The Annual Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival in Las Vegas was started in 1999 as a way to bring the various members of the independent music community together to celebrate music and… well, bowling! In the last 14 years, the festival has gone on to evolve into a 3-day event that features up to 60 bands from all over the world, consisting of old-school veterans, contemporary acts, and newer generation artists that showcase more than 35 years of punk rock music’s history and evolution. During its recently concluded 15th year celebration, the event was headlined by DEVO, Bad Religion, and Black Flag.
 
The other main aspect of the annual celebrations is the Punk Rock Bowling tournament, where a total of 252 teams (some with inspired names such as “Dirty Rotten Pinbeciles”, “Austin Gutter Punx”, “Crime Fighting Pizza Party”, “Split Happens”, and “Beanerschnitzels”) compete every year not only for cash prizes, but also for the bragging rights that come with being crowned as the best punk rock bowling team in the world. Needless to say, teams play against each other while punk rock music blasts away from all angles within the bowling lanes.
 
Enter Punk Rock Poker
 
Poker’s popularity has grown by leaps and bounds in the last two decades, thanks to the global exposure that both television and film have provided by way of showcasing not only the game itself, but its players and their lifestyles as well. With the birth of online poker, aspiring players from all around the world instantly gained access to preliminary events such as the partypoker WSOP tournament qualifiers. This meant that anyone almost anywhere in the world could get a shot at winning insane amounts of cash and world championship titles and compete against the best poker players in the world as well.
 
It came as no surprise, then, that the inclusion of “Punk Rock Poker” a few years ago as a new draw for the Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival has generated even more interest in the event. If you happen to be the kind of punk rocker who finds bowling too tame (or too lame!) and find more excitement in being an avid online player or maybe even a seasoned live tournament competitor, then this should all come as good news to all you card-chucking punk rockers out there.
 
Beyond the games, there’s the music, of course. While some might say that there’s nothing inherently punk about bowling or poker, when you throw these and punk rock all into one seemingly confusing mix, but still come out of a three-day haze remembering nothing less than having crazy amounts of crazy fun, well… if that’s not punk, that’s punk enough.