Some players would say that getting a mental break from poker is healthy. Others grind non-stop until their routers burst into flames. Others have spouses, parents, friends, and family that play poker for a living.

In the latter camp is Rafael ‘GM_VALTER’ Moraes, whose wife, Laurie ‘laurietournier’ Tournier, plays poker professionally as well.

“Both of us being poker pros helps a lot,” the Brazilian said. “For example, our Sunday is ‘sacred,’ while other friends’ wives have problems with the fact that they don’t ever have a free Sunday.”

Not only do Moraes and his wife play online and live poker at the same time, but they’re also immersed neck-deep in hand analysis after the fact.

“She’s always a part of my hand dissection with friends, debating with us all, so she never feels out of place when I’m talking about poker with my friends,” he said. “She feels very comfortable taking part in the discussion.”

“We talk about poker all the time,” Moraes said. “Our life is poker. We breathe it, we live it, and being together helps us be better professionals every day.”

As a result, Moraes is over $3.6 million in career online tournament winnings and final tabled the PokerStars Sunday 500 in mid-March. He’s the 130th ranked player worldwide.

“She helps me a lot and I help her in different ways,” he said of his relationship poker-wise with his wife. “When we bust an important MTT or when something bad happens, we understand the feeling, so it’s easier to be compassionate with each other during that moment.”

Moraes and his wife met, of all places, at a chess tournament. They were top-tier chess players growing up, but at the time, Moraes was no longer playing competitively, but wanted to go to the tournament for fun. Looking back, that was a plus-EV, life-changing decision.

“At the time, I was just getting into poker and she knew the rules and used to play micro-stakes tournaments,” he said. “As the years went on, I continued improving my game and became a real professional up to the high-stakes games, while she kept studying and playing smaller stakes. I gave her some lessons and we kept talking a lot about poker, so she’s been evolving up to the point she’s at today where she plays a lot of mid- to high-stakes.”

As poker players know, downswings are part of the game. Every so often, variance comes back to bite you in the rear. Now, imagine combating variance to not only your own game, but also your wife’s. Take the same logic and apply it to hand analysis, breaking news, and legal developments and you have a potentially toxic environment.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “There are many times we disagree while analyzing a hand, for example, and if we aren’t careful, it can get kind of personal, but I think all of that helps us way more than it hurts. Just the fact that our routines are similar makes for a healthier relationship than it would otherwise.”

“It’s also been a long time since we had a big downswing,” he said. “We’ve both been on recent upswings, so we’ve been celebrating together with dinners and tasting good wines. But the best thing of all is the fact that every time we do well, our esteem and pride for each other only grows.”

What would happen if both Moraes and his wife went on a major downswing at the same time and money were set ablaze like wildfire? Would it matter? Would the couple implode or would their empathy for each other’s situation trump all?

“It certainly wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “We’d have to respect each other’s space and always talk about each other’s difficulties and mistakes that need repairing. But as we both play, I believe in the end it’d be easier than if one of us didn’t play because we understand the mechanics of the game and because we’re financially well-off today also thanks to poker It would be hard work and something that we’d have to live together with, but it would help us become better professionals and a more united and close couple.”

Poker has quite a few perks as well. It’s not all doom-and-gloom. Accordingly, Moraes and his wife regularly travel to European Poker Tour stops as well as the World Series of Pokerin the Nevada desert. Their holidays are scheduled around major online series, further exemplifying that just about every aspect of their lives is somehow related to poker.

Five months ago, at their wedding, the couple proved their love of the game, hosting a gambling-themed wedding for their friends and family. You can debate the idea of poker not being gambling all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that their wedding came complete with an Elvis Presley impersonator, casino table games, and playing cards as the base of the dance floor.

As the old playground song goes, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage.” Given that the wedding was less than half-a-year ago, no baby carriages will be arriving any time soon, but when and if he does have children, he wouldn’t overtly encourage them to follow the family trade and play poker.

“Poker is an uncertain profession,” Moraes said. “We don’t know what its future is going to be. I believe that every year the game is going to become more difficult and unless anything big changes, I wouldn’t encourage my kids to play professionally. But, I wouldn’t discourage them either. To learn and play poker is very positive. It helps our brain think logically and mathematically. I am a much more balanced and rational person thanks to poker.”

Moraes’ father was an engineer, a math-centric occupation. When Moraes went to college, it was to study engineering, but the moment he decided to leave school, his father supported him and encouraged him to chase his dreams.

“I’d like to do the same thing with my kids,” he said. “I’ll support them to do whatever they love independently of what I want them to do.”

Moraes left the engineering program when he was 19 in order to pursue poker. He’s been playing full-time for the last half-decade.

“I value two big pillars for my development at poker: discipline and focus,” he said. “I study hard, work hard, and focus on the only important things for my evolution.” For now, it’s all about his wife and him developing as poker players… together.