Louisiana’s Tickfaw 200 serves up Southern hospitality.
By Gregg Mansfield
Photos by Todd Taylor and Guice Mercer
It was opening weekend for Jim Burns’ bar on the Blind River in Louisiana when powerboat after powerboat pulled up to the docks and hundreds of people started pouring into the bar.
“It was nuts,” Burns said about the poker runners in town for the Tickfaw 200. “Nobody wants the grand opening to be the biggest weekend of the year.”
The bar literally rose from the ashes, burning down six years ago. A pair of investors and Burns bought the property, rebuilt the bar, added docks, a playground for kids and plans for vacation rentals. The Blind River Bar is only accessible by water and the bar’s opening coincided with the Tickfaw 200.
The Tickfaw 200 is an important event for the Livingston Parish region both economically and a source of community pride. Hurricanes and the pandemic hammered southern Louisiana, so when the Tickfaw 200 was revived in 2023, it was a big deal for the bars and restaurants on the meandering waterway.
“It’s a huge economic impact for the area,” said Kathleen Abels, marketing manager for Livingston Parish Tourism. “It not only impacts Livingston Parish, it helps surrounding parishes too.”
The Tickfaw 200 is a unique poker run in the heart of Cajun country that drew more than 150 performance boats in early May. The “Fun House” at Blood River Landing serves as the base and sets the tone for the poker run. Built by the late Charles Albert using wood and materials from the surrounding area, old signs, crab pots and flags hang from the ceiling.
There was live music throughout the weekend as it’s one of the few times the private Blood River Landing is open to the public. Organizers brought back its infamous chicken drop to raise money for the Springfield Fire Rescue. For those not familiar with the game, if the chicken poops on a square, the winner gets $250.
The game reflects the spirit of the Tickfaw 200 and why it’s a national draw for the performance-boating community. The Tickfaw is a three-day event, and the poker runners make their own schedule for the weekend. Among the stops were Blue Crab, Sun Buns, Prop Stop and Canal Bank with most bars only accessible by water.
Taylor Berthelot brought his 34’ Fountain to the poker run and knows the area well, living in nearby Denham Springs. Berthelot ran with three or four other boats visiting Bay St. Louis in Mississippi one day, then a trip to New Orleans and a day on the Blind River.
“What makes it so cool to me is you can go anywhere in the world from the Tickfaw River or from any of them rivers,” Berthelot said. “You are not limited to where you can go. You can be in the Gulf of Mexico within a few hours, or you could go back upriver and get into the Mississippi River. You can get into the intracoastal waterway, you can get into the Gulf of Mexico. There’s nowhere in the world you can’t go from right there.”
About an hour north of New Orleans, Livingston Parish is where the Amite and Tickfaw rivers meet. Boaters can cruise through winding rivers and tributaries with cypress-lined shores. Poker runners weren’t required to visit all the card stops, but if they did, the run would cover more than 200 miles.
Most of the poker runners would pick a couple bars or restaurants to hang out on the river during the day before returning to Blood River Landing in the late afternoon. With the Blind River Bar, the newest bar and restaurant on the river, it was a popular stop for the performance boaters and locals.
Burns had 10 bartenders working opening weekend as the crowds that poured through the establishment on Friday and Saturday.
“It was hard to get a cold beer because there were so many people there, which is a good thing for them,” Berthelot said.
Albert, who passed away in 2019, started the Tickfaw 200 poker run in 1996 to increase tourism to the Livingston Parish region. The decision nearly 30 years ago spawned a cottage industry of poker runs in the area. Following the Tickfaw event, the parish hosted the Fireman’s Poker Run to benefit Springfield Fire Rescue.
The tourism group has focused on bringing marine-related tourism to the area from fishing tournaments to poker runs. The bars and restaurants on the rivers are typically open April to October.
“We probably have the most water poker runs in Louisiana,” said Livingston Parish Tourism’s Abels. “People have caught on that poker runs are a good fundraiser if it raises money for a great cause.”
The 2024 Tickfaw 200 was expected to bring in more than $1 million in economic activity for the region.
“It gives the bars a good start to the season by getting people in and getting things going for the year,” Berthelot said. “Some of the bars on the river, especially the ones you can only get to by river, are seasonal businesses and when it’s winter, they don’t have any business. They have to make it while they can.”
