Richard Grace is aiming for the national title. Photo / Greg Bowker
At a glance, Richard Grace's job seems much like many others - each day he sits down at a desk and switches on his computer.
But the big difference is that after a few hours he could be thousands of dollars better off.
Wellington-born Mr Grace is a
professional poker player who says he has won "something like" $350,000 in the past three years, about $150,000 of it since January. And that's US dollars.
When the Weekend Herald visited him at his sister's Manukau home on Thursday, he had been playing online for "a couple of hours", and was $1400 up. Not that he was letting it go to his head. "Believe me, it goes the other way as well."
He spends 50 to 60 hours a week playing online poker. But the 25-year-old still finds time to attend real-life tournaments in London, Paris, Monte Carlo and Las Vegas, and is in New Zealand for the national poker championships, to be held in Christchurch next month.
It all sounds glamorous. Mr Grace, however, prefers the simpler things.
"To be honest, I can't really be bothered. I like going, playing, then coming home again."
He moved to London about six months ago where he lives with wife Megan, "a scientist" working in respiratory pharmacology.
She has no interest in poker, but is "very supportive" of her husband.
But life is not all beer and skittles. Mr Grace says there has been times when he has lost, and lost big.
"There's a lot of luck in poker, but your skill is definitely the thing that puts you over the edge."
Not that Mr Grace is particularly forthcoming about the skills required. He can confirm, though, that Kenny Rogers was right - you do have to know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em.
