If you were at the World Series of Poker this week, you would likely have seen Ben Ditsch, a poker player from Grain Valley, Missouri.
Actually, you would have seen Ditsch and his pal Chief, a three-year-old Golden Retriever service dog, who allows Ditsch to enjoy playing poker without fear of potentially dying at the table.
Yes, dying.
Dogs at the poker table can be a surprisingly hot topic with plenty of supporters and opposition, but in the case of Ditsch, his four-legged friend is an absolute necessity.
“I have Addison's disease, which is where your body doesn't produce cortisol, or you have really, really low cortisol. Your body produces cortisol to keep you alive. So, it's like being diabetic but worse. And there's only 10,000 people in America that have it.”
Ditsch explained how Chief ensures his health and safety at the table.
“When the cortisol drops too low, he'll jump up and lick my face. And that will tell me it's time to take meds. If the meds don't kick in within 10 to 15 minutes, and he doesn't relax, then I know that I need to take more or I need to take my emergency shot.
"If the emergency shot doesn't work, I have to call an ambulance because I will be dead within 30 minutes. So, it's a very dangerous disease, and yeah, you can say he's saved my life several times.”
A rare disease, an even rarer helper
Ditsch told us that Chief’s ability to sense his dropping cortisol levels is an even rarer trait than his disease, with just 75 service dogs nationwide able to provide the care that he does.
It’s a skill he originally didn’t even have Chief for; it was discovered after he first got him at eight weeks old to help with another ailment that limits his mobility.
“I had a 3.5-inch mass on my spinal cord, and when they removed it, I lost 70% on my left side from my waist down, so that's why I can't do a lot of things.”
It was during a poker session when Chief was still learning to be a mobility assistance dog that Ditsch discovered Chief’s other unique ability.
“One day, I was playing cards at the casino, and they're like, ‘You know that he licks your face 10 minutes before you call for an ambulance?’ I went, ‘Really?’ So I went home, started testing him, and at 11 months old, he was accurately doing it, and he even did it for my doctors, and he's been a service dog ever since.”
Ditsch and Chief go to the WSOP
Ditsch is 44 years old and medically retired because of his conditions, but with time as a poker dealer included in his previous careers, along with TV cameraman, paramedic, and sound and lighting tech, the poker room is a place he can still enjoy himself and make some money.
He calls himself a low-stakes professional, playing primarily $1/3 cash games.
Tournaments outside of single-day events usually aren’t possible because he could have a flare-up of his illness, which, as mentioned, can require medical treatment from paramedics, or, in some cases, hospitalization, which he says happens three or four times a year.
But thanks to his prowess in his home game league, Ditsch won a seat into the WSOP $1,500 Monster Stack event where he made Day 2. It was the biggest buy-in tournament that he’d ever played, and while he didn’t make the money, he did get to share tables with some notable players.
“It was great. I mean, I went through the gauntlet. We had to go against Ben Grise, and then Steven Buckner, the guy who says ‘Cuz!’. Got to go against him and a few other guys, got to learn a lot.”
Ditsch also got to meet one of his favourites, Phil Hellmuth, and as we were taking photos for this piece he was wowed that Erick Lindgren said a quick hello and patted Chief.
But he and Chief’s best moment in their time at the WSOP came as they got to celebrate a friend’s bracelet win when Brent Gregory took down the $600 NLH/PLO Mixed event.
“We've been having a blast here, you know, he got into the celebration when my friend won. He was jumping everywhere, too, you know, he got some TV time on that. Everybody loves him. It's undeniable.”
Using disadvantage to his advantage
While Ditsch does mostly stick to $1/3 cash with the occasional shot at $2/5, he is seeing his first success in tournaments as well.
He proudly talks about his first two recorded cashes this year, one in a WSOP Circuit 40/40/40 tournament, but he downright glows when he tells the story of how he once won a satellite while his cortisol was dropping dangerously.
“One of the tournaments, I got sick in it, and [Chief] alerted, I took my meds, and then I realized it was gonna get bad. So, I just started pushing all in. And the ambulance is on its way.
"I'm trying to lose, and I just kept winning. The ambulance showed up right before break, so I missed a couple of hands before break, went through break, my meds kicked in. I went back and won the damn thing.”
Ditsch jokes that he needs to harness that situation more often to bring out his best at the table.
“I play better when I'm sick, or when I'm feeling off, even though it's technically not the smartest idea. But if I'm feeling off, I usually do way better like that.”
The discussion of dogs at the poker table
Ditsch understands that having a dog at the poker table can potentially be a problem for some others due to allergies or other reasons, and he tries his best to accommodate those people while still facing some challenges from needing his service helper with him at all times.
“I'm like, 'Hey guys, he might be at your feet'. But I'll try my best to keep them away if they're allergic… I'm the person that wants to make everybody happy, and we try to find the right result.
"The only issue that we usually have is that I have a mobility scooter or [get asked to] not put him under the table because it's bothering this person's feet. Well, I can't put him out in the walkway, because people are not expecting to see a service dog, [there are] so people are walking around, but he's scared of being tripped on.
"And so I need to have something to block, and then they're like, well, you can't block the walkway. Well, what's safer? Blocking the walkway or somebody falling, breaking their arm, and hurting the service dog that has the right to be there?”
Fortunately, those issues are rare, he says, and both the WSOP and at his home casino, Harrah’s Kansas City, Chief has been treated like a celebrity.
“99% of the time there's never an issue because everybody loves him. My home casino gives him hot dogs; they have dog treats waiting for him every single day. The players all love him. Just coming in here, all I hear is, 'Chief, Chief, Chief!'”
Poker and a sense of normalcy
Chief’s ability to keep Ditsch as safe as possible has allowed him to enjoy not just poker, but a slice of normalcy that comes from being at the poker table.
His ability to be somewhere to interact with others regularly and enjoy life is something Ditsch is truly grateful for.
“It means a lot, because I can just get out of the house. I'm known for talking. I'm one of the biggest talkers in Kansas City, that's what everybody says. But it allows me to get out of the house and just have it feel normal as much as possible. This disease, it can be really bad. It takes several days to recover when I get hospitalized.
"It's poker, it just allows me to go out, have fun, and meet people. I just wish I could find a cute girl. Chief always finds the married women.”
Additional images courtesy of the WSOP.
