A friend who has played in a lot of poker tournaments over the last two decades, including at the World Series Of Poker, recently told me he’s not going this year.
He says it’s because he’s seventy years old and no longer has the stamina to play for twelve consecutive hours. Even in the Seniors (60+) and Super Seniors (65+) events at the WSOP, you have to concentrate and avoid elimination for several very long days to get to the final table.
I can relate because even though I gave up tournaments years ago in favor of cash games (where players can get up and leave anytime), I still rarely play more than 4-5 hours at a time. Then I go take a nap and recharge.
So I have a new idea for the WSOP, a tournament designed for seniors’ stamina by making it a tag-team event. They already have one where two-person teams alternate rounds or levels, but they need a new one that would allow one partner to play the first six hours and then the other partner takes over for the remaining six. With some judicious sleep scheduling, the older folks would have a much better chance of making a deep run.
But only entrants over sixty-five would be eligible to tag out — all younger players would have to play the full twelve.