Nassau bet: front nine, back nine, the 18, and the press

Say "$5 Nassau" and you have named three stakes, not one. Five dollars rides on holes 1 through 9. Five dollars rides on holes 10 through 18. Five dollars rides on the match from the first tee to the last green. Lose the front and you can still win the back and the 18. Win all three and you win $15, before presses enter the card.

The back nine starts all square on the 10th tee. The overall does not reset. It keeps the holes already won and lost.

This is a match between two players. Ana and Ben play their own balls. A foursome can run the same three bets as a team game, usually better ball, and the press rules below still fit. The worked card is the two-player version so every hole has one winner or a half.

The stake comes from the other player. PvP gambling is the family name. Nobody is laying a book. Sports betting on this site is reading material. It is not a Nassau desk. The other foursome cards are wolf, skins, side bets, and bingo bango bongo. Adults 18+. The page is rules and a full card, not a pick and not legal advice.

Match play counts holes, not the total of your strokes. If Ana makes 4 and Ben makes 5, Ana wins the hole and goes 1 up on every bet that includes that hole and is already running. If both make 5, the hole is halved and every live bet stays where it was. The 4 and the 5 are only there to decide the hole. They are not added into a stroke-play purse.

The table later shows Ana's lead. A positive number means Ana is up. A negative number means Ben is up. Zero is all square. A blank, written as a dash, means that bet is not being played on that hole yet, or the nine it belonged to is over.

A player may concede a hole. The concession is a loss on every bet that is live. Picking up the ball with no concession leaves the hole unfinished. Finish it or give it. On this card nobody concedes. Every hole is won by Ana, won by Ben, or halved.

You keep playing after a nine is decided. The overall may still be alive, and the back nine has not started.

Peer to peer sports betting needs the same grade: a win, a half, and what a concession does. Write it before the first drive.

A press is a new bet for the same $5. It covers only the holes still left on that nine. It starts all square. The original bet keeps running beside it. Calling it double or nothing hides that fact. You can win the original and lose the press, which is what Ana does on the front.

This card uses an automatic 2-down press. When a player is 2 down at the end of a hole, the new bet starts on the next tee. Nobody has to ask, and nobody can refuse. A manual press, where the leader may say no, is a different agreement.

Presses apply to the nine you are on. They do not apply to the overall on this card. Some groups press the 18 the same way. If you want that, the card gets more bets and the $25 below is the wrong total. Leave the overall unpressed unless the first tee said otherwise.

A press can be pressed. Go 2 down on the press and another $5 starts on the following hole. A press with no holes left does not open. Two down after the 9th is a lost front. Front presses die at the turn. The 10th tee is a fresh nine, all square, plus the overall's lead.

The presses on this card open like this. After hole 2 Ana is 2 up on the front, so Ben is 2 down and front press 1 starts on hole 3. After hole 4 that press has Ben 2 up, so Ana is 2 down and front press 2 starts on hole 5. After hole 11 Ben is 2 up on the back, so back press 1 starts on hole 12. After hole 14 that press has Ana 2 up, so back press 2 starts on hole 15.

The number in each bet column is Ana's lead after the hole. Dash means the bet is not live. "Half" means the hole was halved.

Read the last line of each bet. Front closes on hole 9 with Ana 1 up. Front press 1 closes with Ana 1 down, so Ben wins it. Front press 2 closes with Ana 1 up. Overall closes on 18 with Ana 2 up. Back closes with Ana 1 up. Back press 1 closes with Ana 3 up. Back press 2 closes with Ana 1 up.

After hole 17, back press 1 is already Ana's. She is 3 up with one hole left. Ben could win 18 and she would still be 2 up. The half on 18 does not change a bet that could not be lost.

Each win pays $5 from the loser to the winner. Ana wins the front, front press 2, the overall, the back, back press 1, and back press 2. That is six times $5, or $30. Ben wins front press 1, so Ana pays him $5. Net, Ben pays Ana $25. The three original bets would have been $15 at most if every one went the same way and nobody pressed. The presses are why a "$5 Nassau" settled at $25.

Presses are where a small Nassau bet gets large. Settle these lines before hole 1.

• The three amounts. This card is $5, $5, and $5. A $5 front, $5 back, and $10 overall is a different sentence.
• Automatic 2-down presses on the nines only. The overall is not pressed.
• A press starts on the next hole, all square, and only for the holes left on that nine.
• A press may itself be pressed. There is no cap on this card. Add a cap if you want one.
• The leader cannot refuse an automatic press. If you want refusals, you are on manual presses, and you must say so.
• A concession loses every live bet on that hole.
• A personal stop. Seven bets of $5 is $35 of face value. Ana's win was $25. A worse card can be the whole $35, and a longer press chain can pass it.
• That stop fits inside a gambling budget written before the round, not renegotiated at the turn.
• Adults 18+. Responsible gambling covers a match between friends. The unit being five dollars does not move it outside that page.

If you did not discuss presses, you do not have this card. You have three bets and a future argument.

A four-ball Nassau uses the same three bets, with a side's score equal to its better ball. "$5 a team" means the losing team hands over $5. "$5 a player" means each loser pays each winner. This example is one versus one, so $5 is loser to winner.

Strokes, if you use them, come off the score before you decide the hole. List the holes. A stroke announced after a press has opened is a new rule aimed at a live bet. Betting with friends online gets the same dispute when the rule shows up after the result.

A bet closes early when the lead is bigger than the holes that remain. Front press 1 on this card stays live through 9, because a 2-up lead with holes left can still be caught. Back press 1 cannot be caught after 17. You do not have to play the last putt to know who won that press, but you may still need the putt for the overall, the back, and back press 2. Pick up only the bets that are mathematically over. Play the rest.

A 50-50 raffle settles by a draw. A Nassau bet settles by holes won. If you want a draw to break an all-square nine, that is an extra rule. This card leaves an all-square nine as a push that pays zero. None of the seven bets pushed.

On the course Ben pays Ana $25. No third party takes a cut. Seven bets have a face value of $35. The net is $25 because Ana lost one of them.

An equivalent pot has both players post the stake. Each $5 bet is a $10 pot. Seven bets are $70 posted. Jackpot and Coinflip take 5% of the pot. Five percent of $10 is $0.50, and five percent of $70 is $3.50. That fee is what a pot game would remove. Ana and Ben do not pay it.

The $25 and the $70 are different piles. The $25 is the net of seven winner-take payments. The $70 counts both players' stakes on every bet, including the bet Ben won. House edge is the name for the cut inside a priced game. Coinflip takes its 5% off a pot. It does not score a nine. Roulette on this site is a 33-slot house game.

PVPspinArena does not offer a Nassau, does not press a nine, and does not hold this $25. Adults 18+.