My first Super Seniors
If you read Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 of my World Series of Poker 2025 series, you will know how I have fared so far in the ongoing edition of the world-famous poker competition. Next up, the Super Seniors.
At 60 years and 7 days old, I entered my first ever Super Seniors tournament as one of the youngest in the field, and many of my table mates throughout the day expressed surprise I was old enough to play.
I bluffed off most of my stack in the first level
When I turned 50, I had a real learning curve as to how to adjust to the very different style of play I encountered in Seniors compared to other tournaments. In my very first Seniors, I bluffed off most of my stack in the first level. It took me several Seniors tournaments to get my eye in so to speak, and notch up my first cash, but since then my cash rate in them has been a lot higher than in other tournaments.
There’s also no doubt that Seniors have gotten significantly more difficult over the last decade primarily for two reasons: more seasoned online players reaching the age of 50, and more seniors leveling up their game using training sites and tools like GTOWizard.
A new age category
In the current World Series of Poker (WSOP), I therefore went in to my first Super Seniors a little unsure of what to expect. In the event, it felt like a trip back in time to the earliest Seniors I played, which I guess makes sense as it’s the same people, one decade on, one decade older.
I prospered in the early stages by playing way more hands than I normally do live. I find it much easier to navigate postflop and figure out whether I have the best hand stateside, and in general my strategy in this WSOP was to play a lot more hands to try to take advantage of this.
This worked well and I quickly spun up a stack and bagged healthy. While I was doing that my tag team partner Matt Skeadas (who isn’t quite old enough for the super seniors yet) was busting us early from that event, freeing me up to concentrate on the Super Seniors.
Day 2
Day 2 didn’t go to plan and I found myself perilously short on the bubble, with five and a half big blinds. What followed was one of the most surreal bubbles of my life. It went on for two hours, it seemed like every time there was an all-in the short stack had aces. Excitement rose when the TD finally announced that in the latest all-in the big stack had aces… then plummeted when he announced the short stack had… also aces.
the bubble was more likely to go through someone dying than anything else
The hand-for-hand started 90 minutes after the previous break, so two hours later with it still ongoing, you had a room of very old people mostly in dire need of a bathroom break. I joked that the bubble was more likely to go through someone dying than anything else, a joke that didn’t go down well with my table, and momentarily risked ruining the general bonhomie at the table which was resulting in them giving me walks. In fact, the general consensus at the table was if we all walked each other to the bubble, we’d all cash, and this would be a good thing. The only dissenting voice was the chipleader who announced if he got Aces, he’d have to play them. When I shot him a quizzical look, he explained
“I texted my friend who is a pro that I’m on the bubble, and he told me to only play aces.”
As it happened, he did get aces a couple of times, and obligingly opened to 10x just in case any of us doubted he had them, and even more obligingly showed us when we all folded faster than Superman on laundry day.
The bubble bursts
The bubble did burst eventually with two eliminated players sharing a min cash. The min cash was just over two buyins, $2002, meaning they both made a buck for their efforts. A poor hourly, but in keeping with the overall spirit of the event, everyone seemed genuinely happy that they’d got their money back and a part payment on an early bird somewhere.
Shortly after the bubble, now down to three big blinds, I got nines. In no other tournament would I even consider folding them after the chip leader opened, but I did give it some serious consideration before pushing the chips in. With the bubble gone, I assumed he’d widened his range a tad from just aces, and indeed he had. His kings held though, ending my participation in one of the most fun events I’ve ever played.
60 is the new 40
My Chip Race, WPTGlobal, and VegasSlotsOnline News colleague David Lappin has a knack for asking thought provoking questions. About ten years ago he asked me how I’d rank the decades of my life. I’d never really thought about it before, and when I did, I decided that the first decade of my life was by far the worst, trapped in an unhappy childhood as part of a deeply dysfunctional family. My second decade wasn’t much better, but at least I flew the nest. The next decade got better as it progressed, and I started to develop into adulthood. I got married, had kids, and my career prospered. The next decade was even better as my career continued to prosper, my marriage developed into one of the happiest I know of, my kids grew up and I found in running a hobby I could be truly passionate about. In my forties, things got even better when I unexpectedly developed into an internationally successful ultrarunner, and then found poker, which became both my major passion and career. All in all, this made my forties the most fulfilling decade of my life.
they also say 60 is the new forty, and let me tell you… I’m feeling it
This reflection gave me optimism that life, like a poker tournament, got better the deeper you got. However, if I’m honest, I’d have to admit my 50s were a lot less enjoyable than my 40s. As they flew by I became acutely aware of my own ageing and mortality, and how society now saw me as “old.” I therefore approached my 60th birthday with a sense of trepidation that life as an experience over time was not a straight line up, but an inverted U curve. To my surprise, once the landmark was reached and surpassed, a mental cloud lifted, and I stopped worrying about the diminishing years and capabilities ahead, and instead saw everything that remains as a freeroll, a bonus at the end of a life well lived. The good vibes I got from my age peers in my first Super Seniors reinforced that. They used to say life begins at 40, but they also say 60 is the new forty, and let me tell you… I’m feeling it.
