At the 2006 Jacksonville River Rally Poker Run, Reggie Fountain II, founder of Fountain Powerboats, brought one of his 47-foot enclosed-cockpit race boats, crewed by a championship-winning driver-throttleman team. The goal was to show that his step-bottom monohull was as fast as—or faster than—the high-performance sterndrive catamarans running at the front of poker runs.
At the time, that was how poker runs worked. Performance-boat owners built catamarans and V-bottoms with high-output engines with one goal in mind: Beat the other boats to the next card stop. It didn’t earn them anything other than bragging rights, but that’s how the game was played.
For the most part, we’ve put those days astern, and today, poker and fun runs bring together performance-boat enthusiasts with hearts as big as their pockets. They have raised millions of dollars for charities around the country. Performance center-consoles often make up the majority of the fleets, and the participants like to feel as if they’re doing something positive while enjoying their boats at venues they might not normally frequent. Check out these eight great charitable poker runs.
Boyne Thunder
Boyne City, Michigan – June 10 to 11
At any poker run, during the morning drivers’ meeting, participants are told it’s not a race. Among poker-run promoters, however, there’s a different kind of competition that the folks at the Boyne Thunder Poker Run win virtually every year. When registration opens, the slots sell out in minutes.
“We’re just grateful for the people who participate,” said Ingrid Day, the run’s event coordinator. “They want to run in really good water, hang out with their friends, and help the community.”
Boyne Thunder consistently serves up some of the roughest water that poker runners encounter in a year. Boyne City is on Lake Charlevoix, but most of the run takes place on Lake Michigan, which is why the event attracts owners of serious offshore machines, including 47-foot Apache V-bottoms and Skater and MTI catamarans in the upper 40- and even 50-foot range.
Boyne City has a population of 3,700, and the Friday night street party draws more than 20,000 people from all over the country. Boyne Thunder raises about $250,000 annually for its primary charities, Camp Quality and Challenge Mountain.
Joey Gratton Memorial Fun Run
Sarasota, Florida – New Year’s Day
For years, performance boaters in Sarasota, Florida, have gone boating on New Year’s Day. “One year, we were having a mild winter, and we said, ‘What are you going to do on New Year’s?’ and we decided to go boating,” said Ryan Beckley, a veteran offshore powerboat racer from the Sarasota area.
On November 11, 2011, one of Beckley’s friends and a champion offshore racer, Joey Gratton, was killed in an accident at the world championships in Key West, Florida.
The following year, the annual New Year’s Day gathering was named “The Joey Gratton Memorial Fun Run,” and it has continued every year since then, growing and drawing boaters from around the country. “Now it’s a week-long event,” Beckley said. “People are here the day after Christmas.” It could be argued that no event has grown more organically than this one. It is not advertised, and the run draws around 100 boats each year. There’s no registration fee, and boaters pay their own way.
Now 44, Gratton’s twin sons, Brock (far left) and Blake (far right), attend the run in their outboard-powered 39-foot Doug Wright catamaran. Gratton’s widow, Priscilla (third from far right), usually attends as well. “It’s always a great day to celebrate my dad,” Blake said. “It’s truly a great way to get together with old friends.”
Catalina Island Fun Run
Long Beach, California – September 25 to 27
California has thousands of miles of shoreline on the Pacific Ocean, yet many boaters in the greater Los Angeles area trailer their boats 300 miles or more to Arizona’s Lake Havasu or Nevada’s Lake Mead to get out on their fresh waters.
Corey Vodvarka, a performance boater who lives in the Long Beach area, owns a 30-foot Eliminator V-bottom. “I was close with (late Eliminator founder) Bob Leach, and we got talking, and he said, ‘You don’t put many hours on your boat. Why don’t you just go out on the ocean?’”
Vodvarka started taking rides around Long Beach. One weekend, he and some friends got adventurous and took a trip to Catalina Island, which is 26 miles off the Long Beach coast. They did this a few more times and Vodvarka started posting photos and videos on social media. Then people started asking if they could join the group, and 10 years ago, the first Catalina Fun Run was held. A friend who was learning to fly helicopters took a photographer along and covered the run from the air. Then Vodvarka decided to sell sponsorships to pay for the helicopters.
The run typically draws between 50 and 60 boats, and sponsors include Phoenix-based DCB Racing and Florida’s Cigarette Racing Team. Last year, Stu Jones, founder of the Florida Powerboat Club, and his wife attended.
Today, the run spans a weekend with boaters choosing between venues at the island’s main harbor, Avalon, and Two Harbors on the back side. Eventually, Vodvarka said he’d like to have the run support a local charity.
Key West Powerboat Week
Key West, Florida – November 4 to 9
Held in conjunction with the offshore powerboat racing world championships, the Florida Powerboat Club’s Key West poker run draws more than 200 entries, transforming the southern-most city in the US to the performance-boating capital of the world.
Jones founded the club in 1993 to bring an organized, professional format to poker runs. Recently, he changed the format to fun runs and a more festival-style of event. “We’re a highly organized venue-hosting company,” Jones said. “We make sure these people can manage the logistics of a long day on the water.”
Groups depart on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, primarily from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. A smaller fleet leaves from Fort Myers on Florida’s west coast. There are multiple lunch stops in Key Largo, Marathon, and other locations. Evidence of the changing scene in the poker-run world, many of the participating boats are center-consoles from MTI, Nor-Tech, Midnight Express, Mystic, and others.
Once the boats and crews are in Key West, there are daily outings and evening festivities. Many club members enjoy watching the races that take place Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The club holds charitable events with the Boys and Girls Clubs in Fort Lauderdale, grief-relief organizations, and the Boys. and Girls Clubs of Key West.
1000 Islands Charity Poker Run
Clayton, New York – July 16 to 18
Since 2017, more than 100 high-performance boats have made their way to the US side of the St. Lawrence Seaway to take in the scenery and help raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central New York.
The 1000 Islands Charity Poker Run has become a must-attend event for many performance boaters because of its location and beneficiary. Every year on Friday, boat owners volunteer their boats, fuel and time to take Make-A-Wish kids on rides. Last year, one child asked if he could sit next to the captain, and the owner of the million-dollar MTI center-console didn’t hesitate, saying “Take the wheel.”
“That’s exactly how I want people to feel when they get here,” said Bobby Cantwell, president of the 1000 Islands Charity Poker Run board of directors. “We want them to feel welcome, family friendly and invested.”
Last year, the giving back part of the event went to the next level when a young lady who serves in the US Air Force surprised her younger sister, a Make-A-Wish kid, during the awards and auction on Saturday night. When the older sister introduced a special military challenge coin on behalf of the run, the participants overwhelmed the dedicated online server trying to purchase the coins, temporarily shutting it down. Each coin was then donated back for someone else to purchase. The giving became significant. In 2025 alone, the run raised $387,000 for Make-A-Wish of Central New York.
Tickfaw 200 Poker Run
Blood River Landing, Louisiana – April 30 to May 2
A prime candidate for the most unique destination for a performance-boat event is the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run, which takes place in the bayous of Louisiana. It takes off from Blood River Landing in Springfield, Louisiana, and the two-day event takes boaters up the Blood River one day and to Lake Pontchartrain the next.
It’s called the Tickfaw 200 because the run is the second in a series of charitable events, including the Amite 100, a local run hosted by the Baton Rouge Boat Club, and the Blind River 300 for veterans’ charities.
Glen Alack, who produces the event, owns Crazy Charlie’s Fun House, the host facility for the Tickfaw 200. The Fun House is only open for the 200 weekend, and the primary charity is Terrebonne Arc (TARC), which serves adults and children with special needs. There is no registration fee, and donations are made through the sale of poker hands. Over 400 hands were sold for the 2025 event, with between 300 and 400 boats participating.
Lake Powell Challenge
Page, Utah – September 17 to 20
Virtually every poker run is held in a destination someone considers beautiful, but only one takes place in a national park, where breathtaking mesas and vistas ring the body of water. The 2026 Lake Powell Challenge is held at Antelope Point Marina on Utah’s Lake Powell, part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
“The scenery at Lake Powell—there’s nothing like it in the world,” said event planner Amber McDaniel. “One of my favorite things as an event planner is seeing the reaction of the people attending the first time.”
The event is in its 15th year, and it benefits the Lake Powell Challenge Charities Foundation. It draws between 50 and 80 boats. Last year, the Diesel Brothers—local celebrities who have a TV show about the custom diesel trucks they build—performed a flyby. Additionally, Rick Lindsey and his XInsurance offshore racing teams plan to be at the 2026 event with their turbine-powered, 50-foot Mystic catamaran.
Many attendees stay on houseboats that are available at Antelope Point. One annual beneficiary is the Navajo Nation Scholarship Fund that benefits an Antelope Point Marine employee or family member of an employee.
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Toys Run
Palatka, Florida – December 6
In 1999, the US Marine Corps asked Scott McCormick, who was then an employee at Velocity Powerboats, if he and some boating friends wanted to help support the military’s annual toy-donation drive, Toys for Tots.
McCormick said, “Why don’t we make it a fun run and donate toys by water?”
The first year, six Velocity owners participated, starting in Sanford, Florida. As the fleet grew and took over the St. John’s River in 2001, the marine patrol pulled over the group and issued speeding tickets to everyone.
Soon after, McCormick left Velocity, but in 2014, he got back into the poker-run scene. As fate would have it, he purchased the performance-boat manufacturer in 2018, McCormick took over the Toys Tour. “I said, ‘Let’s see how many toys we can collect for Putnam County, which is Florida’s poorest county,’” he said. “It started gaining traction, and I said, ‘I don’t want it to be a poker run, I want it to be about giving.’”
He charges $35 per boat to participate, and Velocity pays for all meals and awards. “Since the adults are giving to the kids, I’m giving back to the adults,” McCormick said. In 2025, 110 boats attended and 370 people registered for the event.
What’s great about the Toys Run is that it takes place primarily on the St. John’s River, so smaller boats can make the run and join the fun. The total distance is 45 miles, which helps boaters with smaller fuel tanks, and some stops are in backwoods areas that give the event a throwback feel.
