Kevin Martin is Tired of Running on Empty
A nearly month-long trip to Thailand and Bali gave Kevin Martin a chance to do some 'weird stuff' in an attempt to figure out what's next for the Canadian poker pro.
Kevin Martin is clearly going through it. The poker pro and former reality TV star is playing Day 1A of the 2025 WSOP Main Event after spending most of the last month traveling through Asia in an attempt to figure some shit out.
“The truth is, I've been having an existential crisis. I'm trying to figure out what, like, you know...Ten years ago, I got the money, a little bit of fame, and I just like, the fact is, I feel empty all of the time,” Martin said. “So I’m just traveling the world, doing a lot of introspective work and trying to figure some stuff out.”
So in early June, he figured out how to pack a streaming set up into a single backpack and set off for a trip that includes stops in Thailand and Bali. The self-described poker nomad spent the early part of his days streaming his action GGPoker and then spent the second half of the day attempting to find himself.
“I just did really weird stuff. I did yoga classes. I did a bunch of weird breathwork classes and just, you know, spiritual Bali stuff,” Martin said. “I’m trying to, you know, look inwards and figure out what's going on.”
Poker fans know most of Martin’s story. He was playing small stakes poker in Canada when he was cast on Season 3 of Big Brother Canada where he finished ninth. He came back two years later and won. He became one of the most popular poker streamers and was signed with PokerStars, partypoker, and now is a member of GGTeam with GGPoker.
The part of the story that poker fans don’t know is the stuff that Martin himself doesn’t know. After coming back from the Asian sojourn, he somehow has more questions about what he learned and what he’s supposed to be doing.
“I don't know. I'm not sure. Is this all pointless? We’re just little humans? We have our little moment of consciousness? What's the purpose of life? I don't know. I still don't have these answers,” Martin said.
The trip ended just in time for Martin to get back home to Calgary, decompress and get some laundry done before heading to Las Vegas for the WSOP Main Event. While a lot of other poker pros have been grinding daily since the WSOP started, Martin is coming in fresh and is hoping to change his luck in the Main Event.
“I've bricked this tournament nine times in a row. I think I put so much pressure on myself, you know? It’s the Main Event. I have to prove I'm a good player.” Martin said. “Once I let go of all of that, I don't know. I've had some really bad Day 1 tables before. I think I got a good one (this year), so Level 1 was chill, we’re up to over 70,000, just smooth sailing.”
However the Main Event ends for Martin, he’s headed back to Calgary to get back to streaming, work on his game, and well, work on his game.
“I haven't hit my prime yet in poker. I want to get back in the lab,” Martin said. “I’m newly single. I'm not going to lie, I want to date some hot women. I want to get out there. I've been in a lot of relationships. And I think that's part of figuring out who I am, you know? So that's going to be part of my life and that's it. Poker and some dates, maybe.”
After breaking through as one of the first big poker streamers 10 years ago, Martin still enjoys playing in front of a live audience on Twitch, but admits his poker success has actually created a challenge for him and may be part of that existential crisis that found sent him to Asia in the first place.
“It's hard, man. It's hard. The reason why it's hard is when I started, I was a broke kid in the micros and there was a goal. There was a mountain. The last couple of years, I have struggled with like, what's next?,” Martin said.
Almost everything is on the table as he considers what might be next. He might wind up back in Asia, this time playing live poker and rubbing elbows with some of poker’s truly elite players on the Triton Poker Series. He also might head back to where he started.
“Do I want to try to get to Jason Koon’s level? Do I want to play $25Ks? So that's been a bit of an issue. When you get to the top of the mountain and you look around, you're like, ‘Do I go back to the bottom? Do I climb it again? Do I climb a different mountain?’,” Martin said.
There is one chapter that he has closed for good. Having been on Big Brother Canada twice, Amazing Race Canada and Traitors Canada once each, he’s hanging up the reality TV competitor hat. With one exception.
“I'm done with that. I could tell. I just did it. I just, you know, I won one, I was a hero, I was a villain. No more reality TV,” Martin said. Unless … unless GGPoker brings back Game of Gold, man, I mean, I would always go compete in that arena.”
While he figures out what poker mountain to climb, he’s also planning on more traveling. Having seen what Thailand and Bali have to offer, he’s got his sights set on an entirely new continent.
“I’ve got to go to Europe. My whole life, since I turned 20, I was like, ‘I need to make it as a fucking poker player’ and it consumed me every second of my life,” Martin said. “Now I'm 32, and I still want to play poker, but I do want to see what else is out there, other cultures, how people view the world.”