Decisions Decisions...

 Recently, I've had the fortunate misfortune of having to make the most difficult choice of my life. Please note that some details will have to be omitted due to the nature
of the situation. As many of you know, I recently became the first member of the Brunson 10 - A legacy of Doyle Brunson's new protege poker players, set to take over and conquer the poker world. As a result, they have acquired some great publicity, including the latest cover of Bluff Magazine in October.  Personally, I've managed to get some TV time, along with publishing articles a very promising compensation as an endorsed pro. Perhaps most exciting of all, the site is expanding rapidly and with the promotion of my good friend and mentor Will Griffiths to President of the company, I feel confident the company is in good hands in the future to really take off. Sounds like a dream come true, right?

I began the blog with an oxymoron of sorts - a fortunate, misfortune. I say this because I have been presented with another equally alluring opportunity. Without mentioning names or specifics, nearly ALL of my best friends in Las Vegas are being endorsed by a poker site that's set to go public in a few days called Victory Poker. While the risks of a startup business are much higher, the potential long term gain is much greater. Being an endorsed pro from the beginning and being personal friends with the CEO, Dan Fleyshman, means I am in a much more alluring position. As a pro, we are given not only a great sponsorship deal but an input in marketing, advertising, budget control, signing new players along with personally knowing and trusting everyone involved. Although in its infancy, the site has big plans. With a unparalleled marketing campaign and plans to take Victory on an international level, the site looks promising. Again, I can't get into too much detail so making the opportunity as promising as I really feel it is becomes difficult. Let's just say that through all my experience and knowledge in poker I firmly believe in the Victory Team and their ability to make the company work.

Decisions, Decisions. On the offset, one could say it's an easy calculation of risk and reward. While questions such as "How much money are you making now?" How much money do you stand to make in the future of Doyle's Room compared with Victory Poker in the next 5 years? Which one is more likely to provide you with more exposure? and "Which one do you believe in more?" are all important, they are merely one component to the equation. For to only consider these equations is the like only having the crust of a pie or the icing of the cake. Monetary gain, while very important is not and should not be the basis for which we make decisions. Imagine drawing a large circle on a piece of paper and dividing it up into several quadrants. Within these quadrants one is free to write whatever he deems necessary to make a decision. Naturally, money would have a section but what about lifestyle, friends, family, fame, dreams, etc. Surely these things should be taken into consideration when making a potentially life altering career change. In some cases, money wouldn't even be the most important factor. Depending on the cost of doing business and the potential gains and losses, money might not play a factor at all (in the extreme case where your life wouldn't change regardless and your net worth was really high relative to the decision at hand. E.g. Which brand of gum to buy.)  To overlook the effects on one's lifestyle that a decision of this magnitude can have would be foolish. Now that we have all the components to consider during the process, we need a title for our "Pie Chart." That title should be symbolic of our most important factor in making this decision. Thus, the only title that makes sense, is the currency which is worth more than gold, platinum and diamonds combined - Happiness.

Suddenly, the decision becomes much more complicated. Now we are asking questions like, "If Victory poker becomes what they expect it to, how will that change the relationships with my friends and family? Do I really want to be grounded in Vegas for the next few years? Do I want a lot of my time, energy and money being put into this particular business or industry? Or is there some other way to spend my efforts that would allot me a greater amount of happiness? Do I want to continue to work for a company, or do I want to have a chance to be there from the beginning? Do I want to take a risk to make something revolutionary, at the expense of my current position?" These types of questions become much more difficult to measure. Additionally, we now have to convert the monetary gains and losses into this equation so that we are measuring all in the same currency of Happiness. As I struggled with this over the past few weeks, I realized that knowing what to do and doing it are two very different things. It takes practice to become familiar with these situations and that takes time. Unfortunately, time is of the essence and I have come to the fork in the road. I now have to make a choice…

In preparation for my decision, I did nearly everything one could imagine. I reviewed books that were inspirational to me. I had countless hours of conversation with my family, friends, girl and everyone that would listen. I wrote things down, thought about my future until my head was spinning. I occasionally have this feeling in poker, where I thought of every conceivable hand combination that someone could have and yet I still don't know what to do. I'm on the river and they make a substantial bet, and calling seems no better or worse than folding and vise versa. Ironically, I thought back to something I read when I was 16, a junior in high school and had first started playing poker. It's one of the first books on poker I had ever read titled, "The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King." The story goes something like this. There was a man in there that was in a similar predicament at the poker table as the one I find myself in today. He went through every miniscule detail of the poker hand and couldn't for the life of him conclude what to do. He had the clock called on him and as the final seconds were ticking down he yelled out confidently and proudly, "ALL IN!" After the hand was over a fellow player inquired, "you seemed like it was a tough decision. What was it that made you so sure?" The man replied, "I wasn't. In fact it was quite the opposite. But I had a realization just then and there. When you have put every ounce of thought into something and still cannot come to a decision, then you should always gamble."
"Oh yea and why is that?" the player replied.
"Because it's more fun that way."

Lastly, I thought back to the speech I gave at USC on risk. I thought about the advice I gave to those apathetic USC students. I constantly blabber to my friends, "gosh, all they had to do was step out of their comfort zone, put in a little work and take a risk. Who knows what possibilities lied ahead for them." Well who am I if I'm not prepared to take my own advice. Sure things are great at DoylesRoom. But let's face it - I am an employee of the company, and am essentially doing the poker equivalent of working my way up the corporate ladder - which is everything I spoke against. With DoylesRoom, I'm working for the man, with Victory, I have a chance to be the man. I should note that nearly everyone advised me to pass on Victory poker. That's precisely why I chose to do it. I thought back to my college days and my seemingly large decision to drop out of school. Everyone told me not to do it and consequently I knew it was the right thing to do. I don't want to be like everyone else. I don't want to work 9 - 5, live a conventional life and follow societies rules. One of my favorite novels is Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead." I thought of the main character who's an extreme individualist, Howard Roark. I asked myself, "What would Howard Roark do?" The answer could best be summed up in one of the most famous poems of all time.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874 - 1963).

And so it is settled. After every possible ounce of input and having more input on the subject than a World Book Encyclopedia, I have decided to go with Victory Poker. If I go broke, lose my DoylesRoom sponsorship and never recover, at least I will have tried, had fun and learned a lot in the process. At the very worst I'm prepared to write this off as an expensive learning experience. Ironically, it will probably cost me less and I'll learn more than getting an MBA in college. I'll have my own real life MBA, learn 10 times as much, meet a lot of great people, and stand for something I believe in. And that my friends, is priceless…

Cheers,

 ~ Trah ~