As a life-long professional gambler, Blair Rodman’s success at the World Series of Poker was 25 years in the making.

Born in Troy, N.Y., Rodman has a B.S. in business, but has spent much of his 53 years as a professional gambler. His journey in that career began when he gave up working the craps table to try the view from the other side of the felt instead.

His route through gambling includes sports betting, blackjack tournaments, casino tournaments, golf gambling and poker.

It’s golf that’s his number one love, though, and poker and sports gambling come in second in his repertoire of activities that pay the bills. He even played in the first-ever World Series of Golf in 2007, which combined poker betting strategies with his favorite game.

It’s his success in poker, though, that’s putting him in the public eye finally. He began attending the World Series of Poker in 1982, though he admits to PokerListings.com it was for the cash games on the side, and he didn’t play in many of the tournaments.

Through the 90s, Rodman had several cashes in WSOP events, with a few final tables getting him close to a bracelet win.

In 2004, the Las Vegas resident cashed in six WSOP events, three of which were final table finishes. Three more cashes in 2005 and four more in 2006 had Rodman primed and ready for a major win.

After cashing in two events in the 2007 WSOP, he finally got his bracelet win in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, topping a field of 2,038 players to win more than $700,000.

He’s also seen success at the Aussie Millions and the World Poker Tour. He’s come close to major wins with a second-place finish in a WPT event in 2005 and 2006.

Poker helps Rodman be lucky in money and lucky in love. He met his wife Roxy while playing at the Mirage where she was a dealer.

If you’re looking for some poker success yourself, the pro has also co-written a book of strategy advice on how to play the pros called Kill Phil. Now that he’s also taken a step into the poker spotlight, maybe he’ll pen a book in the future called Beating Blair.