A Job in Poker — Working for Card Player

I have a new job.

As you might remember in a previous post, I was pretty “over” journalism when I left my last job. Even though the people I worked with were great and the actual job was pretty chill, I got burnt out on a lot of the details, most specifically the design aspect of the job. While I do have design skills, it’s not what I’m great at or at least not what I love doing.

I love letting pros do the work for me. For instance, look at this site. I can write the garbled mess that you see here, but I’d much rather let an established design artist like Ashlee Goodwin make it look pretty. By the way, Ashlee and I are in discussions to redesign the site with a more Las Vegas feel, so stay tuned.

I told myself when I left Stigler that I didn’t want to work in another journalism job, unless it was for a poker magazine. It was the only journalism job I could see myself truly loving. Writing and poker combined. It’s like adding salt to french fries. It just makes sense.

So a couple months into my stay in Vegas, supporting myself through modest earnings at the poker table and spending most of my time working for the Obama campaign, I was in the Venetian poker room and a very excited Texas businessman nudged me in the side and told me he just met the president and chief financial officer of Card Player magazine, arguably the most respected poker magazine in the billion-dollar business.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. I casually mentioned that I was a journalist, and the jolly Longhorn (who, despite disapproving of my politics) insisted that he introduce me to the Card Player people. He did, and a few emails and interviews later, I was Card Player‘s newest staff writer.

The job is great so far. With no design responsibilities, I can spend most of my time researching and writing. Plus, with a regular income, I can start saving my poker earnings instead of just putting them in my Bank of America account to make sure I could continue to pay the bills. I told myself when I took the “real job” that every penny I earned from the poker tables from then on would go toward World Series of Poker entries for next summer (there’s about 55 events, with the ‘cheapest’ events at $1,500 to enter).

Well, after a month of grinding it out, I hit my first big payday since taking the job. I made just shy of $10,000 today after coming in 2nd place in a $55-to-enter tournament that had about 1,900 entrants. It is my third biggest ‘cash’ to date — the $16,000 cash that helped finance my move from Oklahoma to Las Vegas and the $14,000 Aussie MIllions prize package in 2007 being the two bigger ones.

Anyway, the ten grand funds at least six $1,500 WSOP events, so I very excitedly can say that I will definitely play in the 2009 World Series of Poker. Hopefully, the tables will continue to be kind to me.