Brian Hastings Says Goodbye to Poker

Brian Hastings has an enjoyed a full and productive poker career, with the Pennsylvania pro having amassed millions of dollars playing the game at the highest stakes. However, the 28 year-old says he is now ready to quit the game and concentrate on running a new business he has founded called UniTea.
Although fun to play for recreational players, poker can also be stressful if played as a profession, and especially at the nose bleed stakes. Despite being one of the most successful pros of his generation, over the years Hastings has complained about having a love-hate relationship with the game.
“I can remember seeing therapists four and five years ago taking career inventory tests and talking about how I needed to move on from poker to be happy,” explained Hastings.
The incident which first brought home to him the “dark side of poker” occurred around seven years ago, after he won $4.2 million from Viktor Blom on Full Tilt Poker, but was subsequently labeled a cheat by some members of the poker press for having used hand history data provided to him by Brian Townsend. Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing by Full Tilt, Brian Hastings said that the accusations “ate” at him.
Black-Friday also forced Hastings to move to Canada to continue playing online, but he said that he ended up feeling depressed, and so moved to Florida, instead. Hastings has since been in a relationship with his girlfriend Sonya, describing her as the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Elaborating further on his decision to quit poker, Hastings explained:
“And while I love the game itself, I loathe the politics and a number of industry players.”
According to HSDB, Hastings won a total of $3,890,941 playing cash games at Full Tilt, as well as a further $327,989 playing online tournaments under the screen name Stinger885. He also earned a further $2,474,057 in the live arena, including winning an impressive 3 WSOP bracelets.