Would you go back to work after a Main Event win?
After Daniel Weinman was back in the office the same week as his $12.1 million win, we ask could you do the same?
Our new World Champion Daniel Weinman has been winning over a lot of fans since his victory, and last week he revealed he was already back to work.
A $12.1 million victory was not enough to even give himself the week off, and he went back into the office four days after winning:
Monday: win main event
Friday: back in the office pic.twitter.com/NTRSD2JrLh
— Daniel Weinman (@notontilt09) July 21, 2023
Weinman is a software engineer in the gaming sector. In an interview with CNBC he revealed he was not going to change much about his life, and considered himself a pro poker player for whom software engineering was the hobby he was passionate about:
The $12.1m pot won by @notontilt09 set a record for the @WSOP, and the winner himself explains his strategy of how he sold a portion of his equity in the tournament to outside investors. pic.twitter.com/QPUe9baHjr
— Power Lunch (@PowerLunch) July 21, 2023
It still surprised many people because, for some, one of the dreams of poker is being able to quit the 9-5.
Lifestyle creep
The first thing to acknowledge is that a Main Event win is never as big as it looks. Most poker players sell or swap action, plus most players have to pay significant tax on their winnings. Given that Weinman works at a startup, he likely has an equity stake in the company, which makes the job as much of an investment as it is a wage.
Either way, I think it is admirable to continue working if you have a major windfall like this. The happiest people I know in poker are not the professionals but the amateurs who take the game very seriously, but have a primary income elsewhere. The same is probably true of the poker pros who turned businessmen with their winnings. The hardest thing about poker is the variance, so having a secondary income away from the felt means you should never worry about downswings.
There is also a great body of evidence that a sudden windfall can actually cause more harm than benefit. Most lottery winners end up bankrupt and many a sports star does the same after retirement. This is for many reasons, but one of them is a concept called lifestyle creep, whereby the new luxury afforded by an increase in wealth becomes the 'new normal'. We quickly get used to the new way of life, and blow through the money very quickly.
A springboard to a better career?
If you enjoy your job, it seems the best way to benefit from a Main Event win is to not let it change you that much. You get to play as much poker as you want without knee-jerk becoming a professional player, plus you get to enjoy a level of freedom most people don't have in their work (ie. the ability to walk away if you want).
Plus, some people would just be bored without work, I know I would. I am fortunate enough to enjoy my job, the idea of forcing myself to spend the rest of my life sitting by a pool is torture.
Poker is booming at the moment, but poker is still a lot smaller than most of us realise. It could be that Weinman sees his Main Event win as a way to turn his startup into something massive. Either way, it makes perfect sense to me that he would go straight back to work. I think I probably would too.
Would you go back to work after a massive win? Let us know in the comments:
