Happy Trails, Champ

Recently, LeBron James told the sports world what his plans were for the future of his basketball career. When he announced he was going to Miami, many fans were disappointed that he was no longer going to be representing Cleveland, the city to which he grew so near. In a less publicized announcement, at least when it comes to the global sports media, 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate announced this week that he is taking an indefinite sabbatical from live tournament poker. The response in the poker world has been generally positive, but there are still those who are down on Eastgate for his decision. The criticism really frustrates me.

Whenever someone wins the Main Event, one of the first questions people start asking is whether or not he will be a good ambassador for the game. Eastgate, while maybe not the most outwardly dynamic guy of all time, has been a perfectly fine representative. Some critics of his decision, though, seem betrayed that a WSOP champ would stop being an ambassador and just leave poker behind. After all, winning the title comes with certain responsibilities, right?

I don’t think so. While I really appreciate guys like Greg Raymer who happily embrace the role of poker ambassador, I don’t feel like anyone should feel obligated to take on the challenge. In a statement, Eastgate said, “When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player. My goal was to become financially independent.”

And in winning almost $11 million in live tournaments alone, he has accomplished his goal. Who am I to demand that he do more with his title? Good for him. I am sure that the vast majority of people who play poker for a living love the game, and many also appreciate its history, but for pros, poker boils down to money. No matter how much someone loves the game, only the most casual of casual players ever really have any fun when nothing is stake. For Peter Eastgate, poker was a means to an end. He has achieved that end, so now he wants to move on to other things. Fantastic.

Besides, who is to say that he can’t still be a good ambassador for the game of poker? That doesn’t mean he has to play in dozens of tournaments a year and go lobby federal governments to legalize and regulate online poker. If he carries himself well, if he is respectful of others, and just continues to be a solid young man, then he will be representing poker players well. He doesn’t have to be an outspoken poker advocate. In fact, one could argue that the best poker ambassador would be someone who shows critics that poker players have loftier goals that just playing poker. In the meantime, though, it sounds like Eastgate is just going to relax and enjoy life, and he certainly should.

One thing that struck me in Peter Eastgate’s statement was his honesty when he said, “I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high level poker along the way and I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

In a way, I can relate. After I finished graduate school several years ago, I took a job with a small, seemingly up-and-coming, seemingly dynamic firm. The work was relatively interesting, but it wasn’t particularly rewarding. Worst of all, though, was that the company itself was a mess and the CEO was a megalomaniacal, dishonest tyrant. I had no other jobs lined up, but I knew I had to get the hell out of Dodge. So, I gave my two-week notice, not because it was the right thing for me financially, but because it was the right thing for me mentally. Obviously, I didn’t have the luxury of the financial cushion that Eastgate does, but like him I had lost the motivation to do my work. My dad, too, lost his motivation after 40-plus years in the same career. Fortunately, he realized his finances were strong enough to retire, so he did. Now, like Eastgate, he has no real roadmap for the future, but that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that he is going to live his life the way he wants to live it.

Peter Eastgate doesn’t owe poker anything. He put his own money down on the tables and used his talents to achieve his goals. If he never plays poker again, good for him. If he comes back to tournaments and high stakes games, good for him, too. I wish him all the best and hope I can get to where he is some day.