Gavin Griffin: Poker Questions Asked And AnsweredGriffin Revisits An Old Article |
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People in the poker community often come up to me and ask about whatever is on their mind. Some of these questions are good questions, and some are bad beat stories in disguise. I’ve been through quite a few things in my poker career and I like to help whenever possible, and in this new Card Player series, I’d like to share my experiences and knowledge. Feel free to ask any poker-related question, and I’ll do my best to answer it in the space below.
Question: I recently read your article, A Rebuilding Year: From High Roller To Low Stakes, in Card Player from 2012. Why did you decide to share something so personal? Do you feel like it will help others? Have you had positive or negative reactions to the article? – Michael M.
I’m including this question in today’s Asked and Answered because I’ve been hearing something similar quite often lately.
In case you missed it, here’s a link and excerpt to the article.
It’s my first time in this poker room with the beach murals on the walls. I came here to avoid familiar faces. I’m embarrassed. 2011 shattered many of my dreams and most of my ego. I was in a bad place mentally all year and that made for some bad decisions in my poker career. I managed my bankroll poorly and by the end of the year was playing some uninspired poker. I need to find a way to fix this. So, I’ve decided to drop down in limits, fix my game, and rebuild. It’s humbling to be where I’m at but I got here through my own doing and I’m going to get myself out.
In the article, I talk about how I went from playing in some of the biggest tournaments in the world and very high-stakes cash games to playing $8-$16 limit Omaha eight-or-better in order to rebuild. I did it as a challenge to myself. This was the final chance I was giving myself as a poker player. I had a $5,000 bankroll and if I lost it, no more poker. I was still playing tournaments occasionally as well, with my backer’s full support.
I thought that if I forced myself to chronicle it, I would be much more effective as a poker player. No shot taking, no straying from the path I set up for myself. 2011 was the worst year of my life on a personal level and, as a result, my poker suffered. I no longer cared much about losing. I blamed everything in poker on my life situation. I had to get out of it. I challenged myself to build a bankroll from the ground up and chronicle it along the way. I accomplished my goal, and here I am, still writing for Card Player three years later and always working to get better.
I freely admit that my motives for writing the article were selfish. I don’t know how much anybody else got from the content if they were in a similar situation. I think the most important thing that it showed was a side of poker that gets swept under the rug quite often. It’s a hard business in which to stick around. Only the top of the top mentally and technically can make it in poker for a long time, and even those go through some tough times. If more people swallowed their pride and shared the difficult times in their poker life, they’d be better off for it and so would the poker world. Openness and honesty about your situation would lead to less people being scammed and ripped off.
Most of the temptation to steal from another poker player comes from shame over the situation you’re in, an entitlement to continue playing poker, and an unwillingness to drop down in stakes for fear of hurting your ego. Lots of talented players have come to this crossroad and chosen the wrong path. I wanted to do it the right way, show people it could be done, and provide an example for those going through the same thing. Unfortunately, nobody has come up to me and told me that they related to my experience and felt like I helped them through a tough time. It’s definitely the article that I’ve written that received the most feedback but I haven’t received that comment yet.
The comments I’ve received, especially in person, have been overwhelmingly positive. There have been plenty of people who have said rude things on the internet about the article (Isn’t that what the internet is for?), but even on forums and comment sections the response has been very positive. Most people thank me for being honest and offering a view into poker that hasn’t really been on display before. I appreciate the comments I receive and that most people are very respectful of my struggle and how much I had to give in order to write that article. It was a tough decision, but one I’m so glad that I made.
If you have a question for Gavin, send it to [email protected].
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