By now, as poker players and fans, we’re all well aware of the phenomenon known as 'baby rungood,' the inherent good fortune that a player experiences when a newborn joins their family.
It’s a thing. It’s undeniable. There are countless examples of it, and there’s a great new one that’s come out of Playground in Montreal.
Family first
Ricardo Cermeno-Sandoval joined the dealer team here in the spring to add some extra income for his family, with his wife of three years, Mathilde, carrying their son, Taro.
Shortly into his time at Playground, Ricardo decided that his time would be better spent with his wife and their baby on the way.
“I applied here like five months ago. I wanted to try the job. I liked it, but my kid was born two months ago, and with the baby and investment, I didn’t have the time to do both things at the same time, so I decided to just quit and come back when I have more free time.”
After spending the final months of Mathilde’s pregnancy with her, and after Taro was born in June, it was time to see if it was his turn for baby rungood, with the WPT Global Summer Million festival coming up.
“I had a deal with my wife that she would let me play the event, and I would do the night shift for the kid. She gave me that peace of playing, but I had to take care of the kid, so my sleep was zero percent. But I took a chance and did the High Roller satellite, and I won that, and I ran so good and so pure in the High Roller.”
Leading up to the $2,200 High Roller, Ricardo had already cashed in three tournaments in the series for just over $5,500 before the baby rungood really kicked in. He would best the 221-entry field for $105,410 CAD, far eclipsing anything on his roughly $20,000 Hendon Mob profile beforehand.
Ricardo says he felt it as he was playing that series and still does afterward.
“I did the whole event actually. I feel like every tournament I play, I cash. There’s only one I didn’t cash. I feel like non-stop, everything is coming to me.”
He would cash in two more events afterward for another $7,460, and next up was the WSOP Circuit series at Playground just a couple of weeks later.
Can't stop baby rungood
Ricardo would make Day 2 of the $400 Mystery Bounty event. When a player scored an elimination, they would find out whether they won one of the $200-$1,000 bounties or a ‘gold chest’, meaning they would be eligible to pull from a drum containing bounties of $5,000, $10,000, or the top prize of $25,000.
Ricardo scored an early knockout and headed to the tournament desk to discover his prize. He was the first player of the day to win a ‘gold chest’, so he headed up to the drum, where he was greeted by Playground Assistant Director of Poker Operations, Andrew Johnson, who joked, “It’s always the same winners.”
Cue more baby rungood...
He bagged the $25,000 envelope (along with a couple thousand more in prize money and additional smaller bounties), adding to his poker earnings since the baby and leaving the dealer box. It's a decision that's worked out pretty well indeed.
“I guess it was all meant to be because since I left… everything has been amazing since then.”
So the question now is, will he return to the dealer box? Will he parlay his recent winnings into a career in one of the other seats at a poker table? Or something else?
“I don’t know yet; we’ll see what the future brings me. I feel like I should pull the most out of this baby rungood, so I’m going to try and do that, and once it goes down, then maybe I’ll be thinking about the next step.”
