Poker Pro Dutch Boyd Says He's "Fallen On Hard Times"
December 4, 2012 1:24 pmAfter experiencing the highs and lows of a career in the poker industry, Dutch Boyd apparently has found himself once more broke, and wondering if he has just wasted the best years of his life.
In a recent post, the 32 year old confesses to being at a low point in his chosen profession, and wrote: “Fallen on hard times since poker’s black Friday and I’ve been job hunting for the last two months. With money running out, I decided to suck it up and get whatever job I can, even if it’s washing dishes for minimum wage.”
Dutch Boyd first started attending college at the tender age of 12, earned a degree aged 15 and received a doctorate from law school aged just 18. However, rather than pursue a career in law the Californian resident said he was inspired by the film Rounders to play poker for a living, instead. Explaining the rationale behind his choice, Dutch Boyd said:
“There are a lot of things lawyers do that are incredibly helpful to a poker player. You learn how to analyze, how to draw conclusions. It’s why a lot of players you see in this room right now actually went to law school. Trials are a lot like a poker game.”
Since then, the 32 year old has notched up $2,122,906 in live tournament cashes, including two prestigious WSOP bracelets, one coming in 2006 at the $2,500 Short Handed NL event for $475,712; and another in 2010 at the $2,500 Limit Hold’em/Six Handed event for $234,065.
However, poker stories are rarely plain sailing and Dutch Boyd’s experiences with the game are perhaps more turbulent than most. A failed online poker room called PokerSpot he operated between May 2000 and late 2001, left its customers high and dry to the tune of $400,000. More recently, Boyd has earned further bad publicity when the Two Plus Two Web site successfully sued him after he registered the domain name twoplustwopoker.com and apparently attempted to divert business away from the popular poker forum.
In addition to some questionable business decisions, Boyd’s poker results have suffered in recent years, not least because of apparently poor bankroll management and increased competition. The overall effect would seem to be a cautionary tale for many would be pros involving one of poker’s one time brightest talents now on life’s rail and even rejected from a minimum wage call center job because he didn’t have a High School diploma.