Is age just a number, as people are fond of saying (often around their birthday)? At the World Series of Poker it’s been a little more than that lately, with several events taking place recently that specifically categorise players by their age.
The $1,000 Super Seniors, won by Lonny Weitzel on Friday, was restricted to players over 60; the $5,000 Seniors High Roller went to David ‘ODB’ Baker a few weeks ago, open to players over 50, as was the $1,000 Seniors event won by Brett Lim; then there’s last week’s $1,000 Battle of the Ages, which separated the field into those above and below 50 years’ old.
Many of those appearing in Seniors events at the WSOP have been around the game for decades — such as Baker, whose victory was his fourth at the series. But attendance in age-restricted events has shown steady growth over the decade, to the point where 2025 numbers are around double those of 2015.
Is poker growing a new audience, or is the ‘Moneymaker generation’ simply reaching a certain age?
Attendance in WSOP Seniors events (excluding 2020's online-only series)
| Year | $1,000 Seniors | $1,000 Super Seniors | $5,000 Seniors High Roller |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,193 | 1,533 | - |
| 2016 | 4,499 | 1,476 | - |
| 2017 | 5,389 | 1,720 | - |
| 2018 | 5,919 | 2,191 | - |
| 2019 | 5,917 | 2,650 | - |
| 2021 | 5,404 | 1,893 | - |
| 2022 | 7,188 | 2,668 | - |
| 2023 | 8,180 | 3,121 | - |
| 2024 | 7,954 | 3,362 | 680 |
‘Poker keeps you sharp. It keeps you thinking’
“I think there's an opportunity for older people that are retiring, or are thinking about retiring,” says Judy Whitlow, here in Las Vegas trying to cash in a third WSOP. “When you've had a career where your mind works all the time, if you quit working, things can just kind of stop. But with poker you're learning, you're studying, interacting with people and making friends from all over the world, if you choose to.”
Whitlow is not a longtime player who has reached the qualifying age for Seniors events after decades in the game. In fact, she was 75 years’ old before she even entered her first tournament. In Las Vegas on vacation, and on a whim, she entered the WSOP event that happened to be running that day: The Closer.
Judy Whitlow is back at the 2025 WSOP.“It was my 75th birthday and it was the first time I played in a tournament,” Whitlow explains, “I played The Closer, and I was trying to explain to those young guys that, you know, I'm closing out my life. It was a joke.”
Her performance in her first ever tournament, however, was no joke. Whitlow more than doubled her $1,500 buy-in, cashing for $3,800 by finishing 175th of 2,968 players. A fellow player at her table — PokerStars ambassador Jen Shahade — gave her a few words of advice and the pair stayed in touch, with Whitlow then attending an online bootcamp to grow her poker skills.
What followed — trips to Prague, London, Dublin, Barcelona and EPT Monte Carlo (where she placed third in the Seniors event for over €15K) — has given Whitlow a new perspective on life at a time when many are, in her words, ‘ready to sit in their chairs’. Whitlow spends plenty of time sitting too, of course, but in seats at some of the world's biggest poker events.
Judy Whitlow, of Texas, is now something of a regular on the European Poker Tour.“When you're 75, you’ve got to admit you've lived the biggest part of your life, but it might not be the best part,” says Whitlow. “Poker keeps you sharp. It keeps you thinking, and it can occupy a lot of time — when you’re not playing, you can study.
“Plus this community is unbelievable. When you play poker, you sit down anywhere and, if there's another poker player, you’ve got something to talk about, right? So my deal is, just do it.”
‘I targeted the over-50s events’
Another player of a certain vintage who knows how to do it is Mark Checkwicz, and he’s proved it beyond doubt by winning a bracelet in last year’s $5,000 Seniors High Roller.
“I've been playing poker since I was 10 years old,” shares Checkwicz, “so, over 50 years. I didn’t come out to the WSOP until a few weeks after I turned 50, in 2012. I actually targeted the over-50s event.”
After a close call in 2012 — he missed the money by 70 places in a field of over 4,000 — Checkwicz resolved to return every year, fueled by his enduring love of the game. However, real life intervened, as it so often does.
Mark Checkwicz, aka 'Cookie Monster', models his 2024 silverware.“Every year, there'd be something,” he says, “I have a son with Down Syndrome, I had a daughter who was in college, and I wasn't going to push the envelope of our finances to make a solo trip.”
In 2024, though, the stars aligned and he was able to make the trip out to Las Vegas from Massachusetts, and it would be a happy one. The $573,876 he picked up for the win was more than 20x his previous biggest cash. Plus, it came with a bracelet.
And it was in a Seniors event, where Checkwicz feels most at home.
‘Life has hit us in certain ways, both good and bad’
“For me, it’s the vibe,” he explains. “The players are tighter, they’re more risk-averse, but there’s not as much attitude. The social side feels overall just friendlier — the dealers talk about it too.
“There’s a lot of shared experience. If I mention raising a child with special needs, someone will share ‘I have a son with autism’, or ‘my daughter has cerebral palsy’. We’ve all reached a certain age where we've had experiences, life has hit us in certain ways, both good and bad. As a result I think the conversation, and the social aspect, is just at a higher level.”
Checkwicz is well-known for his bracelet win in 2024, but there’s another reason you may recognize his name — or, at least, his alter-ego: Cookie Monster.
Mark Checkwicz, with his prized bracelet and his iconic t-shirt.As we reported last year after his victory, Checkwicz is known at his local card room for his occasional tendency to turn up to play wearing a Cookie Monster costume and announce, “ME ALL IN!”
“Fun is part of why we’re playing the game,” he says, “You can't take the word ‘play’ away from this. We ‘play’ poker. It's a game. Yes, there's strategy, there's winning and losing. The seniors are just more grown up about the concept of losing.”
From retirees looking to stay sharp after leaving demanding careers, to players who simply prefer the social dynamics of Seniors events, there are many reasons why this type of poker tournament is flourishing more and more.
And it can’t be denied that the growth is tangible, at the WSOP and beyond. A couple of days ago, Checkwicz took a walk down to The Venetian to play a cash game. There was none to be had.
“They had a $1,600 Super Seniors — I didn't even know about it — but they had the whole cash game area shut down because of it, that event drew so many entries.”
Additional images courtesy of WSOP/Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
