Poker to Business Versus Business to Poker

"You're in a good business if you can make money in your sleep."

- Barry Shulman, Card Player Publisher

"Hi, Greg. My name is Bill. I read your book and saw that you are involved in poker and business. I work for an entertainment company in New York and would like to take you to lunch the next time you're in town."

When I received this phone call, I was excited that my background in poker was leading me to a business opportunity. After all, it was poker that opened the door to my career as a writer when Card Player magazine published an article I submitted in 1997. And, sure enough, poker was the catalyst for my literary career as both an author and a manager. The Poker MBA: Winning in Business No Matter What Cards You're Dealt not only was my first book to be acquired by a major publisher, it was also the first book that my literary management company, Venture Literary, successfully represented.

Once Random House acquired The Poker MBA, I was faced with the daunting task of balancing my time between writing a book on business and running a startup business. It wasn't until after I finished writing the book that I realized how these two activities weren't at odds with one another, but rather, they were magically synergistic. Think about it, what better way to learn how to run a company than by simultaneously writing the instructional manual? Even better, since my business partner was editing the manuscript as I was writing it, we both were internalizing the material. Thereafter, whenever we were faced with decisions in our business, we found ourselves quoting our own book. Terms such as "decisions not outcomes," "the 80/20 rule," and "maximizing expected value" became the guiding principles of Venture Literary.

On a personal level, the most important principle I learned from The Poker MBA was why poker is such a tough business. As I point out in the book, if poker is your profession, not only do you have to be working to make money, you also have no exit strategy. If you take a day off, you can't make money, and once you retire, there is no business to sell.

When Card Player CEO Jeff Shulman and I discussed this concept, he told me that the lack of residual income is why his dad convinced him not to go to law school. What his dad was smart enough to explain to him is that any profession that has a revenue model based on selling time is a difficult business. Hence, Barry's quote: "You're in a good business if you can make money in your sleep." Doctors, lawyers, and consultants may be loaded with prestige, but most are overworked and not as loaded financially as you may think. In the case of a law firm, it's only the partners, not the rank-and-file attorneys, who are playing golf on Tuesday afternoon. Those partners figured out that running a business of selling other attorneys' time was much more profitable than practicing law and selling their own time.

The concept of residual income is so significant that it transformed me from a professional poker player to a part-time player, and now to an occasional player. Yet, ironically, when I'm in business situations, it seems like all anyone wants to talk about is poker. Just recently I was giving a speech in Palm Springs, California, based on the principles in The Poker MBA to a group called Top of the Table, which consists of the top insurance salespersons in the world. At the opening cocktail party, I was asked by one of the attendees if the World Series of Poker was fixed. The man figured that it just couldn't be possible for a novice with the name Moneymaker to have won. I proceeded to spend the evening defending the Horseshoe and discussing tells.

Then, when the time came to meet Bill in New York, I was ready to talk business – and he, of course, was ready to talk poker. The meeting started by him telling me that two days earlier, he was playing in a no-limit hold'em tournament when he limped in with pocket sevens and the flop came 7-6-5 rainbow. Had we been in a poker room, I would have stopped him and insisted on my hard-and-fast rule that he pay me a dollar for a bad-beat story. But since I was thinking business and wanted to develop some rapport, I allowed him to ramble. About five minutes into the story, when he finally got around to telling me that the big blind had moved in on him, I was ready to say, "Bill, I know where this is going; the guy flopped a straight against your top set. Happens hundreds of times a day; now can we get to business?" But, I managed to bite my lip. Then, after another five minutes, he finally told me the big blind had 8-4 offsuit, the board never paired, and he got knocked out on the bubble. I wanted to ask him for the obligatory dollar, but I managed to run a solid bluff as I grimaced in pain and said, "Tough beat."

Bill and the Top of the Table attendees aren't the only businessmen who are fascinated by poker. Carl Ichan's tournament at the Sands is targeting the business community. My friends on Wall Street are playing in private games and hounding me for advice on how to play hands. Yet, what I find even more intriguing (and completely logical) is that, more and more, the world's greatest poker players are changing their focus from poker to business. Mike Sexton has won a lot of money playing poker, but would you trade his poker winnings for what he's making from the business of PartyPoker? Doyle Brunson may be a favorite whenever he sits down to play poker, but whether he shows up or not to the felt that day, he's making royalties from Super/System, a book that has provided residual income – revenue with no additional time or money invested – for the past 24 years!

The transition from business to poker, to me, doesn't make sense if you're looking for a profession in which to gain long-term wealth. If you possess the attributes to earn a living in the ultracompetitive and negative-sum game (because of the rake) of poker, you're much better off spending your time in an arena where you can generate residual income. However, if you have good business acumen and are willing to invest the time in your training, you'll likely be able to win some money, have fun, and develop skills that will benefit you not only in business, but in all walks of life. You can quote me on that when your wife objects to the increasing frequency of your "friendly" poker games.

As for making the transition from poker to business to poker, the list of poker players looking to follow in the footsteps of Sexton and Brunson is too long to mention, but rest assured that those who are bright enough to win at the highest levels of poker are also bright enough to realize that if their goal is to generate long-term wealth, perhaps they've been playing the wrong game. Right, Barry?

Greg Dinkin is the author of three books, including The Poker MBA (go to www.thepokermba.com to see his revised website) and Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People. He is also the co-founder of Venture Literary, www.ventureliterary.com, a management company that works with writers to develop their material for books, film, and television.