Today, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a 1995 MasterCraft Prostar 210 looking down the glassy calm lake at a slalom course. The sun was beating on my shoulders and a longtime friend and skiing partner of mine was pulling on his vest and getting ready to hop in the water for his second slalom set of the day. I had my phone in my lap and happened to see a few congratulatory Tweets aimed at Brent bhanks11Hanks, who just won a bracelet at the WSOP.

My spot on the lake is 3,000 miles and a four-hour flight from the WSOP in Las Vegas and as happy as I was for Brent and as exciting as the WSOP is, I knew I was right where I needed to be. About 1% of me wanted to be in Vegas and the other 99% was very happy to be in my little piece of Heaven getting away for a few hours from the hectic work schedule of an entrepreneur that I have fallen into over the last few years.

The ventures and projects I have taken on and gotten involved with are the type I am almost never working on in the traditional sense, but almost always working on in reality. And I love it that way. If I were to go back into the corporate 9-5 world, I wouldn’t be nearly as happy as I am now, although on some days, being able to shut off my phone and computer at 5:00pm and not deal with anything until the next morning sound like amazing benefits, but I’m not wired that way.

Poker allowed me to make the transition from being in the corporate world to being the more freewheeling, project-based, freelancing, business-owning entrepreneur I have become. But part of that transition has also phased out some of my drive on the poker side of things. As I have evolved in the business world, the time I have to dedicate to poker and improving my game has diminished and at some point, I made a subconscious decision to focus on cash games even though tournaments were my first love.

This evolution came about in phases. The first was when I found out that I both enjoy and am better suited for live play than online. I enjoyed playing online for the first couple of years, but after that, it didn’t have the same appeal as it did at first. Once I found the right type of live games, I was hooked, and even after playing regularly for seven years, I am still excited every time I get to go to one of the good live games around here.

Once I got more into cash games and playing for profit and income, I saw the great disparity between the fluctuations in cash game play and tournament play, especially when playing live. The time commitments, travel costs, and downtime have limited my tournament play from the start, but recently I have found it difficult to play any tournaments at all when I factor in the opportunity costs and the actual costs of traveling to a tournament.

All of that along with the talk of “When are you going to Vegas?” and “What tournaments are you playing?” recently got me thinking about my motivation and drive to play poker tournaments. I still enjoy tournaments, but there are a handful of things I would rather be doing than being in Vegas right now playing events.

Knowing that makes me realize that even if I were there, I’m probably no longer dedicated and driven enough to really compete with Brent Hanks (pictured), Daniel Negreanu, Bryan badbeatninja Devonshire, and the other highly driven and motivated tournament poker players that would rather be playing poker tournaments than doing anything else.

I had already pretty much made my mind up to play a very limited WSOP schedule this year of three events, but haven’t totally ruled out heading out to Vegas and playing a seven- to 12-tournament schedule like I have done in years past. Today, sitting in the boat, it hit me that just because I had done something in the past didn’t mean I had to, or should, do it again.

This year, my max schedule will be a $1,500 NL event, a $3K PLO8 event, and the Main Event. That’s the smallest schedule I’ve played since 2006, but I think by early July, I’ll be ready to get out there and play tournaments for a week or two and give it my best shot.

At the same time, I have come to the point where I know that my poker focus needs to be on deep-stacked cash games that I enjoy the most. For the foreseeable future, tournaments will be a very small part of what I do on the poker side of things. The change is a sad one for me in many ways, but it’s a realistic assessment of where I am in life and poker. If I continued to force the issue on tournaments, I would be doing myself a disservice and likely end up with poor and frustrating results to boot.

Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy and privately, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at Court@CourtHarrington.com.