6/9/07posted by Gene @ 12:59 PM

So the World Series of Poker is entering its second week and you may be wondering, what have I learned? What great insights have I gathered after logging 100 or so hours at the biggest poker tournament on earth? In what ways have my eyes been opened?

I'm sure I'll write about other interesting tidbits I've gleaned over the last seven or so days, but there is one aspect of poker that I had no clue about until I set up shop in the Rio, and now that I've gained this wisdom it colors the way I look at everything. And this is what I'm talking about:



Massage. Yes, without the gentle yet firm art of massage tournament poker as we know it simply would not exist. At any given time as I walk through the Rio each day scores of players are getting massages. Everywhere you look there's a player with his chair turned around, his chin cushioned by a pillow, getting the kinks worked out by one of the white-shirted angels with the magic touch.

Perhaps the critics are right in saying that poker isn't a sport--but you try sitting on a straight-backed chair for 14 hours and then tell me how YOUR spine feels. I tell you how it feels--it feels bad. REALLY bad. Whether you're hunched over a laptop or a monster chip stack, the human body wasn't meant to do that much hunching. And getting a massage can make your body feel, well, human again.



I haven't actually gotten a professional massage myself, I think there's some unwritten blogger code against it. But many of the top players partake of massage almost every day and I can't help thinking it's a huge benefit. If you're uncomfortable at the table, if you feel cramped and pinched and tense, it's going to affect you mentally. But if you feel loose and limber you can leave the physical world behind and focus on your game.

There's also the fact that a player getting a massage shows how utterly at home he feels at the table. Most of the time you get a massage behind closed doors, or behind a screen. To sit there at a poker table getting your calves massages is pure alpha-dog--you're showing that THIS is YOUR territory, and you can do whatever you want.

Or, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But I've been greatly impressed by these hard-working professionals. We've all given massages--or we like to PRETEND that we have. But you try kneading someone's shoulders all the live-long day and see how YOUR hands feel. Yesterday Daniel Negreanu sat in front of me and got an hour-long massage. He got the works--back, shoulder, arms, neck. I slept funny on my neck the other night and got a serious crick in it, and as I gingerly tried to twist my head and stretch it out his masseuse looked at me and gave me a disapproving look. I stopped what I was doing (which hurt really bad, I should say) and let it rest. It feels better today--maybe I should've tipped her. And maybe I'll indulge myself as we get deeper into the Series and find out for myself about the power of massage.

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