Lake Norman Poker Run

[Wayne Irwin]

Hey, my wife just got an invite today for the two of us to meet some friends / customers tomorrow morning at Lake Norman for a poker run.

She has very little information on this except for when we meet a customer of her's at their house in the morning off of exit 33. I understand this is an old event about ten years running now and is for charity.

Any of you fast boats going to be there tomorrow?
We will be in a Crownline boat about 25 feet which is suppose to be white with navy blue on the sides.

Please wave at us if you see a boat like that. I will try and get some good pictures. Hope to meet some more of you.

I cannot believe that I did not know what a poker run was two months ago and now I will have done two in less then a month. I see how you guys get addicated to this.

[Wayne Irwin]

This has turned out to be a fantastic weekend for me. Church service this morning was very inspirational, it has rained and we very much needed the rain and I got to do what to me was the best poker run ever yesterday.

I hope all of you know Christ as your savior. God Bless all of you.

The rain at my house was like I had a big sprinkler over my entire yard. I was out at 6AM standing in it like my dog does. Thank you Lord.

Now for the poker run. It turned out to be awesome. All I can say is WOW. This was put on by the PYC yacht club off of exit #28. That is one very nice place. I did not know it even existed, but the marina, docks, resturant and all were first class. We arrived about 9AM and there was already two fast boats tied up together that really got my heart pumping. One was a DCB cat with V-10 engines and the other was a Baja Outlaw that belonged to Doc Holiday.

I got to talking to Doc and found out that he does poker runs all over the this part of the country. I wish I had met him and Bill at Hartwell, it could have saved me a lot of questions. He knows all the runs, the boats and people and got me hooked up with a ride for the Jacksonville with one phone call on a Baja outlaw. I cannot thank him enough for seeing that I was a stand up guy and being willing to help me.

This poker run was a lot like Hartwell in that everyone on the boat could buy a hand and play. The hands were only $15.00 and they sold over 500 hands. First place paid $2500.00, second place paid $1500.00 and third place paid $1000.00 and then they still had money left for a charity. That is a pretty good deal when you consider the odds of winning.

They had 200 boats and I think they said 500 people total. There were a lot, but every one was super friendly and this was just the kind of place you never wanted to leave. The breakfast was free and they gave everyone a bag with lots of goodies in it that bought a hand. You were on your own for lunch, and then they had was wonderful dinner ($15.00 per person) and a live band played till dark.

Most of the boats were slow boats. There were lots of cruisers with as many as 15 people aboard, there were a lot of run abouts and probably 12 to 15 go fast boats. I laughed at Doc, he was one of the first boats to complete the run and was back at the yacht club watching golf in the bar with friends and having a few drinks. He was nice enough to answer all my questions and then when Jacksonville came up I could not believe that he was willing to help me out.

I have some pictures that I will try and get posted of the go fast boats for you guys.

Thank you Jay and Sarah for allowing us to tag along and thank God for a wonderful weekend.

Oh yeah, I think Doc's wife won second place with a full house if I understood right. I was at the docks when they announced the winners and a guy there told me said folks with the Baja won, just not sure which Baja. My crew pulled out to get back to their condo before dark and I did not did get to find out for sure who the winners were.

I cannot wait for Jacksonville.

[MIKES280]

sounds like a good time we were working hard on the boats to get ready for Jacksonville it seams like everyyear we are working up o the last min to get ready but we will be there ready to go

[lulu2049]

hey my dad and i will be there! we are meeting one of our friends and going up to rusty rudders! we will be in a DCB 34! hope to see you guys there