WSOP champion turns professional

08.11.2008 | 5:55 am | Poker, News, Poker Stars, casinos

Last month, the winner of the one of the major 2008 World Series of Poker events gave in his notice in his boss’s office at Archer Technology in order to pursue a professional poker career. Whilst usually, this would be regarded by an employer as foolish, Grant Hinkle has already proven his potential in the gambling arena through his amazing win at the WSOP summer tournament – and has already made an estimated $1million from gambling winnings. It’s no wonder that everyone is right behind Hinkle’s decision to turn professional - including his wife, Kim.

Since his victory in the No-Limit Hold’Em event on 4th June, which earned him an estimated $831,462 after 3 days and 40 hours of poker, Hinkle has become a celebrity in the gambling world. After the ESPN broadcast of the event, Hinkle says he is being recognised in the street by total strangers, and contacted by many of his former classmates whom he hasn’t heard from for years. After that sort of recognition, Hinkle says that the decision to turn pro was easy – “It’s something that I’ve thought about for a while… I just never felt it was the right time to make the jump. With my wife being self-employed, I just didn’t think we wanted to be put in the situation where we didn’t have at least one steady stream of income. But the World Series changed all of that.”

Hinkle is taking this opportunity very seriously – he’s keeping up a strict routine throughout his day to ensure he doesn’t lose focus on the game. In the morning, he checks his email and then scouts for cash games to play online, and these are regimented throughout the day so that the levels of difficulty increase as he goes. He tracks his play very closely and refreshes his hand history with his brother, who is also a high-level poker player. The change that Grant Hinkle has experienced since winning the World Series of Poker this summer has been absolutely astounding.