In this post-Black Friday era of poker, many professionals have moved on to other challenges, leaving the long nights and bankroll swings behind. We rarely hear about them once they stop cashing in tournaments or appearing in online games; they just exit the scene, never to be heard from by the poker community again. One such former poker pro is Joe Sebok(pictured), founder of PokerRoad, a UB spokesperson, and the former “Poker2Nite” host. Matt Villano of SFGate.com recently caught up with Sebok to talk about life in his new industry: wine making.

Sebok has worked this year at Vinify, a premium custom crush winery in Santa Rosa, California, a little more than an hour north of San Francisco. His work was hard labor; he was a grunt. He handled “punchdowns,” or the physical process of using a long tool to push down the top layer of grapes in a fermenting bin in order to keep the grapes properly mixed and prevent the top “cap” from drying out. He also dealt with “pumpovers,” or pumping wine from one vat to another. Glamorous stuff.

“I did typical cellar rat stuff,” Sebok told SFGate.com. “Basically, I came up here and got my ass kicked.”

Going from the sedentary lifestyle of a poker player to the physically demanding job at the winery was a shock to Sebok’s system. He said he lost 17 pounds during the most recent three-month harvest. “It’s well documented that poker players are lazy and we don’t exactly keep ourselves in the best shape,” he said.

He drew some parallels between poker and winemaking, namely the long hours, need for mental toughness, and passion of those in the industry.

That passion appears to be making its way into Sebok. He is looking to stay in the wine industry, perhaps in marketing or social media.

“The game of poker is great and has been good to me over the years,” he said. “But at the end of the day, if you’re not doing other stuff, all you are doing is counting money.”

The general reaction from the poker community to Sebok’s new life has been mockery. Sebok did not leave the poker world on particularly good terms, and many found it funny that he has had to engage in physical labor to earn a buck.

Sebok was fairly well liked for a number of years when he was known more as Barry Greenstein‘s (pictured) stepson than as a poker pro or celebrity. He was a decent enough player, but never won any major tournament titles. The closest he ever came to one was in 2005 when he placed fifth and eighth in two World Series of Poker events. In all, he won $1.9 million on the live tournament circuit.

Joe Sebok cemented his poker celebrity status in 2008 when the founded PokerRoad with Greenstein. The venture became a very popular resource for poker radio broadcasts, video, and general entertainment. In 2009, he became the co-host, along with Joe Stapleton, of the “Poker2Nite” television show on Fox Sports Net.

Sebok’s status in the poker community began a quick decline in September 2009 when he took a job as Media and Operations Consultant for UltimateBet, or UB. As most readers know, UB was the center of an infamous superuser cheating scandal led by former WSOP Main Event Russ Hamilton.

Sebok claimed he joined UB in order to help players get answers and claim the money they were owed. He said his main goals were to make sure the screen names of the superuser accounts were made public, out the identities of those account holders, and make all relevant hand histories available to players.

There were two prevailing opinions in the poker community regarding Sebok’s employment with UB: that he joined simply for a paycheck and would say anything to make his decision appear noble, or that he went in with good intentions but was tragically naïve about the influence he could have. In either case, Sebok’s reputation bottomed out and his integrity was seen as virtually non-existent.

On the Two Plus Two forums, reactions to the SFGate.com piece have included comments like, “What a delusional tool. Of course the reason he quit poker is because he got tired of ‘counting money.'” Another poster added, “He got tired of not being able to win at any level above the micros more likely.”

One of the harshest criticisms was from poker player Mickey mementmoriPetersen (pictured): “It’s pretty annoying (but in no way surprising) how this guy is trying to portray himself like he chose to leave poker ‘because all he was doing was counting his money’ when in reality he was one of the most universally disliked people in the poker community (a pretty hard thing to pull off and by far his biggest accomplishment). Funny to hear him say poker players are lazy as well when the only reasons he even ever was in the poker world was because he got lucky with a Twitter account, used his father’s name to promote himself, and sold out his name on empty promises.”

Not everyone was as critical, though. PokerStarsTeam Online member Shane shaniac Schleger posted, “I am happy/relieved for Sebok. He never really understood the poker world and this seems like more honest work anyway. I find it a little obnoxious for him to say, ‘It’s well documented that poker players are lazy,’ but I guess it’s more of a reflection of his own values than the reality of poker players’ work ethic.”

And finally, one poster took the “keep it simple” approach, saying, “Idk. Maybe he likes grapes and wants to have his own winery one day. More power to him.”

What do you think? Leave a comment here and let us know.

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