Brian Hastings Leaves High Stakes Behind for Tea Business

[michael]

I know dude's girlfriend, Sonya, nice girl, started off as a waitress, then became a dealer and met Brian.

Looks like he's giving up the fulltime grind to start a tea business.

Brian Hastings Leaves High Stakes Behind for Tea Business

High stakes online pro Brian Hastings is hanging up his mouse and entering the world of paid employment according to a recent blog post.

Hastings, who is better known to many as Stinger88, is one of the biggest winners in the virtual game’s history. Thanks to a now infamous session against Sweden’s Viktor Blom, during which he won $4.2 million in just four hours, Hastings will be forever known as an online legend.

Of course, being an expert player online often translates into live success and Hastings has had plenty of that over the years.

With just over $2.4 million in tournament earnings as well as three WSOP bracelets, Hastings has certainly done enough to be considered an elite level poker player.

Money Can’t Keep Hastings Grinding

However, after almost a decade in the game, Hastings has decided to call it quits and use his bankroll for something else. In a blog post titled “Why I’m Moving on From Poker as a Fulltime Job,” Hastings tells the story of his career.

Offering a poetic take on his ups and downs, Hastings admits that even at his peak (winning $4.2 million in a night) he was depressed. Without many people outside of poker to celebrate his victories with and a wave of hate often directed at him by failing players, Hastings battled with his emotions over the years.

After coming to terms with many of the tribulations his faced thanks to his girlfriend, Hastings has now decided to stop playing poker as a full time profession. With money in the bank and a place to live, he’s set up a tea company.

A Fresh Start for Hastings

Based in South Florida, UniTea is Hastings attempt to move on from poker and use his talents in a new way. Although he’s promised to provide more details on his venture in a future blog post, the latest entry from Hastings is certainly revealing.

As fans, spectators and recreational players, we often assume that players winning at the highest stakes must be living the life of a rock star. Although there’s likely some truth to this in some instances, Hastings paints a very different picture.

For all his achievements in the game, it seems as though he wasn’t ever able to find real happiness in the game. Whether it was a combination of criticism and pressure or his own personality, Hastings’ story just goes to show that money isn’t everything when it comes to poker.

Enjoying the game is the most important thing for any player, regardless of the stakes at play and if Hastings’ departure teaches us anything it’s this.


http://www.pokersites.com/news/brian...-retires-10933

[sonatine]

are we really pretending that tea doesnt kick the shit out of poker across the board?

is that whats hot in the streets, michael?

[michael]

are we really pretending that tea doesnt kick the shit out of poker across the board?

is that whats hot in the streets, michael?

I like tea.

[michael]

Not iced though.

[sonatine]

nothing about iced tea is cress.

[Dan Druff]

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...unhealthy-quot

But because you're MRobot, I will forgive you

[ShawnFanningsLimpDick]

Running many businesses can be fun, or at least not feel like hard work, when you're at the top making the decisions and seeing plans bear fruit. It's being a tiny cog in a corporate machine that's stressful and soul-destroying.

[herbertstemple]

Sounds like a guy that got sick of playing poker.

Remember an interview with a poker player pre poker boom. Guy talked about pro poker player friends he had that had gotten to where they hated poker but didn't have anything to put on their resume and were stuck playing poker.

[mulva]

i like cheap english tea...lipton or red rose will do. 1 sugar and light milk

[snake_in_the_ass]

Sounds like a guy that got sick of playing poker.

Remember an interview with a poker player pre poker boom. Guy talked about pro poker player friends he had that had gotten to where they hated poker but didn't have anything to put on their resume and were stuck playing poker.

That is just an excuse. You can get a job if you really wanted one and I don't care if the resume is empty.

[Dan Druff]

Putting aside his various scandals and dumb/hypocritical shit he writes on the internet, Brian seems to truly suffer from depression, and is also one of those people who is never happy with what he's doing.

Even when successful, people like this find ways to make themselves miserable, and they long to be doing something else.

So Brian has increasingly grown dissatisfied with poker (more specifically, the people in it -- even if many of his problems were his own doing), and he has sat around dreaming of the calm, peaceful world of owning a tea shop.

In Brian's mind, he will create a unique and highly coveted brand of tea, sell it through his cutesy retail store, slowly build into a tea world sensation, and then expand to multiple outlets. He will be a champion of tea lovers everywhere, and this lucrative undertaking will not have the drama or controversies which constantly dog him in poker.

But we all know that won't happen. I picture that Brian will approach the tea venture with enthusiasm, and perhaps sink a lot of money into starting up his store. Then he will see it fail to take off, get frustrated, get bored, get restless, close it down, and return back to the warm bosom of poker (and probably his parents' house in PA for the 6th time in his adult life).

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

Putting aside his various scandals and dumb/hypocritical shit he writes on the internet, Brian seems to truly suffer from depression, and is also one of those people who is never happy with what he's doing.

Even when successful, people like this find ways to make themselves miserable, and they long to be doing something else.

So Brian has increasingly grown dissatisfied with poker (more specifically, the people in it -- even if many of his problems were his own doing), and he has sat around dreaming of the calm, peaceful world of owning a tea shop.

In Brian's mind, he will create a unique and highly coveted brand of tea, sell it through his cutesy retail store, slowly build into a tea world sensation, and then expand to multiple outlets. He will be a champion of tea lovers everywhere, and this lucrative undertaking will not have the drama or controversies which constantly dog him in poker.

But we all know that won't happen. I picture that Brian will approach the tea venture with enthusiasm, and perhaps sink a lot of money into starting up his store. Then he will see it fail to take off, get frustrated, get bored, get restless, close it down, and return back to the warm bosom of poker (and probably his parents' house in PA for the 6th time in his adult life).

for somebody is so dissatisfied from poker he's sure playing a lot of 40/80 and 75/150 O8 on ACR recently...he ain't giving that shit up...that retirement stuff was a bunch of bullshit...

[AhoosierA]

Brian Hastings recently done a interview with Pokernews. He was asked about his business ventures and he states.

"I had my tea company and decided to put it on the back burner for now. Don't know if its the right thing for me so I decided to focus back on poker"

What I believe he really means is. It never picked up like he thought it would, he failed, and now has started playing poker again.

The part he says this is around the 1:40 mark in the video

https://www.facebook.com/pokernewsdo...5512475817265/

[sonatine]

What I believe he really means is. It never picked up like he thought it would, he failed, and now has started playing poker again.

~or~ He thought he could walk away from his gambling addiction and it didnt go so well.

[michael]

Is he playing a lot again? I know his fiance/wife(?), she started off as a waitress, moved to dealer, broke up w her dealer bf and has been with Hastings ever since. She'd usually put up all kindsa poker stuff Brian was doing, but for the last year or so I have not seen much if anything poker related, and she ended up getting a job too

[Dan Druff]

Putting aside his various scandals and dumb/hypocritical shit he writes on the internet, Brian seems to truly suffer from depression, and is also one of those people who is never happy with what he's doing.

Even when successful, people like this find ways to make themselves miserable, and they long to be doing something else.

So Brian has increasingly grown dissatisfied with poker (more specifically, the people in it -- even if many of his problems were his own doing), and he has sat around dreaming of the calm, peaceful world of owning a tea shop.

In Brian's mind, he will create a unique and highly coveted brand of tea, sell it through his cutesy retail store, slowly build into a tea world sensation, and then expand to multiple outlets. He will be a champion of tea lovers everywhere, and this lucrative undertaking will not have the drama or controversies which constantly dog him in poker.

But we all know that won't happen. I picture that Brian will approach the tea venture with enthusiasm, and perhaps sink a lot of money into starting up his store. Then he will see it fail to take off, get frustrated, get bored, get restless, close it down, and return back to the warm bosom of poker (and probably his parents' house in PA for the 6th time in his adult life).

Ship PFA Nostradamus status