Life after Professional Poker

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Hey man, I'm a marginal poker player but do know a little about the econ profession...

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1) Will a 1 year gap in my resume actually matter when applying for a job 6-7 years from now (after grad school)?

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In general, 95% of what matters is your thesis and your advisor -- more specifically, the publishing prospects for your dissertation and your advisor's (and committee's) connections. And OK, it would be nice if you don't totally blow the interviews.

The thesis/advisor importance will be especially true if you go academic and still largely true for many private sector jobs. Honestly, you'll make it through the majority of inteveriews without any questions about what you did prior to grad school unless it involves a felony.

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2) Will playing poker for a year make it harder for me to get into Grad school?

3) Will I be able to get away with saying to a grad school admissions person (that's probably the technical term for it) that I played poker for a year?

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Similar answer as for #1. They are primarily looking at your GPA and standardized test scores. The dropout rate is fairly high for the first couple years of econ grad school (maybe around 50% for a typical top 50 school) -- this is a big difference compared to professional schools. So most of these places are happy to just bring in the smartest group of people they can and then let things sort themselves out later -- besides the fact that grad school is sometimes difficult for people who breezed through undergrad, a lot of people bail because they just don't enjoy academic econ.