Quantity Surveying student discovers new career route thanks to playing professional poker

An MSc Quantity Surveying student has reflected on how playing professional poker helped him discover a new career route.

MSc Quantity Surveying student Blair Reid, who commenced his studies in January, decided to take  a career change after meeting some Quantity Surveyors through his love of poker playing.

After initially studying a law degree as his Undergraduate, Blair went on to complete a Postgraduate degree to become a solicitor but soon realized that his passions lay elsewhere.

Blair developed an interest in poker after playing it regularly with friends during his time at university, which went on to become more than just a hobby. Blair began to play it to a serious level during his Postgraduate, which gave him the unique opportunity to travel internationally to take part in professional poker tours.

“I did a Law degree when I was 17, graduated at 21 but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do afterwards. I decided to do a Postgraduate course to become a solicitor and it was during that time that I started playing poker.” He explained.

“I graduated from that course as well and after that you need to complete a two-year traineeship with a law firm, but I started doing pretty well with poker so decided to keep on going with that. Before I knew it, the two years were up!”

Unfortunately, the arrival of the Covid pandemic put a pause on international travel, which forced the world of poker to transition to online tournaments. He said: “I ended up focusing a lot of time into poker and I travelled internationally to play it, but unfortunately the Covid pandemic happened and with that stopped all international travel.

The online high-stake scene got a lot tougher, but through that I ended up meeting players who were quantity surveyors and that helped encourage me to apply for a Masters in Quantity Surveying here at GCU.”

He added: “I started my course in January and Nicola Callaghan was the lecturer we had for our first module, and one of the first assignments she gave us was on Marina Bay Sands which is actually a casino in Singapore!”

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media