Travelling when the chips are down

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e’d all love to travel the world and get paid, right? Charlie Combes, a professional poker player, does just that. Samantha Hopps chats with him about his jetsetting lifestyle, the temptations of Las Vegas, and why you shouldn’t try and make a career out of poker.

Boar Travel: How does being a professional poker player differ from being an amateur?

Charlie Combes: Professional basically means you earn your bread and butter from it. Amateurs are there for the fun and take a risk to make some money on a one-off basis whilst still working elsewhere. This is why poker will always be profitable because there are loads of amateurs in most tournaments you play.

BT: So what made you decide to go professional?

CC: I didn’t finish the degree I chose and my mate at uni showed me the potential money you could make and the fun lifestyle so I thought I’d give it a try. I gave myself a timeframe to see if I could get really good and then had early success so carried on.

BT: Do you travel a lot for games?

CC: Yeah I’ve managed to travel a lot with the game at various live events around the world. I’ve always loved travelling to amazing cities around the world from my gap year and it was part of what drew me to the game.

BT: So where have you travelled for games?

Australia, all around Europe, Prague, San Reno, Barcelona, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris. I go to Vegas every summer for the WSOP (World Series of Poker) which is the biggest series of the year. Costa Rica, Mexico, I’ve probably missed a few out…it’s been fun!

BT: Do you get to be a tourist much when you go or are they whistle stop visits just for the game?

CC: I try to have a few days off in between tournaments to explore the city. It depends if I’ve been and if the cities aren’t amazing, I get straight out of there.

BT: Have you found out anything weird about Vegas or anything that people probably wouldn’t know?

CC: You definitely need to have a mental budget for Vegas. The first year I went was after a few massive scores online and I didn’t have a budget and fell for all the temptations that Vegas offers, but you live and learn and I was far more sensible the second time around and focused on the poker rather than the pool parties, etc.

Last year my roommate went missing for 38 hours and I got really worried and called the police. Turned out he was passed out on a pool lounger having partied for 30 hours and lost his phone: this is what Vegas can do to you.

BT: What did you originally want to do when you started your degree? Did you ever think you’d end up travelling so much?

CC: I got the bug for travelling in my gap year while going around Morocco for six weeks, then Australia for five months but never thought my job would ever involve as much travelling or freedom as poker brings.

My initial degree was Manufacturing Engineering and Management, which my career advisors at school thought was right for me, being a maths geek and all, but I soon found out I had no interest in it at all, so along with 9am lectures every day it didn’t work out.

I saw myself staying independent either thought business or property which I still plan to do one day with the money I make from poker. I just need to start saving the money which is my plan this year.

BT: So poker isn’t a long term career plan?

CC: It’s my best Return-on-Investment so I think I’ll always dabble in it on the side but over the next few years I want to try to move into property slowly, building up a resumé (this is if I can win enough through poker) because it’s pretty hard to get a mortgage having poker as your income.

BT: What the biggest or most exciting game you’ve ever played?

CC: The biggest events I’ve played in have definitely been live events. The €10,000 EPT (European Poker Tour) grand final main event in Monte Carlo is the biggest buy-in I’ve played and maybe the most expensive city I’ve ever been to: ridiculously pricey but a beautiful place.

The most exciting has to be the main event at the WSOP in Las Vegas. It’s a $10,000 buy-in which attracts roughly 7000 entrant from all around the worlf playing for a first prize of close to $8 million. It’s exciting in a number of ways: obviously the first prize is really exciting, and even if you finish 20^th you win around $400,000, but also the prestige: if you win this you are the World Champion and being world champion in any aspect of what you live off is pretty cool. This along with hundreds of amateurs that are chasing the glory and have qualified for cheap, seeing their faces and hearing some of their stories can be touching.

The WSOP main event pre-2003 used to get maximum 150-200 runners, then an amateur businessman called Chris Moneymaker (yes that’s really his name) won it and was broadcast all over America. This started the poker boom because your average Joe saw an amateur win close to a million and thought they could all do it. It now attracts at least 7000 entrants every year which makes it far harder to win but obviously far more exciting if you manage to get a deep run in it.

BT: Do you have any advice for budding poker players or people who do it on the side for how to get better and how to start travelling for games and getting sponsored to do so?

CC: My main advice for anyone trying to become a pro now would be to stay clear. The game is far tougher than when I first started playing six or seven years ago. I wasn’t half as good then as I am now, yet it was far easier to print money most nights. Nowadays there are so many online training sites, it’s broadcast on TV, players are doing private coaching and most importantly so many youngsters have ‘chased’ the dream, they’ve seen the lifestyle it can bring and have spent numerous hours learning and studying to become better. This didn’t happen years ago because firstly not many people knew about the game or that you could live off it, and secondly the growth of social media/online training sites, etc. which never used to exist and got bigger and bigger and over the years the game has constantly evolved (however weird that sounds) and there have been many different levels of thinking and complexities to the game which no one ever used to think about. It takes time to get really good but I was lucky ot have a natural instinct at it, which was helped by being good at Maths and playing lots of games like chess when I was younger. Poker and chess have a lot of similarities in mind games, etc.

BT: And finally, your Mum plays poker too. Have you ever played a game with her and is she good? What’s it like having your Mum play too?

CC: At first my Mum, as most parents would be, was apprehensive of me starting poker as a career, but this didn’t last long after she saw the amounts I was winning and how the lifestyle and independence suited me. She then started to play some free-rolls (tournaments that are free to enter but you can still win a small amount) now and then online and started to love the game herself: I think she’s always loved mind games as well.

I do love how she’s grown to love the game because she supports me throughout – even when times were tough at the beginning – and I see how excited she gets at these events which makes me happy. She has come a long way and for an older lady she plays very aggressively which is rare and takes a lot of egotistical men that you find by surprise. It’s more of a hobby for her anyway, and if she can make some cash along the way it’s a bonus. She will always be watching me if she’s at home online, and it’s good to have the support and encouragement she gives. Sometimes it can be tedious when she’s trying to teach me though, asking me “why did you do that?” after a game!