LAS VEGAS — For several years Ken Lind told his wife and friends that he wanted to play in the World Series of Poker “just one time.”
While he had never played in any major tournaments in the past, everyone urged the self-taught poker player to give it a shot and strike it off his bucket list.
While in Las Vegas last weekend, the 68-year-old Layton resident did just that — in a big way. Lind won the $1,000 buy-in Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship at the Rio Hotel and Casino for $634,809 and a championship gold bracelet (the biggest trophy in the game). His name will also be added to the event’s Golden Eagle Trophy. The win came after 14 hours of play into the third day of the event.
“It was a rush like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I know that (feeling) in itself is going to be addictive,” he said.
Lind said once the competition dwindled to 20 or 30 final players, his focus shifted from the cash prize onto the championship bracelet — which he has always dreamed of winning. “I said, ‘I don’t care about the money, I just want that bracelet.”
When Lind realized he won, he said, “I pumped the air, jumping around like a big chicken for a minute. Then I went over to shake my opponent’s hand and congratulate him. I have the utmost respect for him — he’s a wonderful opponent.”
Lind said he plans to put his bracelet in a safety deposit box, as it is such a cherished posession — only 55 given out this year, and Lind estimated only 1,000 people have one at all. He said he plans to pay off his three mortgages “and then just continue living the way I have been living.”
With his wife there to cheer him on, Lind posed for pictures with his winnings after beating his last opponent. How did Lind celebrate after the victory?
“We went to sleep. The tournament is exhausting. It is much fun, but no walk in the park,” he says. “You have to stay alert three days in a row for 15 hours per day. Then you cannot sleep from all the thinking back and forward anticipation.”
This poker-playing grandfather and great-grandfather has quite the interesting background. In 1944, his mother was living in Lemoore, Calif., where she met his father, who was stationed at Lemoore Army Airfield. Lind’s father was soon shipped off to war, and his mother and aunt hitchhiked across the country, relocating to Peekskill, N.Y., where he was born.
“This had to be tough back then, because there were no interstate highways. Mom died very young, when I was only about 21 years old, so I never had the chance to ask her how she came to do this. As I grew older, I found this interesting and fascinating,” he says. “I have never known who my father is, even though I have always wanted to. I have been told he died in the war. Early on, I lived with my maternal grandparents in Kansas and Wyoming.”
When he was about 6 years old, his mother married a man named John Lind, who adopted him. The family lived in Denver, and Lind says he was not a pleasant person to be around as a young man.
“Five decades ago, I was a terror, probably the most arrogant, egotistical, belligerent person on the face of this small blue dot,” he says. “Thankfully I have evolved and learned to like people. Today, I like everybody.”
In 1963, at age 17, he joined the Army as an aircraft mechanic. After a rocky three-year term — he says belligerence and arrogance were holding him back — he sat down and had a talk with himself.
“I decided … that I had proved myself a failure and didn’t like what I was seeing, so I decided to change. I requested and received permission to re-enlist for six years, buckled down and rose in ranks to sergeant. I passed every test the Army ever put to me. Then I applied for warrant officer. That was approved, and I pinned on my bars.”
His military service included five Vietnam campaigns, and service in the Dominican Republic and Korea during the USS Pueblo crisis. For the past 25 years, Lind has worked on computers and worked for the Bureau of Reclamation, which builds dams in the Western U.S.
For fun, he gets away for the occasional fishing trip.
Always very competitive growing up, Lind didn’t enjoy team sports but loved card games like Hearts. Poker became a natural extension of that, and he played his first live Texas Hold’em tournament at the Sahara Casino in Las Vegas about a decade ago.
“I played in a tournament last September at the Rio that was only one table, which I won,” he says.
The event Lind won this summer has become one of the largest events at the WSOP.
“The growth of participation in the seniors event is remarkable. It has become their version of the WSOP Main Event,” said Seth Palansky, Caesars Entertainment vice president of communications. “It is the one event they come play and is one of our favorite tournaments of the year to host. Great camaraderie, sportsmanship, and professionalism are witnessed throughout the event, and once someone comes and plays it one year, we most always seem them back the next, because they had so much fun.”
“This is beyond a dream. Beyond it,” Lind said after the tournament. “The biggest tournament I had ever played was like 10 or 12 tables. And you come here, and there are 4,400 opponents. I just wanted to compete ... this is my kind of tournament.”
Standard-Examiner reporter Clayton Leuba contributed to this story.
While he had never played in any major tournaments in the past, everyone urged the self-taught poker player to give it a shot and strike it off his bucket list.
While in Las Vegas last weekend, the 68-year-old Layton resident did just that — in a big way. Lind won the $1,000 buy-in Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship at the Rio Hotel and Casino for $634,809 and a championship gold bracelet (the biggest trophy in the game). His name will also be added to the event’s Golden Eagle Trophy. The win came after 14 hours of play into the third day of the event.
“It was a rush like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I know that (feeling) in itself is going to be addictive,” he said.
Lind said once the competition dwindled to 20 or 30 final players, his focus shifted from the cash prize onto the championship bracelet — which he has always dreamed of winning. “I said, ‘I don’t care about the money, I just want that bracelet.”
When Lind realized he won, he said, “I pumped the air, jumping around like a big chicken for a minute. Then I went over to shake my opponent’s hand and congratulate him. I have the utmost respect for him — he’s a wonderful opponent.”
Lind said he plans to put his bracelet in a safety deposit box, as it is such a cherished posession — only 55 given out this year, and Lind estimated only 1,000 people have one at all. He said he plans to pay off his three mortgages “and then just continue living the way I have been living.”
With his wife there to cheer him on, Lind posed for pictures with his winnings after beating his last opponent. How did Lind celebrate after the victory?
“We went to sleep. The tournament is exhausting. It is much fun, but no walk in the park,” he says. “You have to stay alert three days in a row for 15 hours per day. Then you cannot sleep from all the thinking back and forward anticipation.”
This poker-playing grandfather and great-grandfather has quite the interesting background. In 1944, his mother was living in Lemoore, Calif., where she met his father, who was stationed at Lemoore Army Airfield. Lind’s father was soon shipped off to war, and his mother and aunt hitchhiked across the country, relocating to Peekskill, N.Y., where he was born.
“This had to be tough back then, because there were no interstate highways. Mom died very young, when I was only about 21 years old, so I never had the chance to ask her how she came to do this. As I grew older, I found this interesting and fascinating,” he says. “I have never known who my father is, even though I have always wanted to. I have been told he died in the war. Early on, I lived with my maternal grandparents in Kansas and Wyoming.”
When he was about 6 years old, his mother married a man named John Lind, who adopted him. The family lived in Denver, and Lind says he was not a pleasant person to be around as a young man.
“Five decades ago, I was a terror, probably the most arrogant, egotistical, belligerent person on the face of this small blue dot,” he says. “Thankfully I have evolved and learned to like people. Today, I like everybody.”
In 1963, at age 17, he joined the Army as an aircraft mechanic. After a rocky three-year term — he says belligerence and arrogance were holding him back — he sat down and had a talk with himself.
“I decided … that I had proved myself a failure and didn’t like what I was seeing, so I decided to change. I requested and received permission to re-enlist for six years, buckled down and rose in ranks to sergeant. I passed every test the Army ever put to me. Then I applied for warrant officer. That was approved, and I pinned on my bars.”
His military service included five Vietnam campaigns, and service in the Dominican Republic and Korea during the USS Pueblo crisis. For the past 25 years, Lind has worked on computers and worked for the Bureau of Reclamation, which builds dams in the Western U.S.
For fun, he gets away for the occasional fishing trip.
Always very competitive growing up, Lind didn’t enjoy team sports but loved card games like Hearts. Poker became a natural extension of that, and he played his first live Texas Hold’em tournament at the Sahara Casino in Las Vegas about a decade ago.
“I played in a tournament last September at the Rio that was only one table, which I won,” he says.
The event Lind won this summer has become one of the largest events at the WSOP.
“The growth of participation in the seniors event is remarkable. It has become their version of the WSOP Main Event,” said Seth Palansky, Caesars Entertainment vice president of communications. “It is the one event they come play and is one of our favorite tournaments of the year to host. Great camaraderie, sportsmanship, and professionalism are witnessed throughout the event, and once someone comes and plays it one year, we most always seem them back the next, because they had so much fun.”
“This is beyond a dream. Beyond it,” Lind said after the tournament. “The biggest tournament I had ever played was like 10 or 12 tables. And you come here, and there are 4,400 opponents. I just wanted to compete ... this is my kind of tournament.”
Standard-Examiner reporter Clayton Leuba contributed to this story.
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