For most players, leaving a “real world” job to pursue a poker career was anything but easy. Enter Gavin gavonater O’Rourke (pictured), who worked as a train driver before pursuing poker. This author’s two-year-old son would probably think driving a train is the greatest job imaginable, but for O’Rourke, the promise of a poker career was the trump card. That was six months ago.

Nowadays, O’Rourke has gone from being a train engineer to engineering six-figure scores online. Last September, he won a PokerStarsWCOOP $320 No Limit Hold’em 3X Chance event for $133,000 officially, his largest tracked score to date. He banked nearly $100,000 for winning a W Series High Roller event on Winamaxand we caught up with him after a victory in the 888 PokerWhale in May for $60,000 and a final table in the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl the same day. Yes, it’s good to be O’Rourke.

“It feels great to take down a Sunday major at last,” O’Rourke told PocketFives following his win on 888 and final table on Full Tilt. “I didn’t take much notice of the Whale until I busted the Brawl. I was putting all of my concentration into that, but once I busted, I could give it my full attention. I managed to reach the final table third in chips, which is where you want to be. I stayed around third in chips until we were four-handed and got the chip lead. From there, I played my normal game and happily it went my way this time.”

If you ask O’Rourke, his recent flurry hasn’t been a random occurrence. He’s not Houdini, pulling wins out of a hat on a whim. Instead, he said, “In the last six months, I have been working a lot on my game and my mental attitude, which I think has been a big factor in my recent success.”

A half-year ago, O’Rourke quit his job as a train driver to pursue poker, as we said at the top of this article. “It wasn’t an easy decision for me,” he recalled, “given that I have a family to look after, but after my WCOOP win, I thankfully was in a position to give it a go. I haven’t looked back since I have more time now to put into the game and continue to improve.”

O’Rourke has $1.7 million in tracked scores in online MTTs, including $1.2 million on PokerStars. He is the #1 player in Ireland, where he lives in Port Laoise, which if you’re a reality junkie you know was one of the locations visited by Kanye West and Kim Kardashian on their honeymoon. Yes, we finally worked those two into an article.

Okay, we digress. While O’Rourke was driving trains, he apparently was very into poker books, telling us, “It was a good job, but I always knew it wasn’t for me. I knew poker was my way out of the normal 9-to-5 and I put everything into it. Guys I worked with would joke about how every time they saw me, I would be reading a poker book, obviously not while driving. Finally, I have the freedom that comes with being a poker player and feel blessed to be able to do it.”

Finally, we wanted to highlight O’Rourke’s live scores, which total $108,000, according to the Hendon Mob, and primarily consist of a final table in March in the EPT Vienna Main Event for $83,000. He is #139 on the all-time money list for Ireland.

The Whale takes place on 888 Poker. If you don’t already have an 888 Poker account, sign up through the links on PocketFives to get an enhanced 100% up to $600 deposit bonus, $88 free in most locations, and one free month of PocketFives Trainingwhen you make a deposit. Click here to sign up for 888 Poker.

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