Poker’s Flexibility

My son recently had surgery to have his tonsils and adenoids out. They were causing him to have obstructed sleep apnea and the result was an attitude change that we’ve been struggling to get to the bottom of for quite some time. We were excited to find out that there might be a physical cause that could be rectified by surgery.

Unfortunately, the surgery facility was out of network for our insurance. This has resulted in near constant calls with our insurance company and doctors’ offices and stress over the upcoming surgery and recovery. The anxiety and stress is nearing an all-time high in our household and that’s a bad environment for productivity and happiness, at least for me.

So, I decided that in order to make sure the family stress levels didn’t get too high, I would take the week off of work and it was a huge help. I was home at night to help with the always stressful bedtime routine, as well as home during the day to do my usual work around the house. I came down with some sort of weird sickness that I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s been a blessing that it came this week when I was already planning on playing less so I didn’t force myself to go in when not feeling well.

One of the best things about making a transition to being mostly a cash game player these days is that I don’t have to force myself to play when sick or not feeling well or not motivated. I can move days of work around based on what my family’s needs are on a week-to-week basis. I can even shift schedules based on what days have been busy lately with changing seasons (the San Diego area action tends to slow down when the weather is especially nice).

The down time this week and all of the stuff we have been encountering with our kid’s health has made it clear to me that I’ve made a good decision to stick with playing poker for a living. It would be really hard for me in most other professions to just take a week off of work, essentially for mental health purposes. If you have a job that allows for some time like this, make sure you take advantage of it, especially when mentally taxing things are coming up on your schedule. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health.

I’m not sure my wife and I would have been able to handle all of the curveballs dealing with three kids, insurance companies, doctors’ offices, school administrators, and myriad other things we had to deal with if we didn’t have the flexibility in our schedule that my career affords us. Usually, my wife’s schedule is very flexible too, but she’s moved to a new job and it’s more demanding on her time than previous ones.

When I tell someone that I play poker for a living, their first question is always “You can make a living doing that?” To which I usually reply, “I have for the last fifteen years.” Inevitably, though, they make some comment about how it’s a cool profession and I do a little couching about how it can be very stressful to not know how much money you’re going to make in a given week/month/year. One thing that I often forget to be grateful for, though, is the flexibility and down time that this career affords me. It can be a bit of a problem, especially when I’m feeling my laziest, so I’m glad that my wife and I have done a good job of scheduling things in advance and really keeping me on the right path to get my hours in.

I guess what I’m getting at, is that I’m feeling very grateful right now to be able to consistently make money playing poker while also being able to be an equal contributor to raising our kids and taking care of a young family. It’s a big responsibility to raise kids and so often families shunt all of that responsibility to one parent in the family. I’m glad that I have the privilege to be a major part of my kids’ lives, essentially a stay-at-home dad while also holding down a 25-30 hour a week job that I’m mildly successful at.

Much of the credit goes to my wife’s incredible organizational skills. I’m thankful to have found a partner willing to put up with the inconsistent income of a poker player and the sometimes-inconsistent motivation of this particular poker player. It’s a tough time for us, but we’re using all of our resources to make things work as well as we can and hopefully the extra downtime we had this week was put to the good use of getting everyone some much needed rest and relaxation.

Poker isn’t the right line of work for everyone. You have to hold yourself accountable to go to work enough hours. You have to have the mental discipline to know when you’re not playing well and take a break from the table or even leave the casino for the day. You have to understand how much risk you can afford to take on. And, of course, you have to be good enough to beat the games you’re playing for an hourly rate that can keep your lifestyle together. If you can do all of those things, the flexibility is worth a lot in terms of money, stress-relief, and overall happiness. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG