Winners And Losers: The Old Man And The Chips

Hellmuth In 1989

Hellmuth would know. As competitive as anyone when it comes to winning WSOP bracelets, he snagged his first one in 1989, at age 24, becoming the youngest player at the time to take home the gold – and it was at that year’s main event. These days, he might be less competitive at the most famous tournament on Earth, and he blames the grueling structure.

But how do you upend the longstanding structure to level a poker tournament in order to accommodate the olds? Daniel Negreanu, who is 10 years younger than Hellmuth’s 60 years, says that you don’t. Same with Scott Seiver. Same with me.

Okay, my opinion carries no weight. But I am on the older side of things, and I do recognize that marathons are for younger players, younger athletes, hell, younger writers. But being older than the competition does allow you to bring something of your own to the table.

It may not be the ability to hold up competitively for 13-hour-long poker tournament sessions, but you hopefully have skills and moves that younger players lack – at least for the first few hours.

Plus, there is something to be said for possessing a more mature – i.e., deeper – bankroll (with fewer years left in which to spend it) and lacking a make-or-break approach to the game.

When thinking of that, I recall the great blackjack advantage player Don Johnson. He raked in eight- or nine-figures, depending on how you calculate things, before the casinos shut him down. While in his game-beating prime, after dropping a million at the table (even playing with a big upside, there’s plenty of room for things to go wrong), he’d have three words: “Where’s the steakhouse?”

Johnson possessed enough dough to withstand a loss and to leverage every upside.

Back to poker, Hellmuth should write off the main event if that suits him, but youthful players underestimate their elders at their peril. Doyle Brunson took people’s money at big cash games until late in life. Billy Baxter will drive across the desert, from Las Vegas to Southern California, to square off against guys young enough to be his grandchildren. And I think Hellmuth has more bracelets in his future, though maybe not at the main event.

The American humorist P.J. O’Rourke might have had it right when he titled one of his books Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut.

Then there is the guy who has become known as “Gambledore.” While it’s clear that Vladimir Korzinin, a 69-year-old inventor from Estonia, has a good haircut (for what it is) – the coiffe and beard earned him his nickname, playing off of the Harry Potter uber-wizard Albus Dumbledore – he’s also got it in him to casually go up against the deadliest sharks in the game. And that is admirable at any age, but especially if you’re an old guy without a poker past.

Card Player described him as "the Estonian who started crushing high roller Triton events out of nowhere. In November, it was reported that in less than a week the white-haired wonder racked up nearly $8 million in wins.

Is he lucky or good or loaded with O’Rourke’s vaunted guile? It’s hard to say with a small sample. But he’s clearly got the balls of an overly confident teenager. Beating the pros who buy into $200,000 tournaments is not easy or for the faint of heart. Gambledore seems to take it all in stride as he confounds poker’s household names.

I don’t know if Gambledore is a flash in the pan or here to stay – until his age inevitably gets the better of him – but he does provide an antidote to the Hellmuths of the world, plays in a manner and with a style that is easy to enjoy, and offers uncontestable hope for those of us on the back-nine of life who still harbor dreams of poker glory.

Go Gambledore Go!

Michael Kaplan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of five books (“The Advantage Players” out soon) and has worked for publications that include Wired, GQ and the New York Post. He has written extensively on technology, gambling, and business — with a particular interest in spots where all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Sun and Phil Ivey is currently in development as a feature film.

*Photos by Triton Poker, World Series of Poker

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