National Deaf Poker Tour

The NDPT Waardenburg’s Phenomenon

By Greg Randall

Poker is such a fascinating game. Two can play a game. Millions can play the same game as well. There is no finish line, and there is no time limit. There are no sides and there are no teams. A poker tournament is a fight to death to the last player.

Even more fascinating are the cards, 52 of them, 4 suits and thirteen kinds overflowing with mysticism. Randomly shuffled and dealt, the cards are run through the gantlet, a potpourri of bravado and skepticism, through superstitious preferences, pompous gusto, and some flinching and cowering. Played, the cards come in combinations of five cards that result in endless different shapes and forms, from absolutely nothing to utterly awestruck pyrotechnics. As in from yawn to POW! Just like the old school Batman and Robin style.

Now as we explore further into the game of poker, the winners captivate us, most especially the winners of larger and more prestigious No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments. The winners often affect those of us, having been sent to the rail, in various ways. Some of us may feel sincere admiration, maybe a flush of jealousy or even complete scorn of the winners, but everyone gravitates to and wishes to be the winner. To us, winners hold a certain amount of mystique. What is it like to be the player who finished with the most chips? To wear the bracelet? To win that prize?

As the cards shows time and time again with the combinations that odds can be defied and that nothing is absolute, the winners of National Deaf Poker Tour’s previous three tournaments are of a most amazingly interesting combination. Just like a flop of a set, they all possess the same unique features, bright multi-colored eyes, white forelocks and eyebrows, and ability to be the last men standing after long and difficult poker massacres. Jon Rollins, Eli Dorsey and Bill Loftus all are deafened by a rare genetic “disorder” or in this case, a genetic “order” called Waardenburg’s Syndrome, better known among the deaf simply as “WS”. This has sent a ripple of raised eyebrows and “hey did you know that” among the deaf poker players. “Wow that’s great but isn’t that fishy all those WS boys are the winners?” “Is there something in their special genes that makes them better poker players?” “Hey didn’t Stu Unger (Legendary Player with 3 WSOP Main Event Bracelets) have WS too? He sure looked like it ” (Not all WS people are deaf) “Or maybe it is because most players unfortunately underestimate the WS players?” “WS players must be better bluffers!” Regardless of any why’s and how’s, the ripples have become a wave and the WS Wave has spread among the deaf poker community, hands flying “Hey Incredible you finish know about WS champ champ champ at NDPT poker? Incredible!” {Pardon me for this attempt at writing comedic ASLglish} Maybe, after all it’s the cards’ jest?

There are so many different ways we can react to this phenomenon but if you were a deaf poker player like me, the real “nuts” question would be “Would the turn or the river bring four of a kind?” Never has NDPT tournament been filled with such anticipations!

Author’s note- this figure, found in the most reliable source, at least we hope, the Gallaudet University library states that Waardenburg’s Syndrome is present in 3 out of every 100 children who are deaf from the birth. But wait a minute; do not forget to then add all those deaf people like myself who were not born deaf! Figure that in the odds! http://library.gallaudet.edu/dr/faq-etiol.html