Annette Obrestad became the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet when she was victorious at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2007. She was 18 at the time. I really don’t think she woke up on the morning of her eighteenth birthday, poured herself a bowl of Froot Loops and suddenly decided to play poker for a living. Rarely does anyone make the sort of decision that changes their whole life over Froot Loops; Boo Berry maybe, but not Froot Loops. In fact she admits that she had been playing online poker at various poker sites since she was fifteen. Oddly enough though, this WSOP Main Event champion could not walk into the RIO and play for a World Series of Poker Bracelet in Vegas until three years after her record breaking win. Now that she is 21, she will finally be eligible to play in next year’s WSOP. It just seems silly that she had to wait that long.
Europe has it right. They allow people to play poker at a casino when they turn 18. The reasonable thought behind this is that if they are old enough to move out of their parent’s basement, they are old enough to risk their Burger King salary on a pair of Kings. The United States is not so lenient.
In America, a 16 year old, inexperienced, kid can legally get behind the wheel of an eight cylinder Camaro and become a fast moving road hazard. At the age of 18 they can join the military and have control of weapons that destroy everything from a single terrorist to the entire Eastern Hemisphere, but they are not allowed to play poker at a casino; that would be bad. I think if we can trust an 18 year old to handle combat duty, what to do with a stack of chips and a drawing hand should be well within their capabilities.
To be fair, this ridiculous restriction exists to keep alcohol out of the hands of people who are under 21. It is true that a lot of men and women in their thirties, forties, and fifties can’t handle their alcohol, so it is unreasonable to believe that someone who thinks Seth Rogan is a comedic genius is going to be able to drink responsibly. Of course this problem could be dealt with by having the cocktail waitress simply check the ID of a poker player who looks barely old enough to shave; issue resolved.
Hopefully casinos will get on board with this and let the players who have been playing online poker since they were in Jr. High school, compete at their tables. If not, players will have to keep plugging away at internet poker sites until they turn 21.
