Card Player Poker Tour Local Heroes: Richard DunnRichard Dunn Was Near Retirement When He Found Poker |
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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.
Richard Dunn was about to retire from his job as a transportation broker when he discovered online poker as a pastime. The West Palm Beach, Florida native started playing free games, then slowly moved up to 50-cent-$1 games and higher. Dunn, a father of nine children, grandpa to 15 grandchildren and great-grandpa to one, has yet to retire and is now a familiar face at Palm Beach Kennel Club. He has not made the leap to traveling the live tournament circuits yet, but with the encouragement of his wife he plans to take a chance on the larger stage soon.
Name: Richard Dunn
Hometown: West Palm Beach, Florida
Resides: Singer Island, Florida
Age: 66
Occupation: Transportation Broker
Favorite Game: $2-$5 cash games
Favorite Hand: King-Nine suited
What brought you here to Palm Beach Kennel Club?
We moved from the Keys to Singer Island and this is the closest card room.
How long have you been playing poker? Did you play while growing up?
About three years now. We played home games – nickel, dime games when I was younger.
So three years ago, what brought you to the live tables?
I actually was going to retire and I was kind of bored so I started playing poker. I started online with free chips and then played for 50 cents and one dollar, things like that. I just wanted to learn more about how Texas hold’em is played because I had never played that before. I went from home games to the internet playing for free. Then I went on PokerStars and other sites.
Then you continued to move up in stakes? What happened after that?
I was in Arcadia, Florida at the time and I played at Sarasota, which was about a 50-mile drive and I started playing a lot of single-table tournaments. The first year I played I finished 12th in points, so I thought I was a real hero. Since then, I’m not sure.
How often do you play now? Are you still working or did retirement come your way?
I work everyday but I play six days a week.
Your wife told me earlier she is trying to get you to play in some larger tournaments and to travel. Do you plan on doing that?
Well, I think it’s getting closer.
What tournaments would you like to play in?
I don’t know. Tournaments structured like the ones here are good tournaments, anything in the $100,000 prize pool range that attracts 300 or 400 people.
What are some of your accomplishments as far as poker goes?
We went on an Alaskan cruise and I played a tournament there and won about $1,200 which paid for about half the cruise. So that is one tournament I won. Then I won an online tournament for about $5,500 and I’ve won a few small tournaments.
Are there any professional players you would like to play with?
I would like to be somewhere where Doyle Brunson is and just watch him play. I would like to observe how he plays and maybe it would be nice to play with him.
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.