw (뽑기): random teams and the Joker stick
A four-player Korean betting game where nobody knows their partner until the hole is over. Five sticks are drawn, matching colours become a team, and the black Joker stick rewrites one player's score.
Written and maintained by the Golf Game Bet Calculator team, who build the scoring engine this site runs on. Last reviewed .
Stick Draw — 뽑기, literally "the draw" — is one of the most popular money games in Korean golf groups because it keeps a four-ball level from the first tee to the last green. Teams are re-drawn every single hole, so a good player cannot simply carry a fixed partner all day, and a struggling player is never stuck losing eighteen holes in a row.
The sticks
The group prepares five sticks: two red, two blue and one black. The black stick is the Joker. Each of the four players draws one stick, leaving one behind, and the colours decide the 2v2 pairing for that hole:
- Two players who draw the same colour are partners.
- The player who draws the black Joker partners with whichever single coloured stick is left over — so if the Joker, one red and two blues are drawn, the Joker joins the red.
- If no Joker is drawn at all, it is simply red versus blue and the hole plays as a normal random four-ball.
What the Joker does
Drawing the Joker overrides that player's score for the hole with a fixed value, whatever they actually made. Three settings are common:
- Always bogey — the classic. Par plus one, every time.
- Always par — a friendlier version that helps weaker players more.
- House rule — par 3 counts as bogey, par 4 as par, par 5 as birdie.
This cuts both ways, which is why the game is fun. A high handicapper who makes a triple bogey and draws the Joker suddenly contributes a clean bogey. A low handicapper who rolls in a birdie and draws the Joker watches it become a bogey. On a par 4 with the Joker set to bogey:
- Player A makes 8 (+4) and draws the Joker → counts as 5 (+1).
- Player B makes 3 (−1) and draws red → counts as 3.
- The scorecard still shows 8 and 3. Only the money math changes.
Comparing Joker settings
The setting you choose changes who benefits most. Here's how the same three raw scores would be adjusted under each setting on a par 4:
| Raw score | Always bogey | Always par | House rule (par-4 → par) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 (eagle) | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 (par) | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 8 (quad) | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Whatever a player actually scores, the Joker replaces it with the fixed value — the raw score itself never appears in the money calculation.
Notice that under any Joker setting, a great score becomes worse and a poor score becomes better — the Joker is a leveller, not a bonus. Groups that want to protect strong players from an unlucky draw sometimes limit each player to at most two Jokers per nine holes; that isn't traditional, but it's a reasonable house adjustment if the black stick keeps landing on your best player.
Deciding the hole
Two win conditions are used, and the group picks one before the round:
- Team total — add both adjusted scores; the lower sum wins the hole.
- Best score — compare each team's best single adjusted score, like four-ball best ball. Lower best score wins.
Settlement
Each hole carries a fixed amount per player. The two losers each pay that amount and the two winners each receive it. At ₩10,000 a hole, a won hole is ₩10,000 into each winner's pocket and ₩10,000 out of each loser's. A tied hole either pushes — no money moves — or carries the stake forward so the next hole is worth double. Over eighteen holes the swings stay moderate, which is exactly why groups with a wide handicap spread like it.
A full hole worked through
Four players draw: red, red, blue, black+blue-leftover (so the Joker joins blue). Raw scores on a par 5 are 5, 6, 5, 9. The Joker player made the 9. With "always bogey" (par 5 → 6) the Joker's adjusted score becomes 6.
- Red team: 5 + 6 = 11 (team total win condition)
- Blue team: 5 + 6 = 11 — a tie
- Under "team total," the hole pushes and, if the group plays carry-on-tie, the next hole is worth double.
- Under "best score," Red's best is 5 and Blue's best is also 5 — still a tie either way on this particular hole.
Etiquette and pace notes
Keep the sticks in one pocket and do the draw in full view of the group rather than one player handling it privately — trust in a random-team game evaporates fast if anyone suspects the draw is being managed. Confirm all four scores are locked in and agreed before a single stick is drawn; changing a score after the draw defeats the entire point of drawing blind.
Playing it in this calculator
Turn on Stick Draw (뽑기) in the Games tab of a room with exactly four players, set the amount per hole, the Joker score and the win condition. On the Scorecard tab, enter all four scores for the hole, then tap the face-down sticks one at a time — the app deals a fresh random set of five each hole. Teams, the Joker adjustment and the money are worked out instantly, and the scorecard keeps showing everyone's real strokes with a small colour dot (or a 🃏) marking what they drew.
Frequently asked questions
Does Stick Draw only work with exactly four players?
Yes, the classic version needs exactly four players because it draws two 2-player teams from five sticks each hole. Larger groups usually split into separate four-balls, each running their own draw, rather than trying to adapt the stick count to six or eight players.
What does 뽑기 (ppopgi) mean?
뽑기 (ppopgi) simply means "the draw" or "drawing lots" in Korean — the same word used for drawing raffle tickets or lottery-style games elsewhere. It refers to the physical act of picking a stick, not to any golf-specific term.
Can a player avoid ever getting the Joker stick?
No — because the draw happens after everyone has holed out and is done blind, every player has an equal 1-in-5 chance of drawing the black stick on any given hole, purely by chance. Over eighteen holes it tends to even out, though short-term runs of bad luck are common and part of the game's appeal.
Why does the draw happen after scores are already in?
Drawing sticks after everyone holes out is the whole point of the game: nobody knows who their partner will be while they're actually playing the hole, so there's no incentive to concede a partner's putt or otherwise help a specific teammate. It keeps every player playing their own ball honestly.
What's a fair Joker setting for a mixed-handicap group?
"Always par" is the friendliest setting and helps weaker players the most, since it effectively hands them a decent score regardless of what happened. "Always bogey" is the traditional default and plays fairly neutral. The house rule scaling with par is worth trying if the group wants more variance.
For other Korean-favourite formats, see Ding-Dong-Daeng and Hussein.