The Guru of Senior Poker — George Epstein Teaches the Game to Help

While Oklahoma Johnny Hale may be the poster boy of senior poker, there is someone else deserving equal recognition. Perhaps even greater recognition, because George “The Engineer” Epstein’s motivation is not financial gain, but a desire to introduce and teach poker to his fellow seniors for its social and cognitive value, helping them to interact with other people and exercise their brains.

“Doing so causes the synapses that connect the brain cells to flourish, making your mind healthier,” he maintains. “That might explain why none of our members has developed Alzheimer’s disease.” 

Epstein, an 85-year-old retired aerospace engineer, is devoting his “second career” to poker. When he left his management position at The Aerospace Corp., where he helped the Air Force develop military defense satellites, he decided to apply his engineering and mathematical skills to the game. He has authored two books on poker which include his “Four Basic Rules” for winning, and a new hold’em algorithm making it easier for seniors (and others) to make the most important decision in playing poker: should I hold’em or fold’em? He also writes columns for two gaming publications (one titled “The Seniors Scene”) and holds seminars and recreational poker games and tournaments at two senior centers in Los Angeles.

After giving a talk about the benefits of playing recreational poker to the Seniors Club, the center’s director, Homer Post (a former National Football League lineman), asked him if he would like to teach the game. Epstein, who had taught engineering courses at UCLA and several NASA centers, delivered hundreds of technical papers, and led seminars at engineering meetings, had never considered teaching poker but leaped at the opportunity! Post then gained permission from the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, overcoming naysayers who regarded poker as “gambling.”

In 2005 he started the Claude Pepper Seniors Poker Group which meets every Friday afternoon. With the help of local and seniors newspapers which got the word out, the group grew from six members to well over 200 today. Applying his educational experience — college/graduate school/MIT master’s degree in 1952 — Epstein periodically teaches poker classes, labs and workshops there. Over the years, he has brought poker celebrities such as Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Johnny Hale, Yosh Nakano and Lou Krieger to speak and offer complimentary seminars and workshops.

At the start of each class, Epstein has everyone hold up their right hand and recite: “I will never, never, never ever play for the rent money.” He emphasizes that everyone there is playing for recreation — “although the more we win, the more fun it is! I teach only winning poker, recognizing that, because of luck, even the most skilled will not win every session. Once they learn and abide by all four of the “Basic Rules for Winning,” they should win about 60 percent of their sessions. As they develop the skills, they might win up to 75-80 percent of the time.”
 
Epstein’s teachings include unique strategies and tactics, including the “Hold’em Algorithm” for selecting starting hands, an easy way to quickly estimate the card odds and pot odds to ensure a positive expectation, strategies for playing made hands versus drawing hands, 13 reasons for raising, the best bluffing tactics, how to read opponents, the importance of betting position, table, and seat selection — and even how to peek at hole cards so they are not revealed.

Activities include classes focused on limit hold’em for new and inexperienced players, more advanced classes for the others, poker lab sessions, and workshops. At each, the last two hours are spent playing low-limit hold’em with prizes for the winners and door prizes.

“Recreational poker is great for retirees,” Epstein says. “It’s important that we seniors get out, away from the TV, and interact with other people. Couch potatoes rarely enjoy happy golden years. Playing poker also exercises our brains, thereby helping overcome memory loss and preventing dementias which are often associated with the aging process. And a healthy mind leads to a healthier body.”

Several times each year he also arranges for local casinos to host and treat seniors to a day of recreational poker, including a seminar, buffet luncheon, and their own limit hold’em poker tournament with cash prizes and numerous door prizes.  Recently Epstein started teaching recreational poker to elderly war veterans with special healthcare needs, who are housed at a new CalVet facility at the VA in West Los Angeles. Last spring, the VA brought a busload of seniors to the Normandie Casino to enjoy the festivities at no cost.

In October, Epstein initiated a new poker class for new and inexperienced players at the Freda Mohr Multi-Purpose Senior Center that serves the needs of very elderly people in the community, as part of the Jewish Family Services. The class will end with a hold’em tournament with prizes donated by the Hollywood Park Casino, the Hustler Casino, and the Normandie Casino.

With the assistance of his two female senior-citizen assistants (one of whom just turned 90), his Claude Pepper Seniors Poker Group has run two charity poker tournaments to benefit the Claude Pepper Senior Center, enabling it to repair facilities and equipment and to purchase new window treatments, offsetting severe city budget cuts.

Last year, George Epstein was named the “Senior-Citizen Volunteer of the Year” by the Westside Optimists, largely for his seniors poker activities; and recently, he was elected to the Seniors Poker Hall of Fame.

Claude Pepper is probably the only senior center in the world with regulation poker tables, donated by a local casino, along with regulation poker chips and cards and periodic donations of cash to be used for prizes. Currently, he is working with the Normandie Casino to hold the inaugural “California Seniors Poker Championships.”

And, just to keep busy and contribute to the community, George is working with the city of Los Angeles to introduce aerospace technology to upgrade the City’s roads and make them “pothole free.” He also serves on the board of directors of an engineering society, and recently consulted on anomalies encountered by U.S. drones while in operation in the Middle East wars. Up until three years ago, he taught an engineering course at UCLA and at several NASA Centers. Epstein also serves as a consultant for the U.S. Air Force Manufacturing Problem Prevention Program for Air Force space systems, which has saved countless dollars for the Air Force.
There are two college scholarships in honor of George and his late wife, Irene, administered by two engineering societies. ♠

Max Shapiro, a lifelong poker player and former newspaper reporter with several writing awards to his credit, has been writing a humor column for Card Player ever since it was launched more than 20 years ago. His early columns were collected in his book, Read ’em and Laugh.