Card Player Poker Tour Local Heroes: Gary BodleyGary Bodley Began Taking Poker Seriously in 2003 |
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The Card Player Poker Tour will be focusing on the familiar faces at card rooms and casinos during Season II stops in a new web series. CPPT Local Heroes will highlight the regular, everyday average Joe, who may not be known world wide but is certainly known to anyone who frequents their local poker room.
Gary Bodley, like many involved in poker today, began taking poker seriously after watching Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker Main Event. Having worked in real estate his entire adult life, and a current real estate investor, Bodley took up another life long passion in 2003: poker.
“What’s funny is I had never watched the WSOP before and it just caught my attention that time,” Bodley said. “I had always played poker my whole life in home games, and at the time I was no better than anyone else.”
Bodley then began playing on PokerStars and that is when things really started to change. Now a regular at Palm Beach Kennel Club, Bodley regularly appears in the Player of the Month leaderboards, having won it twice and finishing in the top five five times in the last ten months.
Name: Gary Bodley
Hometown: West Palm Beach, Florida
Resides: West Palm Beach, Florida
Age: 50
Occupation: Real Estate Investor
You are a regular face here at Palm Beach Kennel Club. What drew you to this card room?
It’s interesting because I was playing online when I lived in Jupiter (Florida). We moved back to Palm Beach and I came in here one day and I didn’t even realize they had poker here. So I started playing in tournaments more and more, the people were great, Wil (tournament director) is fantastic. Everything is run properly and it’s just really great. I also go to the Hard Rock occasionally or the Isle in Pompano Beach.
Do you travel for tournaments?
No, not yet, but I will. For the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. I have played cash in Vegas but never a tournament.
What has led you to start traveling now?
I’m just getting more into it.
How long have you been playing poker for serious money – outside of the home games you played previously? Did you ever consider leaving real estate altogether to play poker.
Since 2003. And no, because I can pretty much do both. I buy and renovate houses and I have crews that work for me. I can get everything done before noon and then come here to play.
Having played poker all your life, no-limit hold’em likely wasn’t the game you grew up on. What were you playing prior to the poker boom?
We played all kinds of crazy games, stud, baseball – a form of stud where nines and threes are wild, games we would make up.
As a regular at a brick and mortar card room, what are your thoughts on online poker coming back to the United States?
I’m ambivalent because I love playing live poker. I love seeing people’s faces and getting to know their tendencies. Online there are so many people you can’t really remember every one you play with and it’s a different style altogether. Live is a lot more fun and I’m not doing it at 3am.
Would you still continue to play live even if playing online was an option?
I think I would like to stick to live. For big tournaments like the Aussie Millions I might play online for satellites, things like that.
What is your biggest accomplishment to date as far as tournament poker goes?
The cool thing is here they have a Player of the Month every month. I’ve won it twice and been in the top five at least five times and they have only had it ten times so far. So I’m up there and that is what really motivates me a lot to be here. The first place finisher gets $3,000, second place gets $2,000, $1,500 for third, $1,000 for fourth and $500 for fifth. And then the top 100 players get entered into a $25,000 free roll and everyone wants to be in that. It is really a lot of fun and I’ve cashed in that almost every time as well. Last time I came in sixth and got seats in this event (event 1: $345 no-limit hold’em $100,000 guarantee) and the main event.
If you could achieve one big score in tournament poker, what would it be?
To win a WPT or a WSOP event. I don’t really care about the money, but I would like to win one.
If you could play heads up with any poker player in the world, who would you chose?
I really like the guys who are top pros now. Like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. To play next to one of them would be unbelievable. I have a friend who was next to Ivey at a tournament in Hollywood and something like that would be great. To see what they are like, their demeanor, what kinds of things they do at the table, because every time you are playing poker you are learning something.
Palm Beach Kennel Club’s poker room features 64-tables and is the only licensed card room in the city of West Palm Beach. The complex is also home to live greyhound racing, hosts simulcast horse racing and jai alai and multiple fine dining options.
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