The story
Professional Poker Player, Intuitive Poker Coach, Business Strategist, Mindset Mentor, Spiritual Healer, Author and Founder of Project 2029 Humanity
Joseph “Joey” Gargiulo — widely known throughout the poker community as Poker Joey — is a professional poker player, intuitive poker coach, business strategist, championship sales professional, mindset mentor, spiritual healer, author, speaker and humanitarian visionary.
He is the founder of Joey’s Angels Women’s Intuitive Poker School, the creator of the Intuitive Poker Method, and the founder of Project 2029 Humanity, a global values, mentorship and human-development movement headquartered online at Project2029Humanity.org.
Joey is also the author of nearly two dozen books spanning poker strategy, personal transformation, spirituality, human values, memoir, fiction, insurance education, leadership, Generation Alpha mentorship and children’s literature.
Whether he is coaching a poker player, mentoring a business owner, helping an executive regain clarity, guiding someone through a period of personal transformation or writing books for the next generation, Joey’s mission remains the same:
Help people recognize their inner power, make clearer decisions and become more conscious participants in their own lives.
To Joey, poker has never been merely a card game. Poker is a laboratory for life.
Every hand requires a person to make decisions using incomplete information. Players must evaluate risk, recognize patterns, control emotional reactions, adapt to changing conditions and act without knowing exactly what will happen next. The same challenges appear in business, athletics, sales, leadership, relationships and personal growth.
At the poker table, fear can become hesitation. Ego can become recklessness. Anxiety can distort judgment. Previous losses can influence present decisions. The desire to impress others can cause a player to abandon what they know is right. Outside poker, the patterns are remarkably similar.
Joey uses poker to teach people how to remain centered when pressure rises, how to recognize emotional interference and how to make the best available decision without becoming obsessed with controlling the outcome.
You cannot always control the cards, the conditions or the outcome — but you can learn to control the quality of your next decision.
Joey has competed in poker tournaments throughout the United States, including events connected to the World Series of Poker, PokerGO Tour, North American Poker Tour, RunGood Poker Series and many of the country’s most respected casinos and poker rooms.
By mid-2026, Joey had accumulated nearly $300,000 in recorded live tournament earnings, with a career-best cash of $48,000. His résumé includes tournament victories, runner-up finishes, championship performances and numerous final-table appearances.
Joey has competed in No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Eight-or-Better, Seven-Card Stud, Stud Eight-or-Better, HORSE and numerous mixed-game formats. He studies expected value, equity, combinatorics, range construction, frequencies, short-stack strategy, tournament structures, final-table dynamics and opponent tendencies — but he also studies timing, body language, emotional states, behavioral patterns, table energy and the stories players tell through their actions.
His Intuitive Poker Method combines mathematics, preparation, observation, emotional intelligence and trained intuition. He does not teach intuition as fortune-telling or random guessing. He teaches that intuition is often the brain’s rapid recognition of patterns that the conscious mind has not yet fully translated into words.
An experienced player may sense that something is wrong before being able to explain why — an unconsciously noticed timing change, breathing pattern, unusual bet size, shift in posture or inconsistency in the opponent’s story. That intuitive signal can be valuable, but only when supported by preparation, discipline and honest self-awareness.
Mathematics provides the foundation. Observation provides context. Emotional discipline protects the decision. Intuition helps connect the pieces.
Joey is the founder and lead coach of Joey’s Angels Women’s Intuitive Poker School, a personalized poker-development community created to help women become more confident, prepared and independent tournament players.
Joey’s Angels is built around the belief that every player learns differently. Some players process information mathematically. Others learn visually, verbally, emotionally or through direct experience. Some need help understanding ranges and bet sizing. Others understand the cards but struggle with confidence, fear, intimidation or emotional control.
Joey does not force every student into the same system. He studies the individual player — their natural strengths, recurring mistakes, emotional patterns, learning style, decision-making tendencies and long-term goals — and then builds a development process around that individual.
Members of Joey’s community have become champions, repeat champions and major-event finalists. One of Joey’s Angels captured the LIPS Women’s National Championship, becoming a powerful example of what can happen when technical preparation, personal belief and individualized coaching come together. Joey is committed to creating a poker environment where women feel welcomed, respected, educated and empowered to compete without abandoning their authentic personalities.
Joey’s poker coaching reaches far beyond preflop charts and hand histories. He studies the player behind the cards. When reviewing a decision, Joey does not only ask what happened — he asks why it happened.
Was the player afraid of losing? Did they become intimidated by a more experienced opponent? Were they protecting their ego? Did they abandon their read because they wanted approval? Were they emotionally affected by an earlier hand? Did they mistake aggression for confidence? Were they playing to win, or merely playing not to lose?
By identifying the emotional source of a strategic mistake, Joey helps players make lasting changes rather than repeatedly correcting the same surface-level problem. The goal is not to make a student permanently dependent upon a coach. The goal is to help that student become a clear, confident and independent decision-maker.
Joey is also an experienced business coach, executive mentor, sales strategist and entrepreneurial advisor. He works with business owners, sales professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, coaches, creatives and emerging leaders who need greater clarity, confidence, structure or direction.
His business coaching combines more than 40 years of professional sales experience with behavioral psychology, leadership development, intuitive decision-making, marketing strategy, storytelling, technology and artificial intelligence.
Joey helps clients explore what problem the business truly solves, whether the company communicates its value clearly, what is preventing growth, whether the leader is deciding from strategy or fear, where time and money are being wasted, whether sales conversations are focused on pressure or service, and what the leader must personally change for the business to evolve.
His style blends old-school relationship-building with new-school technology. He understands that artificial intelligence, automation and digital marketing are transforming business — but he also believes trust, character, empathy, listening, integrity and personal connection will remain irreplaceable. His objective is not simply to make a business appear more successful; he helps clients create businesses that are more focused, authentic, sustainable and aligned with their deeper purpose.
Before developing Poker Joey into a coaching and media platform, Joey built a distinguished career in professional sales and financial services. His sales career spans more than four decades, including nearly 30 years with Liberty Mutual Insurance. He retired in May 2025 after serving as a Senior and Executive Sales Representative.
Joey previously held property and casualty insurance licenses, life insurance licenses in multiple states and Series 6 and Series 63 securities licenses. He studied Business Management and Marketing at the New York Institute of Technology and earned the Associate in Insurance Services designation. His professional experience also includes sales leadership, management, training, financial-services education, technology consulting and participation on an information-technology advisory board.
Sales taught Joey how to listen beyond the spoken words. It taught him how to identify the real problem behind the stated problem, recognize emotional motivation, communicate value, build trust and recover from rejection. Those lessons eventually became an essential part of his poker, business and mindset coaching.
Joey uses poker concepts to help sales professionals become more emotionally intelligent and effective. Both poker and sales involve incomplete information, pattern recognition, timing, preparation, communication and emotional regulation.
A salesperson must read the room without making reckless assumptions. They must recognize resistance without becoming defensive. They must understand when to ask a question, when to speak, when to listen and when to walk away. Joey teaches that a strong sales professional does not overpower people — a strong salesperson creates clarity, earns trust and helps people make informed decisions.
His approach is especially valuable for experienced professionals who understand the mechanics of selling but feel emotionally exhausted, disconnected or uncertain about their next chapter.
Joey works as a mindset coach for poker players, athletes, salespeople, entrepreneurs, executives, performers and people from all walks of life.
He understands that people often know what they should do but feel unable to act. The obstacle may not be a lack of information. It may be fear, shame, anxiety, unresolved pain, perfectionism or a lifetime of being taught not to trust themselves. Joey helps clients slow down the internal noise, examine the pattern and identify the next constructive decision.
His work is not a replacement for licensed medical or mental-health treatment. Instead, his non-clinical mindset coaching can complement appropriate professional care by helping clients strengthen confidence, purpose, personal responsibility and forward movement.
Spirituality has been central to Joey’s life and work for decades. He serves as a spiritual healer, intuitive guide, grounding coach and mentor for people seeking greater peace, clarity, alignment and connection.
His spiritual approach is inclusive rather than doctrinal. Joey frequently speaks about God, the Universe, Source, intuition, synchronicity, energy and the responsibility to use our gifts in service to others. He respects that people may use different language to describe their spiritual understanding.
Joey does not teach spirituality as an escape from reality. He teaches spirituality as a deeper way of engaging with reality. To Joey, spiritual growth should produce greater honesty, compassion, courage, responsibility and service. He believes intuition becomes clearer when ego, fear and emotional noise are reduced — and that genuine spirituality must be grounded in action.
Prayer without action can become avoidance. Knowledge without compassion can become arrogance. Intuition without discipline can become fantasy. Spirituality without service can become self-absorption.
Joey is the founder and visionary behind Project 2029 Humanity, a values-based movement dedicated to strengthening human character, mentoring Generation Alpha and helping awaken what Joey calls the Awakened Silent Majority. The project can be explored at Project2029Humanity.org.
Project 2029 Humanity is not based on political parties, religious divisions or traditional ideological labels. It is a human-development initiative built around values, vows, mentorship, responsibility, critical thinking, community, purpose and constructive action. Joey has described the project as a human operating system for a world experiencing technological acceleration, cultural fragmentation, declining trust and growing uncertainty.
Project 2029 Humanity produces books, pocket guides, mentoring resources, stories, digital materials and community tools designed to turn values into daily practice. At its center is a framework of 70 Core Values and Vows, created to help people move beyond abstract beliefs and make personal commitments to how they will live.
Joey has created an expanding library of books and resources connected to the Project 2029 Humanity mission. Together, these works form an evolving library for individuals and families seeking practical tools for character development, mentorship and positive cultural change.
The foundational manifesto and human-development blueprint behind the movement. This work examines the cultural, emotional, technological and spiritual challenges facing humanity while offering a constructive framework for rebuilding trust, responsibility, purpose and community.
The 70 Core Values and Vows
A concise, practical companion to the larger Project 2029 Humanity philosophy. The Pocket Guide presents 70 essential human values, each supported by a personal vow and practical applications, designed to help readers turn ideals into repeatable actions.
The Future Belongs to You: A Project 2029 Humanity Guide for the Next Generation
Written for Generation Alpha, GEN ALPHA RISE! encourages young people to think critically, use technology responsibly, develop character, resist manipulation and recognize their ability to shape the future. Rather than speaking down to younger readers, the book invites them into an honest conversation about the world they are inheriting.
A mentorship guide created for parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, community leaders and responsible adults who want to support the next generation. The Playbook explores how mentors can build trust, teach values, model accountability and prepare young people to navigate artificial intelligence, social pressure and rapid cultural change.
A fictional and philosophical adventure inspired by the values of Project 2029 Humanity. Through story, challenge and character development, it introduces young readers to courage, responsibility, loyalty, discernment and the importance of protecting what truly matters.
A values-centered work focused on transforming concern into constructive action, exploring how ordinary people can restore meaning, create beauty and inspire hope through the choices they make in their homes, relationships and communities.
Joey’s understanding of resilience comes from lived experience. Diagnosed with keratoconus, Joey became legally blind at 19 and eventually underwent three corneal transplants. He has also lived with serious visual limitations, photophobia, migraines and optic-nerve damage.
In 2004, Joey survived a devastating head-on automobile collision that resulted in a traumatic brain injury and approximately one year of memory loss. The accident forced him to rebuild parts of his life, identity and cognitive confidence.
These experiences taught him that resilience is not the absence of fear, grief or pain. Resilience is the willingness to continue rebuilding. Joey does not pretend that positive thinking makes every hardship disappear — he teaches people to acknowledge the reality of what happened without surrendering their future to it.
Joey’s health challenges, career changes, personal losses and periods of reinvention deepened his empathy for people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, fear and uncertainty. They also strengthened his conviction that the human spirit can adapt in extraordinary ways when given purpose, support and a reason to continue.
Your past may explain parts of you, but it does not have to become the permanent definition of you.
Although Joey has worn many professional titles, he considers philosopher to be one of the most accurate descriptions of who he is. He is fascinated by human nature, history, spirituality, psychology, technology, consciousness and the patterns that repeat across generations.
Why do intelligent people repeat destructive patterns? Why do groups abandon reason? Why do people ignore their own intuition? Why does fear spread so quickly? Why do some individuals become stronger after hardship while others become trapped by it? How can ancient wisdom coexist with artificial intelligence? How can humanity advance technologically without regressing morally?
These questions influence Joey’s books, coaching, poker instruction and Project 2029 Humanity. His teaching style often uses stories, metaphors, humor, historical examples and personal experiences to make complex ideas easier to understand and remember.
Joey has been involved with computers, websites and emerging technology for decades. He has created or contributed to more than 45 websites and has experience with digital marketing, artificial intelligence, application concepts, content strategy and online business development.
He understands the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence to improve education, communication, business, creativity and access to information. He also recognizes the risks of allowing technology to weaken independent thought, personal responsibility or authentic human connection.
Joey’s approach is neither anti-technology nor blindly enthusiastic. He advocates for a partnership between advanced tools and grounded human wisdom. Artificial intelligence should help people think more deeply, not eliminate the need to think. Technology should increase human potential, not reduce human beings to passive consumers. Automation should create more time for meaning, connection and creativity, not remove humanity from every interaction.
Joey has spent years traveling with, living alongside and developing close friendships with poker dealers, tournament staff and members of the broader poker community. He proudly describes himself as a dealer’s player.
He understands the professionalism, patience and pressure required to deal and manage live poker tournaments. Respect for dealers, floor staff and fellow players is central to his identity. Joey teaches students to know the rules, protect their hands, speak clearly, advocate for themselves and compete fearlessly — without sacrificing kindness or human dignity.
He has also followed and contributed to discussions involving tournament rules, player responsibility, dealer treatment and the future of live poker. Joey believes poker is strongest when competition remains fierce, rules remain consistent and everyone involved is treated with respect.
Joey is a speaker, educator, storyteller and media personality who is comfortable discussing poker, mindset, sales, spirituality, resilience, business, artificial intelligence and cultural transformation. He has created educational content, participated in live discussions, coached publicly and privately, developed interview concepts and built media projects including poker panels, podcasts, videos and live-streaming programs.
Joey’s greatest strength as a speaker is his ability to connect ideas that initially seem unrelated. A poker hand becomes a lesson about leadership. A sales objection becomes a lesson about fear. A business problem becomes a lesson about identity. A personal setback becomes a lesson about purpose. A new technology becomes a conversation about what it means to remain human.
Beyond poker, coaching, business and books, Joey is a father, grandfather, partner, mentor and friend. Family is a central source of meaning in his life, and his desire to create a better future for his children, granddaughter and generations yet to come is one of the driving forces behind Project 2029 Humanity.
Joey does not measure success solely through money, awards, tournament results or public recognition. He measures it through impact. Did someone become more confident? Did a student learn to trust herself? Did a business owner find clarity? Did a person in pain rediscover hope? Did a young reader learn to think independently? Did an act of kindness interrupt a cycle of fear? Did someone become more willing to serve?
These are the victories Joey considers most meaningful.
PokerJoey.com brings the many dimensions of Joey’s work together in one place. It is the home of intuitive poker education, Joey’s Angels Women’s Intuitive Poker School, tournament coaching, mindset coaching, business and sales coaching, spiritual guidance, books and educational resources, videos and interviews, player development, personal transformation and Project 2029 Humanity initiatives.
PokerJoey.com is not only a poker website. It is a platform for developing better players, stronger leaders and more conscious human beings.
Joseph “Joey” Gargiulo is a professional poker player, intuitive poker coach, business strategist, championship sales professional, mindset mentor, spiritual healer, author, speaker, philosopher and founder of Project 2029 Humanity.
His journey has taken him from Brooklyn and Long Island to Florida, Las Vegas and poker rooms across the United States. He has experienced career success, championship moments, physical disability, traumatic injury, memory loss, reinvention, spiritual awakening, authorship, entrepreneurship and the privilege of helping others discover strengths they did not know they possessed.
Each chapter of his life has reinforced the same lesson: the cards will not always be fair, the conditions will not always be ideal, and the outcome will not always reflect the quality of the decision. But the next decision still belongs to you.
Welcome to PokerJoey.com. Discover the work of Project 2029 Humanity at Project2029Humanity.org.
Read the player. Trust the work. Master the moment. Serve the future.
