Play Day – Pay Day Poker Run

54 The Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine Play Day – Pay Day Poker Run

by: lincoln infield

ay is a biG month for motorcyclists, it’s

motorcycle awareness month, the beginning of consistently warm weather, and there are a ton of great events to kick off the warm weather riding season. 2021 brought a new event, the Play Day - Pay Day Poker Run, into the fold for the month of May and a chance to take home a top prize of $1000 with proceeds from the event going to the Spina Bifida Association. $1000 is a hell of a prize but that wasn’t all, second place prize was $500, third place $300 and fourth place $200. Honestly, the $200 fourth place prize is a damn good payout on a $20 buy in and would certainly cover the day’s gas, a steak dinner, and leave a little cheese in your pocket!

Dano Simmons of South Main Customs in Kannapolis, NC had been talking about wanting to host this goliath poker run for a while now and was, like many others, thwarted by 2020. Another year of planning gathered a good group of vendors, sponsors and put the Play Day Pay Day Poker Run on May 1, 2021. It was a beautiful day and the normally quiet roads in Kannapolis were swarming with bikers ready to enjoy a day of riding and the prospect of going home with a pocket full of cash. Dano had reserved his parking lot for vendors and registration, and members of the Concerned Bikers Association directing traffic parked the 3 neighboring parking lots full of bikes. The registration line was moving quickly but trailed out the edge of the parking lot. $20 got you a poker hand sheet, your first card and directions to the stops along the way. A DJ was on site spinning tunes and making general announcements like making sure everyone knew to buy tickets for the raffle prizes. There was a long table of great prizes, including helmets, leathers, and other motorcycle accessories. It was a Chinese raffle, so you could specify what you were trying to win by putting tickets in the bucket in front of specific prizes. It’s a great way to do a raffle and creates a more exciting experience.

It was a huge gathering of bikes, so groups left out on their own starting at 11am with the last bike out at 12 noon. Since the ride wasn’t a led ride, you could go to the stops in any order that you wanted, but if you were going in order the route was to Tamarac Marina in Salisbury, then to Andy’s Sunoco station in Richfield, followed by Elysium Ink in Concord and then back to South Main Customs in Kannapolis. Poker hand stations were set up at all the stops on the 66 mile loop of beautiful back roads and it was a great ride. Back at South Main Customs, Shannon Rights of the McGrath Law Firm, who was a major sponsor of the event, was also giving out prizes to lady riders, since it was International Female Ride Day. The Charlotte CBA had a prize wheel going and were handing out CBA Swag. Down the side of the building the food vendors were BUSY keeping the masses fed. The DJ kept the tunes rolling and intermittently pulled raffle tickets, but everyone

had their fingers crossed that the cards they pulled would rank in the top 4 hands. The poker cards were tallied and Dano took the mic accompanied by his wife, Gina and son Casey . Kelly Taylor took home $200 for 4th place with 3 10’s, Brooks won $300 for the 3rd place hand with 3 aces. Man, three aces are hard to beat, but the craziest thing happened there was a 3 way tie for 1st place. Harold Smith, Nick Jenkins and Jay Muma all had 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 straights. What are the odds of that? Harold and Nick were initially announced ad winners and drew high low cards to decide the winner. Minutes later Jay’s hand was discovered but Dano made it right and hooked Jay up with some cash, too.

The Play Day Pay Day Poker Run was a great event, with a great ride. Dano did it up right and I sure hope to see it become an annual event. Big thanks to South Main Customs, and all the sponsors that helped make this event happen. Keep your eye on the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine’s Cruisin’ Calendar for next year’s event and all the events in between.