Free Money

Each month, my home casino pays out cash to players that scan their cards at the table to log their hours. Most months, you get $60 for every 20 hours you play. If you wait and cash it out when you’ve built up 100 hours, you get $500.

It’s a great deal for the players as it is just cash back into our pockets from the rake. This is in addition to food comps and other cash giveaways that they do on a regular basis. In August, they added a bonus onto that, making it $80 for 20 hours and $700 for 100. They’ve done this promotion again in the month of December and I’ve been trying to take advantage of it, but it’s not easy.

It’s important to know that I usually play three days per week, usually around 20 hours. My wife works full time and I take care of our three kids during the day. I get in some hours on a weekday and then Friday and Sunday. As of the day I’m writing this, I’ve played about 846 hours this year, over 100 of those in August. I’m not a heavy grinder, and I never really have been.

I know that this 100-hour threshold is not much to lots of people. In fact, I’m certain there are several losing players that reach that milestone every month at my home casino. My wife’s income is currently the priority in our household. It’s more stable and just more than I make each year, so we tend to schedule our lives and our time with her work as the main focus, with mine as supplemental income.

I’m not sure this was the correct move value-wise, but we decided to make it a priority this month for me to bump up from my usual 80 hours to 100. That extra 20 hours or so is worth $450, just in bonus cash, plus the additional theoretical income I should be making. Obviously, this is poker and that may not come to fruition, but it’s bad practice to think of things like that.

In a normal month, that wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I could add two extra days of work and be done with it. This, however, is December and the holidays are laughing at my plans. So, we’ve frontloaded. I’ve played 47 hours in the first 10 days of the month, and it’s been exhausting. I’m trying so hard to get hours that I even played limit hold-em, which I haven’t played seriously in six years. I’d much rather get lots of hours in right now than to try to cram them in to the last few days of the month (this is my wife’s planning and work ethic doing wonders, there’s no way I would plan it this way on my own).

This extra grind has reminded me that it’s so important to remain disciplined in all parts of your life if you want your poker hours to go well. I don’t get that much sleep on the nights that I work. Last night I played until almost midnight, cashed out, drove home, whispered good night to my kids while they slept, and wound down before falling asleep around 1 am. I was promptly woken up at 5:45, 6:15, and eventually got all the way out of bed at 6:45 to get them ready for school. So, you can see that finding time to get extra sleep during the day has to be a priority for me. Nobody wants to deal with me when I’ve only had two or three hours of sleep like I did last Saturday night, I don’t even want to deal with myself.

For me, with poor sleep patterns often comes poor eating habits and a lack of desire to go to the gym. All of these things are intertwined with my performance as a dad, a husband, and a poker player. If I’m not taking care of myself physically, how can I expect to have patience with my children, a listening ear for my wife, or concentration at work? That means I have to be extra careful while I’m attempting to add some extra work hours to the schedule.

Finally, I have to have the support of my family to make this work. My kids are seven, five, and three so they’re not doing much to help, but my wife is sacrificing quite a bit to help me reach this goal and I’m very grateful for it. An understanding spouse or significant other who lifts you up when you need it is so important when you’re someone who sets their own hours for work. It’s been years since I needed her to be there for me when poker wasn’t going so well financially, but she’s been the perfect wife to me when it comes to finding ways to support the things I want to do as a poker player.

Poker, whether you’re doing it for recreation, semi-professionally, or professionally, takes a toll on your physical body, your emotions, your mental health, and your relationships. It’s important to take the time outside of your poker life to keep all of those things in check. Make sure you’re exercising, eating right, sharing your thoughts and feelings with someone who will listen, and if you’re as lucky as me, thanking your spouse for all of their hard work too. ♠

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