Never Too Old to Win a Gold Bracelet

Omnipresent unlit cigar in his mouth, Paul McKinney is the quintessential old-time poker player. His roots in poker date back to his boyhood days in West Virginia. As a boy, Paul ran errands for the coal miners who played poker on a rickety table not far from the mine entrance. He earned a nickel here and there as tips, and built his first poker bankroll. In a fairly short period of time, he made the transition from errand boy to poker player. He had a sure talent for the game and recalls that those crusty miners were not at all happy when he consistently beat their game.



Let's fast-forward to World War II, when Paul found himself aboard an aircraft carrier as an able-bodied seaman. There was an awful lot of downtime, and poker games were played all over the ship. Unfortunately, his limited resources precluded his participation in what appeared to be a magnificent opportunity for a real poker player. He wasted little time in writing home to his family in the Mountain State and requesting some help. At that time, money was hard to come by, but his relatives sold a family cow and sent Paul the $50 sale price.



Two brief anecdotes illustrate just how well Paul's poker skills served him in relieving his fellow sailors of their paychecks. A while after Paul started playing on board, the ship's captain called Paul into his office and asked him straight-out, "Seaman McKinney, few of my men seem to have any money since you started playing poker with them. Are you cheating them?"



Paul was then and remains today a modest and understated man. His soft-spoken answer to his superior officer was, "Sir, the men play poker so bad and I play the game so good, they just don't have any chance at all."



Fortunately for Paul, the vessel's commander was a man of uncommon good sense. Rather than throw Paul in the brig for gambling, he said, "Well, I reckon the men are going to lose their money one way or the other. Good luck, son."



When it comes to poker, Paul McKinney never has needed a lot of luck. The first money he sent back to his home from overseas was in the amount of $1,050, which was a huge amount in those days and ample reward for the faith his family had shown in his poker skills.



Paul's successes in poker span most of his 80 years and are too numerous to mention in this column. He has been a very successful cash-game player, and in more recent years has also excelled at tournament play. At this year's World Series of Poker, Paul became the oldest player ever to win a gold bracelet when he took down $202,000 in the seniors no-limit hold'em tourney. As if that were not enough, he cashed again for $24,365 in the world championship event, outplaying all but 269 players from the gargantuan starting field of 5,619. As a much younger man (at a mere 73 years of age), Paul finished 9th in the premier event and now has a total of eight in-the-money finishes and has appeared at five WSOP final tables.



His stamina at the poker table is legendary, and continues right up to the present. After playing more than 14 grueling hours on day one of the seniors event and another 13 taxing hours on the day of his victory, Paul could not be persuaded by his grandson to leave the Rio for a well-earned rest. Shortly after visiting the cashier's cage to collect his winnings, Paul was observed sitting down to play in a live-action game! His amazingly positive take on life showed up at the cashier's window when Paul "Catfish" Fischman, who finished third in the seniors event, told this spry octogenarian how very happy he was at seeing his elder take home his first WSOP gold bracelet.



McKinney responded, "Thanks a lot, but didn't you want the bracelet?"



Catfish, who just turned 60 years young, replied, "Sure I did, but I have 15 or 20 more years to get mine."

McKinney thought for only a moment before responding with a twinkle in his eye, "You know what? Now that I think of it, I might have only 15 or 20 years left to get another bracelet myself!"



A hand worthy of discussion came up during fourhanded play in the seniors tournament. There was approximately $825,000 in chips in play. Bob Hume and McKinney were co-leaders with about $285,000 each. Fischman had about $190,000 and Robert Redman was the short stack with $65,000. McKinney was under the gun and folded. Catfish held the K J on the button. The blinds were $3,000-$6,000 with a $500 ante. Catfish brought it in for a standard raise, making it $24,000 to go. Redman folded in the small blind and Hume in the big blind decided to raise it another $40,000. Hume had been playing very aggressively and his observant opponent knew that he didn't necessarily need a premium hand to reraise in this situation.



This was one of those situations in which a fold or an all-in move was the correct play. Calling was the worst option. Catfish concluded that folding would increase Hume's chances of winning the tournament even more, and at his expense. He moved all of his chips into the pot, giving himself two opportunities to win. He hoped Hume would fold, but did not figure to be much of an underdog unless his adversary held A-K or a big pair (jacks or better). Hume went into the think tank, finally calling the all-in bet. He had A-Q offsuit and no spades, and was about a 3-to-2 favorite.



Fortunately for the underdog, a jack hit the board and he doubled through Hume, taking the chip lead. In my opinion, this was the correct play. Even though Catfish risked going out in fourth place for a much smaller payday, he was giving himself the best chance to win the tournament. There are many hands that Hume would have folded in this spot, and the A-Q was right on the cusp. To quote Max Stern, "Sometimes you have to be prepared to die in order to live."



Thanks to Mike Pauley (Paul McKinney's grandson) for passing on the background material on his favorite poker player, and to Paul "Catfish" Fischman for the anecdotes and hand history from the seniors tourney.

Tom McEvoy is the co-author (with Don Vines) of How to Win No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments. You will often find him in action at the poker table at www.pokerstars.com, where he is a spokesperson.