Event 9 Day 1A: Take Darryll Fish’s Money

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800 with 100 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 379

If you’ve spent any time around major poker tournaments, you’re probably familiar with its soundtrack. There’s generally music playing softly through the speakers (typically rock music here at Seminole Hard Rock), the shouts of cocktail servers offering their wares, and periodic, “Seat open!” calls from the dealers. All of those sounds are mostly overshadowed by the constant, plasticky clatter of chips being shuffled by nearly everyone in the room.

At least one player is out to change that.

A quick chat with Fish revealed the motivation for the freeroll. “First of all, it’s obviously really bad for you hands,” he said. “But I’m also really focused on mindfulness lately. And everyone is so used to shuffling chips, that the act of not doing it is a much more mindful thing to do.”

Fish said he was considering trying this at the WSOP last year, but he waited until now to finally roll it out.