Poker runs have become a big part of the motorcycle culture and offer a great opportunity for camaraderie, as well as a way to raise money for charity. Participants take their motorcycles to several stops along a predetermined route and draw cards at each location. The person who has the best hand at the end of the run wins a prize. Poker runs can be run on pavement or dirt roads, and they can be as short or long as you want them to be.
To begin planning a motorcycle poker run, start by selecting a date and getting the word out. Advertise in local community calendars, the newspaper and on the radio. Be sure to list the time and place of registration, as well as any other pertinent details about the event. A good idea is to also contact local law enforcement agencies weeks in advance to see if they would be willing to escort and block traffic for your run.
When organizing the actual event, it is important to recruit enough volunteers to handle all the tasks needed for your run. It is also important to know how many people you can expect to attend, as this will determine how much money you need to raise. For example, if you are holding the run to raise funds for a homeless shelter or children’s hospital, then the amount you need to raise will be higher than if you were raising money for a biker memorial fund.
Make it fun for participants by adding a variety of activities to your poker run. This will attract more attendees and increase the amount of money you raise for your charity. For example, you could have live music, vendors, food trucks, a motorcycle & car show, stunt riders, tattoo contests and Chinese auctions.
Before the day of your poker run, map out the route and have someone not involved with the planning ride it to ensure that the directions are accurate. This will prevent unhappy participants who paid to participate in your event only to find out that the directions were not correct.
The final step is to decide what prizes you are going to award at the end of your run. Some typical awards include best hands, 2nd place, 3rd place, furthest traveled, oldest and youngest riders. It is important to have a large number of prizes available so that everyone who comes to the poker run leaves feeling happy and satisfied with their experience. Be sure to ask local businesses for donations of t-shirts, food, oil and other items to give away as door prizes to your participants. You can also ask participants to bring two halves of a raffle ticket with them when they register for the run. One half is used as their meal ticket and the other will be entered into a drawing for the door prizes at the end of the run. This will help keep your event costs down and allow you to provide more prizes for your participants.