Can an old guy win the Main Event?
With the two oldest ever players to make the November Nine, Barry Carter asks just how big an advantage youth is in the Main Event?
With Daniel Negreanu exiting the Main Event in 11th place, the most interesting November Nine story for me is that of Pierre Neuville and Neil Blumenfield making the final table.
At 72-years-old Neuville is the oldest player to make the November Nine, and at 61-years-old Blumenfield is the second oldest.
The previous oldest was Steven Gee who was 57 when he made the November Nine. However, more tellingly, none of the post-Boom champions have been older than 40, and the last seven were under 30 when they took it down.
Indeed, since the poker boom the average age of the eventual winner was 31 and in that time we had the record for youngest ever Main Event champion broken twice by Peter Eastgate then Joe Cada.
So is poker a young person’s game? Are Pierre and Neil at a noticeable disadvantage?
Real age and poker age
After the boom, poker became very much a young person’s game. Bright young people who would've perhaps gone into science, technology or financial trading previously, started to gravitate towards this fun game where you could win millions from the comfort of your home.
So part of the reason why we have this idea that only young men can win at poker is a selection bias, because the game attracts so many young men.
Young online players revolutionised the way the game was learnt. Not only was poker education evolving at a fantastic rate, but more importantly the amount of volume it was possible to put in online accelerated the pace of learning. This is perhaps the most pivotal reason why young online players are at such an advantage. They had the benefits of youth but paradoxically have played infinitely more hands than their experienced live counterparts.
However, this does not mean that an older player is at a distinct disadvantage. I can’t speak for Blumenfield, but 72-year-old Neuville took up poker seriously after retiring. In that respect he started around the same time as his younger peers and had every opportunity to learn at the same rate.
There is your actual age, and your poker age. Neuville is prolific online and has the record for qualifying for EPTs online in a row (23 times). All of this suggests that, rather than being a set-in-his ways old school player, if older players learn in the same way as 'the kids' they can be just as good.
The physical side of the game
There is, of course, the physical aspect to the game. No matter what naysayers might suggest, the Main Event is as gruelling physically as it is mentally, and young players do have an advantage here.
Pierre and Neil clearly have an aptitude for long hours of poker. But they may be the exceptions to the rule.
It is also often argued that younger players excel at poker because they haven’t learned the value of money yet. That they can crush poker because they treat it like a video game instead of money. This is true, I can attest that you get much more risk averse as you get older.
However, when you get to retirement age like Pierre, I’d speculate that this carefree attitude might return. Unlike the other players at the table, $7 million is probably not as enticing to Pierre, in that he’ll probably never be able to spend it all. In that respect, I could certainly make a case for him being the least likely player to ladder at the final.
There are some advantages to being young in poker, but Pierre and Neil remind me what I love about this game. The sheer fact that anyone can win on their day – regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, physical ability and almost every other demographic trait you can think of.
Does age matter in the Main Event? Let us know in the comments.
