Ferrari brings together exotic cars, poker in a charity run

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Five-stop race raises $7,000 for non-profit foundation

Luxury cars and poker stars have a long-running relationship. After all, what are the things would you want to buy if you happened to win a high stakes poker match or the Main Event at the World Series of Poker? Expensive cars are sure to be somewhere around the top of that list.

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Of course, not everyone can be a professional poker big shot and use those winnings to fill their garages with exotic autos. It takes more than just playing a few hands and following the latest World Poker Tour news on the PartyPoker Twitter account to reach that level.

Be that as it may, you don’t really need to be great at poker or even own an exotic car to experience a melding of these two hobbies. You can just check out an exotic car poker run such as the one organized by the Ferrari Car Club of America in early August.

First things first, though. A poker run is a race where the objective is not to come in first at the finish line. Poker run routes have a number of stops along the way. Participants each collect a card at each of these stops. Whoever has the best poker hand at the end of the event wins. Basically, it doesn’t matter if your ride is as slow as molasses. You still have a chance to win as long as you reach the finish line before the event is over.

The Ferrari Exotic Car Poker Run was held on August 10th and featured a total of 65 exotic cars including Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and McLaren supercars. The South Florida race started at Ferrari-Maserati of Fort Lauderdale, where participants picked up their first cards. The five-stop poker run’s grand prize was a weekend at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, massage packages at Bliss Spa, $1,000 in cash, and the use of a Ferrari California for the weekend.

The prizes are only secondary to the poker run’s true intentions, however. The entire poker was the brainchild of the Fuoco Group and was organized for the benefit of Hospice of Broward County Foundation, a non-profit organization that takes care of terminally ill patients. The poker run managed to raise a total of $7,000 for the foundation. There seems to be some talk of turning it into an annual race, too, so those who didn’t get to enter this year may hopefully be able to join the fundraiser’s second running.

It’s certainly an unusual way to hold a fundraiser, but how else would you see exotic cars, poker, and a good cause all rolled into one successful package?