William “Papa Bill” Ballew was born and raised in Iowa. Baby Billy was baptized by Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town. Bill joined the USAFin 1965, right after graduating from Bishop Heelan Catholic High School and served in the US Air Force in many locations, including the Philippines’,Taiwan and Japan in the Far East during the Vietnam War.His hobbies include writing, weekly $20 NLH poker game with friends, golf, racquetball, archery, weightlifting (smaller weights lately as I near eligibility for Social Security), playing Pinochle, smoking an occasional cigar with his many friends plus Papa Bill plays poker at the World Series of Poker and he cashed at the WSOP in 2006, finishing 62nd out of 1,184 players. In the2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, “Papa Bill” went deep but finished just short of the money while outlasting approximately 5, 400 playerrs in several days play of 14 hours a day.”Papa Bill” has five published books to his credit including: 1) The Unbeatable Pinochle System (1991) 2) Cigar-versations – The Godfather Chronicles (2008) 3) Poem’s of a Heart Held Captive (2009) and 4) Papa Bill’s 1001 Party Favorites Joke Book (2010) and The Joke Vault (2010); Bill is looking to publish four to six books in 2011 and keep current his string of publishing at least one book for his fourth tear in a row.Mr. Ballew currently lives in California to be near his children, Julie and Nathan plus his three grand children: Alexis, Hunter and Sierra.