While many top players in the game are aging into their late 30s and beyond, it’s refreshing to see a young and hungry Landon Tice tear it up on and off the felt.
Tice returned to Day 4 of the $3,500 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship as one of 16 hopefuls playing for a seat at Wednesday’s final table.
His muscular, broad-shouldered frame hints that he could play and party for days at a time, and he doesn’t play better anywhere else than in Florida. “It feels like home field advantage really,” Tice said. “I’m kind of okay with it if I run subpar everywhere else but run great in Florida. It’s home, and seeing my family has a lot to do with it.”
Tice has eight WPT cashes, and six of them are from the Seminole Hard Rock. In May, he finished runner-up to Josh Reichard in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $550,000.
I was joking before this event that I was going to improve on my previous final table,” he said. “There’s only one way to do that.”
Landing a big win
“The money and prestige would be great,” Tice added. “I’m trying to make good decisions. I realize that it’s just a game at the end of the day and I’m lucky to be able to be doing it.”
Tice had a crazy run up the leaderboard on Day 3. He returned with 600,000, went to dinner break with 4.7 million, and returned for Day 4 in the middle of the pack with 31 big blinds.
He said, “It was a pretty ideal day. The tables were all good. I was fortunate enough to have good spots, good cards and some good all-ins.”
Moving past the crossbook madness
Tice has $1.8 million in tournament earnings but is without a signature win in his young career. He endured a media circus last summer with his crossbook against Jeremy Becker and played with the poker world looking over his shoulder.
“When it comes to the crossbook, it doesn’t change much for me,” he said. “None of the public stuff is going to change the way I play a hand.”
Inner focus
Tice is turning his focus inward for the time being. “I’m trying get back into a healthy routine, getting my diet in check and starting to lift regularly again,” he said. “It’s tough when life is nonstop poker. I’ve been busy outside of the game with relationship stuff and trying to maintain it. There’s definitely more than poker (in life).”
Tice is big into jumping rope to stay in shape. He says he can go for a good amount of time, but it’s been a while. So how much is a good amount of time – seconds, minutes, rotations?
“Minutes I could definitely do,” Tice said. “I started jumping about two years ago and added that to my daily routine. If someone said ten, I don’t think I’m good enough to do that yet, but I could go a good five minutes.”
All photos are courtesy of World Poker Tour - images by Drew Amato
