John Holley - Destin's wildest poker captain

A professional life split between fishing and poker can be all work and no play.

John Holley has a lot to be proud of – he captained a commercial fishing boat in his 20s, has more than $2.2 million in tournament earnings and was a ringer in competitive softball. But when asked what he’s most proud of, he doesn’t hesitate a beat.

“My kids are everything,” said the father of three. He has two currently enrolled at Florida State University and his oldest is a pharmacist. “I already miss watching my kids – my son played football and my youngest was a cheerleader – she just took third a national powerlifting competition.”

“I would take all fall off and then start playing in January,” Holley said. “I think I played more tournaments than anyone else from 2013-2017. I had the most cashes in that span and it was close between Ari (Engel), Aaron Massey and Eric Baldwin and myself.”

Holley, now 64, still lives in Destin, Florida and his phone lights up with a picture of his kids at the beach. Leaving the ocean isn’t something he’s prepared to do. “I’m a fisherman,” he stated confidently. “My God-given talent is fishing, and I’ve known that since I was a kid.”

Holley came to poker seriously later in life but had a familiarity with cards. During his years as a boat captain, when the forecast looked poor, the fishermen would tell each other, “It’s 90% chance of poker tomorrow.”

We would get together and play all the crazy games,” Holley said. “The winner would buy beer for everyone else; it wasn’t serious – it was a friendly thing.”

“From a young age, I knew whatever was swimming, I could catch it,” he said. “I went to the University of Florida and was studying to become a doctor like my dad. I got into bass fishing while in college and was doing well in tournaments.”

“I remember the day I told my parents I wasn’t going to go to medical school in order fish professionally,” Holley said. “I told them I’d finish my degree, but I was going fishing for a little while. They were confused and didn’t know what to think.”

While Holley was early in his fishing career, thoughts of medical school would float back into his mind. But only as a means to an end – he really wanted his own boat to fish the rich waters he grew up on.

“I met with a friend of my father’s that ran a boat,” Holley said. “He offered me a job and I only took it if I could bring my dad out with me to fish. I figured I needed four or five years of medical school, then another five before I could afford a boat and by then my dad would be too old.”

Holley’s boss agreed and he learned quickly that ocean fishing was a much different beast than fresh water. “I jumped right in for the opportunity and my dad only lived until he was 62. If I had gone the long route, he wouldn’t have made it.”

He gained experience on the boat and after a couple of seasons was able to get his own boat. He spent his 20s and 30s running a fishing charter and didn’t expect the physical toll his body would take from the ocean.

Holley made great money, partied his fair share in the 80s and, admittedly, lived a pretty wild life. He was lucky enough to occasionally run across “square groupers” (a fisherman’s term for cocaine bundles) floating in the ocean.

The Gulf of Mexico could be a pretty lawless place in the 80s. “I was offered six figures a year to make six pick ups a year,” Holley said. “I just had to grab a couple of duffel bags, but I was warned that if I started, I might not be able to get out and they wouldn’t let me stop.”

“I thought about it, but it wasn’t worth the risk to me,” he said. “That was a lot of money in 1985 – it could have been life-changing.”

“My ex-father-in-law never thought fishing was work,” Holley said. “It’s so much worse than people think.” The constant pounding against waves hurt his knees and back, the rods and reels hurt his shoulders and hands and everything affected his back.

“I don’t think I could really fish for long anymore,” Holley admitted. I try to stay in shape but have so many injuries from playing ball. But I can still compete in poker, while fishing is something I can do to relax now.”

Holley remembered exactly when poker changed for him from a rainy-day hobby to a successful career. “Right after Moneymaker won, there were younger guys and I, they were all excited about poker and invited me over. I was just terrible because I never played No Limit.”

“I played Limit Stud HiLo so, I lost the first eight times I played with the them,” he said. “Then one kid said something that made a lightbulb go off in my head. He said ‘pot odds’ and I was like, ‘Oh, shit, I don’t know what the math is.’ I just played cards on a day off to gamble and drink beer.”

Holley went out, bought a couple of books and then after winning nine out of the next ten games, they stopped inviting him to the game.

“I’m a gambler too,” Holley said. “I crave action, but I like the competition in poker. There’s skill in gambling too, but the house always has the edge. But in poker, with the right game, the right situation, you can have a decent edge against your opponents.”

“There are similarities to poker tournaments in fishing events,” said Holley. “I see 90% of fishing tournaments are won by 10% of the fishermen. But in poker, I'd say it was more like 70% of poker tournaments are won by 30% of the field. So, there's more of an edge being a really good fisherman in a fishing tournament than there is in being a really good poker player in a tournament.”

Physically, things went completely haywire for him in 2020. “I developed two auto-immune diseases from the Covid vaccine,” he said. “I can’t close one hand and my shoulder is in constant pain.”

Holley’s poker trips over the last year and immediate future are no longer than a few days due to the failing health of his 94-year-old mother. She’s had several close calls to death and survived a trip in and out of hospice care.

He wants to win a WSOP bracelet in 2025 to share with his mother. “I have a couple of third-place finishes, a few final tables but I want that bracelet. My son told me a month ago he had a dream I won one this summer.”

“He didn’t say which event; I imagine it’s a Mixed Event,” Holley added. “But I really want to hold a grandchild. My goals have changed to more family stuff, I want my kids to be settled and all that, but I want to hold a grandchild before I go.”

Photos courtesy of World Poker Tour.