Poker Runs
The idea of a poker run is pretty simple. It has been done for ages by motorcycle clubs and car clubs. You start out with a list of stops, and for each stop you get to draw a playing card. Usually there are five stops. Sometimes there are seven and the player takes the best five cards for their hand. At the final destination the player with the best over all poker hand wins. Its not real complicated.
Poker runs can be strictly for fun or to raise money. The two common things are to have a fifty / fifty for the winners or to have a fixed prize cash or something else. Decide this up front. Let me digress for a moment. Many times I have seen people upset about the way a game or event has been run over something that could have been prevented by simply making the rules, restrictions, etc clear up front.
For a money making poker run I prefer a straight fifty percent to the winner(s) with maybe a 2/3 - 1/3 split for high and low or 1st and second. There is a very good reason to have multiple winners in your poker run. If you are having a raffle, fifty/fifty raffle, auction or other related money makers as part of your event it gives more people a reason to hang around. People won't automatically leave the moment somebody beats their hand. Don't give in to the temptation to change the prize for a poker run if you have a good turn out and the money rolls in. Remember 1/2 of a pot is better than 2/3s of nothing. You may also have accusation of fraud if anybody notices or worse... People won't come to your events in the future. I've seen it happen. Keep your finances straight, and keep good track of what is going on and you will have a reputation to build on.
Thats my two bits about making two bits. Now lets talk about another possible problem. Liability. Anytime you have a possibility of somebody getting hurt in this country you risk getting sued. Don't get gun shy now. I have been on lots of poker runs and I have not seen anybody sue the promoters or sponsors of a run yet. It can happen, but probably won't I'll leave it to you to decide how much risk you have and what to do about it. Here are some of the things you can do to limit your risk. Remember I am just a motorcycle enthusiast. I'm not lawyer so I suggest for large events or if you feel your risk is high that you contact a business or accident lawyer. Some lawyers will offer advice on this type of thing pro bono (free) as they support the motorcycle community. If you feel need of legal council see if you can find one in your area. Also, motorcycle associations like the AMA or ABATE often have good advice in these areas as well as connections that can help you. Here are some simpler things you can do to limit liability. Have all participants sign a simple release form. This may not help in the event of gross negligence, but it could help if a simple accident occurs. You may also want to consider event insurance. A small poker run may only making a few dollars so insurance may cost you more than the event is worth. On the other hand event insurance for a larger event may be relatively inexpensive. For a recent one day rally with over 2000 participants the insurance was only a couple hundred dollars. Not unreasonable at all. Now that you are scared to death of the lawyers and the idiots out there I'll leave you to make your own decisons about how to manage the risk. Just remember to bear it in mind.
Lets get down to work. We have decided we are going to have a poker run. We need to make some decisons and some guesses. You can do something very simple or you can get really fancy. How many people do you think will show up and how hard are you going to promote your poker run. A simple poker run may be put together in a a week and done the next weekend. The simplest and usually easiest poker run to do is what is often called a bar run. Pick a start point and a cost for the run. When people sign up give them a list of bars where they can pick up a match book or get the bartender to initial their stop list. Pick a final destination. When they get to the final destination shuffle a deck of cards and let them pick five cards out of the deck. Then reshufle and do it again for the next rider. Best hand or hands win. Pretty basic stuff. There are some definite benefits to a simple bar run. It takes very little planning. Its easy to get help since the bar owners and bartenders are more than willing to take a few seconds out, because it generates traffic in their establishement. It is easy to manage, and the cards hands are easy to keep track of. People definitely won't complain that it is too difficult or that they are getting thirsty. There are some draw backs too. It is simple and people who have been on tons of poker runs will get bored with it. Some people will not appreciate going to a bunch of bars. (take that for what its worth) Many bars will not allow minors inside at all. Personaly I like to take my kids on fun runs sometimes. A run that takes people through a bunch of back country figuring out clues to the next stop and picking up tokens at odd locations in the middle of nowhere may be the trick to make your run a little different. Its a bit more entertaining. Its also a bit more work to plan, and the bar people may complain about their dry throats. (again take that for what its worth) One thing I saw Yuma HOG do was to have two different routes for a poker run. Its more work, but it gives some additional variety.
One fun bar to bar run I went on had us picking up a sealed envelope at each stop. Inside each envelope was from one to three cards. The envelope was picked at random by the bartender and handed to the rider who was not allowed to open it until they reached their final destination. As a result some people only had five cards and some people had as many as ten or twelve. As a result there were a lot more good poker hands and the excitement level was much higher.
Another that sounded like a lot of fun is a "Zany Darts - Poker Run." I first heard about it from an article written by Amanda Hargis. I received her permission to copy the article verbatim from usenet and post it on my website. It is on the HOW TO articles page of my site and you can link back to her web site from there if you want to read other articles by Amanda. The gist of it was that at each stop the rider had to play an odd and original poker darts variation for their card. For those who don't know, poker darts is often played as an auxilary game at an event. Basically you throw darts at a board with playing cards stuck to it. If you hit a card it is part of your poker hand. Best hand wins etc etc etc... If you want to read more about poker darts I have an article about it on my HOW TO page. To get back to the subject at hand, at each stop a single dart or sometimes more, depending on the circumstances was thrown to determine the card for that stop. One was to throw blind over a pool table at a poker darts board laying out of site on the floor on the other side another was with a bow and arrow. After reading Amanda's article I thought of several other variants that could have been done. Let your imagination run wild. Maybe some kind of spinning wheel and a dart gun or a bunch of soup cans with a playing card in each one and a small bean bag to throw...
The idea of the last couple of paragraphs has been to get your creative juices flowing. Now lets talk about finishing up your run. At the start people signed up during a particular time period. You should have a reasonable time for your LAST HAND DRAWN. For instance if you sign in ended at 12:00 pm and it takes three hours to run straight through your ride then you need to add a little time for people to play around at each stop or maybe take a bathroom or lunch break. It might be tempting to say that the last hand will be drawn when the last rider shows up, but don't do it. Pick a reasonable time and stick pretty close to it. Some people won't finish the run. Some may have had other things turn up. A few people just come to show support and then go home. Others start having fun at one of the stops and don't leave until much later. For whatever reason some people just won't make it to the final destination. figure at least 15 or twenty minutes at each stop and then add a little more time. A noon start with a three hour ride and five stops should have a final hand around five or six in the evening. Too early and many people won't get there on time. Too late and people will get bored and leave.
As long as we are talking about your final destination... Are you going to have just a simple poker run? Do you want to have a raffle? If you do then you need to get prizes. How about a fifty/fifty raffle for cash? Make sure its legal. Nothing like getting busted to ruin an otherwise wonderful event. Are you going to have food or beverages at the end? Will it be part of the price of the poker run or will it be extra? If its at a public place how will you keep freeloaders from eating and drinking at your expense? Do you care if they do?
How about the promotion before hand. For a simple poker run you can just print a few flyers and place them in key locations like local motorcycle shops and known biker bars. For a more involved poker run you may want to do some media advertising. If its for charity, you may be able to get local TV, radio, and newspapers to do PSAs (public service announcements) for free. Here comes the broken record. I have a couple articles that discuss some other options for promotion on my website.
Finally, and most importantly. Look over your plan and see if you think you will meet your goals. They should include making sure that your participants have fun. That you are not doing anything overly dangerous either for your riders or yourself. If you are trying to raise money, are you sure your expenses will be paid? Do you have all your resources handled. Are you going to have enough help to have a little fun yourself?
A quick and dirty poker run can be planned very easily, by anybody who spends a little time. A more extravagant run can stiil be done, but you will probably need a little more help. Don't let yourself be limited by the few ideas I put forth in this article. Its just a simple base line to start from. Let your imagination run wild a bit. Don't shoot down your own ideas either. Just think of anything you want to, then after you quit coming up with ideas look at the practicalities. Define your goals. Pick something you can do, and then do it.