Poker Pro Faraz Jaka Finding Happiness And Enlightenment On The Road

US poker player Faraz Jaka is a highly accomplished tournament pro with $4,827,760 in live career earnings, as well as a further $3,641,937 playing online under the screen name “The-Toilet”. While playing poker for a living affords an individual great freedom in their lives, the 29 year-old pro enjoys more liberty than most as for the past four year’s he has had no fixed address, and instead choses to travel the world seeking out new experiences and adventures.
One of ways in which Faraz Jaka has managed to thrive on the road for as long as he has done is by having a loose framework to give him “some sort of direction to aim for”, spending a good amount of his time staying and hanging out with friends across the world, as well as having “an insane amount of discipline” to ensure he keeps a healthy balance between work and fun. As Jaka explained in a recent bluff.com interview:
“There are a lot of poker players that I see who are glued to their computers and poker tables for the last seven years. And now they feel like they are lacking balance. They’re trying to go out and do some more things. I’m kind of the opposite, where I’ve had a lot of fun and a lot of different experiences.”
While playing poker has netted Jaka a handsome sum over the past few years, he has not limited himself solely to this endeavor and also takes time to explore other avenues of income which may allow him to enjoy a lifestyle envisioned in Timothy Ferriss’ hugely influential self-help book called ‘The Four-Hour Workweek.” For Jaka this means working on his website and setting up automated streams of income, which ultimately will allow him greater freedom to further improve his poker game. As he explains:
“It would give me more time to study poker, to play poker, and it would make expenses easier. Right now, you play poker and you have your living expenses. I guess my goal would be to create an income stream where my expenses are covered by whatever this online business or whatever I create is. Now my bankroll is just my bankroll, and I don’t have to figure out a way to pay myself out of my bankroll.”
Finally, while Jaka says its nice having the money to buy material possessions, expensive clothes, and to pursue his lifestyle on the road, he also says he doesn’t allow himself to become attached to money or material things in order to achieve happiness. Therein lies a fool’s errand, and as Jaka explains in his revealing interview with bluff.com:
“Otherwise, you’re going to get those things and you’re going to be chasing something else, you get that and chase something else, and so on, so it’s just a never ending cycle.”