It’s been quite a grind the last 5+ years at the tables. Over 8 million hands of poker and millions of dollars in winnings have left me in a great spot in life, but has also left me with a lot of questions. It has gotten me thinking a lot over the last year or so about what exactly I want out of poker and for that matter, life. Last year I got back into pursuing golf as potential PGA tour pro, which was a dream I was once well on track to accomplish before I had my fluke heart attack. After having my issues with the USGA and also figuring out that the game has evolved into less of a shot maker/short game/putting contest into a game of how far you can hit it, led me to realize that the chances of me making it were better than nil, but slim at best.

So this year I decided to focus on poker 100% and see where that took me. We’re half way through the year now, and I have realized a number of things. 1. I do like the income and lifestyle that poker afford me 2. I REALLY enjoy writing books/articles 3. I enjoy playing online, but I definitely want my 1.5M hands a year days to be behind me. About half of that would be great 4. I like live poker a lot more than I thought I would (tournaments, not so much, but I love live cash games 5. Now that I am comfortable playing live and have TV experience, I BADLY want another invitation to a high stakes TV cash game show 6. I LOVE to commentate on poker. Whether that be making videos for
Dragthebar.com or being an analyst on a TV show like I did for the Big Game over in London, I just love it. In fact if the pay were the same, I would forget poker and be a poker analyst for a TV cash game show. I love it that much.

So armed with this information I am going to try and focus more on what makes me happy in my career rather than simply grinding my face off from now until eternity. I am not burnt out from playing tons of online poker. I just like some other things better and don’t want to deny myself the opportunity to do them, especially when I do still make money at the other things too. I suspect this year I will likely still play a ton of poker because transitioning into the other things will take time. In fact there is no guarantee that anything will pan out for me the way I would like it to, but I am optimistic it will.

I am really glad I took the time out to pursue golf last year. The reason why is that I felt like the “problem” of playing poker when my real passion was golf, and having the means to pursue golf with no financial stress, was going to weigh on me. Like as if I was cheating myself if somehow I never gave it a shot after I had the means to do so. Keep in mind, I was like a little savant when it came to golf haha. I could remember every hole of every course I had ever played. I knew who won every major championship since 1860 and for most of them, I could tell you who came in 2nd and some facts about the event. I felt like when it came to a golf question, I could answer it as well as anyone on earth. So it was a big part of my life. But now I kinda feel like in poker I am approaching that same sort of knowledge base as I had in golf. I have been reading every poker book I can get my hands on and am now well versed in the game, beyond simply how to play it. And when it comes to playing it, at least as far as NL cash games are concerned, I think I am reaching some very high levels of understanding the game, far beyond where my game used to be at. I have made some great strides in my game this year and am really getting some great results in brutal high stakes online poker conditions to prove it.

But back to golf. In golf I may have eat, breathed and slept it, but I just couldn’t play it quite well enough to satisfy me. It ate me up not to be those last 1-2 shots a round better. Those 1-2 shots were the difference between me blogging for PGATOUR.com instead of here. But what is great about poker is that I CAN actually play the game at a level I am very satisfied with. So I think poker is for me, and the time I spent at the golf course struggling once again, showed me that. So armed with that knowledge, I am now comfortable and happy to be a professional poker player and look forward to a very long career in poker.

So I have decided to do a couple of things immediately. For starters I am going to begin working next week on a pure poker theory/strategy book and I really think it has the potential to be the best book I am capable of writing. My mind is absolutely spinning with all of the things I want to say in the book. The outline is looking awesome already. Secondly, I am going to seek out opportunities to do some broadcasting for poker TV cash game shows. I am going to hold off on this until I get a chance to watch the 10 or so episodes that area going to come out soon on TV (channel 5 in the UK) and see how I did. The producers told me it turned out great, but I want to see for myself how I did, and get a feel for how I can make it better in the event I ever get another chance. In the TV cash game shows, I really think the shows are better off with a professional player who can beat (or is at least good enough to be highly competitive) the game being broadcast because it adds SO much to the show when you have an analyst who can really try and take the audience through EXACTLY what the players are thinking and doing. In golf, they ALWAYS have a former PGA tour player in the booth because it adds to the broadcast so much. In poker I think they should ALWAYS have a professional in there as well. So if I did as good of a job as the producers are telling me, maybe I can get another shot to do it again in the future. I sure hope that is the case.

Well, after all of that poker talk, I am taking a day off tomorrow. I had a great weekend at the tables in winning over $25,000 online. So tomorrow I am taking my wife and daughter to the zoo. My daughter loves playing with a toy called “Let’s play at the zoo” so I decided to take her to the real zoo. She may be a little young for that, but I think she will have fun. I guess the Dad in me is hoping she sees something that looks really cool to her and I can see her face light up. Forget about all of this poker career BS, I don’t think there is anything that makes me truly much happier than watching her light up with a big smile.