A Brief History of Global Poker Federation
15 years and counting...
Our Origins
Back in 2004 Donald and Bernadette Bly were living in the Bremerton area. He became enamored with Texas Hold’em and thought – “I could do that.” He and Bernadette set out to create a social and learning poker league, and Global Poker Federation was born.
Our Impact
Don's idea was to get the smaller leagues around to join up and make a much larger one. At our biggest we spanned 3 states, and several counties here in Washington. Bernadette created the website which for its time was fairly amazing. Don found Venues and together they Labeled chips and hosted Poker games. Don grew the league and guided it into more social areas, such as floating the river, camping, and even outdoor poker games.
Building Community
Don wanted to expand into other areas to bring more and more people together in a friendly social atmosphere. He looked at things like Cribbage and Bocce’ Ball leagues. Anything that could be used to get people out and together. Global Poker Federation’s crowning achievement was bringing people together, Don was most proud of the lifelong relationships and in a few cases Marriages.
What's next for GPF?
Since Don’s passing, it has been my goal to keep all the social aspects of the league together. Continuing to teach people how to play Texas Hold’em, while offering the more advanced players, a way to hone their skills, and even encouraging our members folks to go down and have fun in Vegas once a year. We also want to bring back the River runs, and even organize large group camp outs and hikes. My long-term goal is to make the name Global Poker Federation worthy of its founder, and Expand the federation till it is truly global.