13 November 2005
Quitting your day job to play poker full-time may seem a risky proposition, but the young Scots leading the pack have never looked back.
Three years ago Natasha Ellis made the life-changing decision to ditch her job as a travel writer and embark on a far more high-risk career. It was a big gamble but it paid off. Today she is one of Britain’s leading professional poker players, competing in tournaments around the world and taking home more than £45,000 a year.
Ellis, who was taught to play by her father at the age of five, has joined a growing number of young Scots who have forsaken the security of a monthly wage to move into the glamorous, addictive world of international poker.
“I only ever used to play for fun with friends,” says Ellis, 34, whose blonde bob and glossy lipstick set her apart from the stereotypical chain-smoking gambler. “But I just kept on winning.”
Ellis, who lives in Merchiston, Edinburgh, is sponsored by a poker website that pays for her to compete in tournaments from Dublin to Las Vegas. This week she returns to Nevada’s gambling paradise, where she and her boyfriend, Mark, will sightsee by day and play the tables by night.
“I love my job,” she says. “The hours are flexible, I have no set routine, I don’t need to commute and I can lie in as late as I want.”
Ellis’s first brush with professional poker was gambling online. She started playing in her spare time, but when the money started rolling in three years ago, she decided to give up work to concentrate on poker full-time.
Although Ellis is very much in the minority among professional poker players, who are overwhelmingly male, she is part of a popular trend.
Two years ago Rory Mathews was working part-time at Sainsburys. Now, aged 20, he has quit in favour of a career in poker, where he earns up to £100,000 a year
Last month the lads’ mag Nuts conducted a survey of men’s gambling habits that showed that while men in the rest of the UK spent an average of £25 a month on gambling, that figure rose to £40 in Scotland, and almost half the Scots questioned said they gambled once a week, compared with 30% in the rest of the country.
“Scots have always had a strong gambling culture and our study reflected that,” says Phil Hilton, the magazine’s editor. “Gambling has recently been accepted as a sport or hobby, and the fact that people are winning money only serves to make it more appealing.
“Gone are the days when gambling was for mugs. In today’s world it’s trendy.”
Films such as Ocean’s Eleven and Rounders have given poker a younger, funkier image along with celebrity poker showdowns starring actors such as Ben Affleck and the casts of popular television shows including ER and The West Wing.
“Poker offers people a lot of freedom. Students have the option of taking out an expensive bank loan or starting a rubbish job to make ends meet. Or they could go online and make a living through poker,” says Nic Szeremeta, who launched Channel 4’s Late Night Poker show in 1999.
“If you’re a quick learner and bright, it can offer the perfect escape route from the conventional nine-to-five desk job.”
Rory Mathews is a textbook example. Two years ago, he was studying at Edinburgh University and working part-time at Sainsburys. Now, aged 20, he has quit in favour of a career in poker, where he earns up to £100,000 a year, and is one of Britain’s most exciting young players.
He currently shares a flat in Causewayside, Edinburgh, but has been eyeing up properties in the New Town. Mathews loves his new lifestyle — he stays at the London Hilton courtesy of his website sponsors when playing in tournaments and can afford to take his mates to Martin Wishart’s Michelin-starred restaurant after a good game — but says his success is down to a good attitude and taking the game very seriously.
“When I first started playing, I geeked up. I saw how easy it was to have a bad day, and I didn’t want to lose everything,” he says. Mathews studies poker manuals and reads the autobiographies of professional players to improve his game. He also spends hours chatting and picking up tips in internet forums.
Sticking mainly to online games at first, he now competes regularly in televised tournaments and is attending a Caribbean poker cruise in January. He is sanguine about losses, casually mentioning that he once lost £32,000 in one day, but recalling, in the next breath, that another time he scooped £57,500.
He reckons a cool head is the key to his success. “I always analyse a game afterwards. If I’ve lost a lot, I like to work out where I went wrong so I can improve.”
When giving advice to new players, Szeremeta says casinos are a bad place to learn, as high overheads raise the stakes. To avoid crippling losses, he recommends new players cut their teeth in online card rooms, where a fiver could last an entire week.
It is undoubtedly the convenience and accessibility of computer betting that has attracted new players. Where late-night casinos may still be considered by many as a hang-out for vice-ridden ne’er-do-wells, the online community can enjoy a game without the dodgy characters or stench of ashtrays.
Even Ellis, now a seasoned pro, admits she used to find casinos “a little daunting” and enjoyed playing anonymously online, without running the risk of being stared down by a competitive male player.
Iain Girdwood almost never ventures into a casino building, but manages to earn almost £30,000 in a good month through online poker. The 30-year-old from Shawlands, Glasgow, prefers the peace and quiet of his own home after seeing a lot of “desperadoes down to their last 20 quid” when he worked as a croupier.
Although he plays an average of 120 hours of poker a month, he only goes to the casino when there is a big cash game in Edinburgh, and never plays the lottery or visits the bookmaker. “Games such as blackjack and roulette are all about luck. There is no skill involved, so there is no way of making long-term winnings,” he says.
Having spent years working as a professional gamer, testing and playing video games, Girdwood realises that discipline and dedication are essential to get to the top. He also thanks his computer-gaming days for his “screwed-up body clock”, which is perfect for the late nights that the poker lifestyle demands.
“The online card rooms tend to be busiest late at night, as that’s when the Americans are playing,” explains Girdwood, who competes in tournaments under the nickname Tillerman. Although some may consider the nocturnal habits of a poker player to be antisocial, Girdwood says the online community is huge, and he has met a lot of friends through the game.
Ellis also denies the game is antisocial. “I am probably even more sociable now, as I can play for money at night, then phone up my friends to meet for lunch or go shoe shopping during the day.”
None of the players seem worried about becoming addicted either, and all seem well aware of the cautionary tales of players who go “on the tilt” and play shoddily after they let a run of bad luck upset them.
“Poker requires a lot of psychology, mathematics, good money management and emotional control,” says Girdwood. “If you play well and don’t go crazy and put your winnings on the horses or something, then you too can be a winner.”