A New Adventure

Save for Later

Back around the time that we started Tournament Poker Edge, I stumbled upon the writings of a guy name Gary Vaynerchuck. He wrote a book called "Crush It!" that I found motivating. In fact, my wife laughs at me as she often catches me watching videos of his on YouTube.  This video for example does a great job of demonstrating his philosophy on life and work.  This is my favorite quote from Gary:

"Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what do I want to do every day for the rest of my life?  Do that."

Watch it and let me know what you think!

This philosophy is why I wanted to be a part of TPE.  Poker is something that I am very passionate about, and TPE has afforded me the opportunity to not have a "day job" and focus on what I love doing and talking about.  The time I spend "working" on TPE does not feel like work at all.  It feels like hanging out with friends having a few beers (which I often do while I work) and hopefully making a little money playing poker while I'm at it.  I'm lucky to be a part of this amazing community, and there is no circumstance where I can ever imagine NOT being a part of it.

In the two years that TPE has been my sole source of income, I have applied at exactly two companies…never because I wanted more money, but always because it was a chance to work with something that I am passionate about.  One of those opportunities has come to fruition, and I am excited to get started on this new adventure!

First and foremost, I am going nowhere.  I will still be just as involved in TPE as I have ever been. My new boss is very much aware of TPE and understands how important it is to me.  He is, afterall, an entrepreneur who left a corporate job to start a company with his buddies because he was passionate about it!  So with that being said, you will see no change as far as my input and involvement in our community.

So I'm sure by now you are saying "come on KB, just tell us what this new job is!"…so let me get to it.

If you follow me online or have hung out with me in person, you probably know that I love beer.  I love drinking it, I love talking about it, I love brewing it.  And the Raleigh area has some amazing craft breweries and a great craft brewing community.  I've been offered the opportunity to go to work for one of these breweries managing their social media marketing.  The company is called Lonerider Brewing Company and I start my role with them next week.  I could not be more excited about getting to utilize my skills working for another great company that I will be proud to be a part of.

As i said, this does not change anything from a TPE perspective, but it is a new stage of my life that I'm excited about and certainly don't want to "hide" from my extended poker family. 

On a bit of an administrative note, I will continue to tweet all things poker from my usual Twitter account @derektenbusch.  But I have also created a Twitter account for my "other life" in the craft brewing inustry.  I don't suspect that most people who follow my poker exploits will care that much about what is going on at the brewery this week.  And the people who follow me on the brewery side probably dont care that I just lost AQ to AK all in preflop for 60bbs.  But if you do want to follow me over there, I certainly welcome that!  you can find me there @loneriderderek.

With all of that said, I look forward to seeing some of you at the Borgata next week for the WPT!  And if you ever find yourself in the Raleigh area, hit me up and I'll give you a tour of the brewery!!