Brad Owen, a WPT International ambassador, entered the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour bestbet Scramble Championship with one thing extra essential than poker on his thoughts.
The poker vlogger went by way of a terrifying state of affairs lately when his eight-month-old son suffered what was initially thought of doubtlessly a “life-threatening” well being situation. He defined the state of affairs to PokerNews on Day 2 of the WPT occasion at bestbet Jacksonville.
Poker Vlogger Involved with Son’s Well being
Owen entered Sunday’s Day 2 session in Florida with one of many smallest stacks. He could not spin it up and was out rapidly lengthy earlier than the cash bubble burst. Earlier than arriving in Jacksonville, he and his companion, Amber, went by way of a state of affairs that will have any mum or dad shaken.
“He had seizure indicators, his eyes have been going at the back of his head,” Owen mentioned of his son.
The situation did not appear to enhance, so the couple knew they needed to take their son to the hospital. They’d get some combined outcomes from medical doctors upon working some assessments.
“We ran a CT (scan), MRI, and 24-hour EEG (neurological) check, and the whole lot got here again detrimental,” Owen mentioned. “He is wonderful, which is nice. Yeah, the whole lot got here again wonderful, hopefully it is nothing to fret about and simply keep vigilant and hopefully he’ll be okay.”
Owen described the journey to the hospital as “scary” and his son spent three days within the emergency room. The WPT International ambassador defined why he had motive to be extraordinarily involved about his youngster.
“For 3 days, it wasn’t a really nice place to be not having any actual thought if this was primarily a life-threatening state of affairs,” Owen continued. “The medical doctors have been all involved about it. It appeared like there was no less than some likelihood that he was having childish spasms. It was attainable that he would have seizures principally day by day, and we might give him drugs for that. After which there was some small likelihood that it was nothing. However there was a very good likelihood that it was one thing, so we have been fairly anxious.”
Owen’s son is out of the hospital, however he is not able to assume the well being issues are gone. He mentioned that since all of the assessments got here again detrimental, a constructive signal, “it appears possible it is only a section he is going by way of.”
“The medical doctors informed us it is considerably widespread, infants simply going by way of phases the place they make unusual expressions,” Owen mentioned.
Busy Father
Owen led a busy life lengthy earlier than his kid’s beginning earlier this 12 months. He travels to World Poker Tour stops as a WPT International ambassador, is co-owner of The Lodge Card Membership in Austin and San Antonio, and performs poker professionally. Oh, and he is nonetheless the most well-liked poker vlogger on the earth with over 750,000 YouTube subscribers.
Balancing work, poker, journey, and being a father is not simple. However he is making it work and he would not commerce it for something.
“It is powerful, I used to be already fairly busy with The Lodge, WPT, two YouTube channels, attempting to play poker effectively, touring,” Owen mentioned when requested how having a toddler has compelled him to alter his way of life. “Including a child to the combo has made it much more difficult, however I like being busy.”
Owen mentioned he wakes up as soon as an evening between 2-4 a.m. when he is residence to care for and feed his youngster and works exhausting to be current as a lot as he can with the packed work and poker schedule.
The poker vlogger mentioned he is nonetheless dedicated to pushing out a vlog each week or two and can proceed to take action sooner or later. He is additionally centered on serving to develop The Lodge Card Membership in Austin, the biggest poker site in Texas, and the brand new San Antonio location, which is able to quickly be even larger. However he has one other job now to go along with it, and that’s being a father.
Owen, Polk, Neeme Open New San Antonio Poker Room
*Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
