Hello offshoreonly.com,

My name is Barkley Geib and I am the President of the Pirates of Lanier Family Poker Run hosted at Lake Lanier Islands in Georgia. I have been a member of this site for over 20 years, some of you may remember me as PokerFace (my previous username).

We have had quite a few changes in leadership this past year but I assure you we have the same direction we have always had. That is to host a poker run to benefit Georgia’s children charities such as Camp Sunshine, Camp Twin Lakes, Hall County Boys & Girls Club, and the Edmondson Telford Center. Our direction is to allow everything from pontoons to performance boaters to come together as a family and enjoy a great weekend for the benefit of a higher purpose. To help Georgia’s children in need. This direction allowed us to donate over a quarter of a million dollars to Georgia’s children this past year.

I will tell you we have never had the same event twice. This year is no different, every year we try our best to improve this event for all of the attendees and beneficiaries we call family. This year some new additions include:

• A new weekend for the event July 20th – 22nd, this was a decision that we made based on learning about the Memorial Fun Run for Anthony and Tammy Reece and Art and Melissa McMahan for July 15th - we hope everyone can attend that run, we send our upmost support to them for a great and safe weekend

• A new venue for our ‘Meet & Greet’ for our out of town Poker Run Family
(Yes that’s right, that rumor you heard is not correct – we already have boats registered from New York, Arizona, Alabama, Michigan, Illinois, South Carolina, Louisiana, etc.)

• Friday afternoon there will be a Pirates Cove Beach Bash & Raft up at Lake Lanier Islands with food provided by Fish Tales & Pig Tales (local favorites)

• The Friday night Captains Party has a new venue within Lake Lanier Islands, an Amphitheater! A live concert from a local favorite at the Friday night Captains Party (The Fly Betty Band) but fear not – we didn’t take away everyone favorite Jim N’ Nicks Dinner!

• Saturday will be an open card stop format with no speed limit, yes you read that correctly - no speed limit

• All proceeds are going to Georgia’s children in need (This is not new but something there seems to be a bit of confusion on.)

• Lake Lanier Islands is offering daily discounts to Poker Run attendees for all family attractions

I will also address why did we add in the name Family to our poker run? First and foremost, this event is about the Children – that is what we are here for. We have always addressed our attendees as our Poker Run Family, so this was a natural choice to place in the name for this year. This is our 8th annual event and we cannot wait for July!

If you haven’t registered yet because you weren’t sure about this year or have heard some rumor that you didn’t like the sound of, I encourage you to join us! If you are booking a hotel room at Legacy Lodge, be sure to mention you are with the Poker Run for our special rate. This is going to be another great year with great additions - all for an even greater cause!

Ahoy!
Barkley Geib

Piratesoflanier.com

Already signed up and looking forward to it!

I hope it goes well and maybe we will watch the changes to see if we return in future years.

Always a great time

Good luck with the event and please keep us posted on how it goes.

This will be the first time I'm missing it in 3 years, because of both the assumed changes and scheduling conflicts.

The perception is that is becoming a pontoon fest. If it does still retain the characteristics of a traditional poker run. I will be back next year.

I'm confused, what have we done to give the perception of a pontoon fest, ad the word "family"....

To answer your question, the well-know HP boaters that organized the event for years stepped aside; you nixed the start to an open format;, and you felt the need to change the name of the poker run to emphasize that it was family oriented. In light of all those changes performance boaters made a logical assumption that they were no longer wanted.

I'm happy to hear that we are welcome. I hope you have a successful event and raise a lot of money for the kids. I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks for clearing that up.
We always had a great time there.
This year, 6 of us, 3 boats, are going to take a trip to Germany.

Hopefully, we can return next year.

The venue/accommodations are probably some of the best for a PR. As Mark alluded to, a half dozen or so of our boats do these runs as a group and not only did the timing not work out, last years losses are still hard to bear.

Appreciate the outreach and wish the best.

One of the reasons why i won't return. Saddle Up.