22
Indulgence
Phil Gordon recommended that I go for a straight-razor shave at Truefitt & Hill in the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. Phil’s won well over $1 million playing cards in his lifetime. He’s bagged a World Poker Tour title. He’s a bestselling author and a television celebrity. So who am I to disagree? Besides, it was time. I have been sporting a beard that was on the verge of going Grizzly Adams on me.
What I didn’t know until I was placed in the very capable hands of Noe Hernandez, Jr. was that straight-razor shaves for poker players have become what extra batting practice is for baseball players, nearly obligatory when the chips are down, or rather the chips are getting tossed off fruitlessly. How did this come to be? The better question is how did I not know how this came to be. It’s from the movie Rounders, a movie that has developed such a cult status amongst younger poker players that the love for it has moved beyond the cult and into the mainstream. The next time you sit down at a poker table online check out the screen names: if there isn’t at least one player whose name was inspired by the movie I’ll run naked through the Amazon Room.
Will getting such a shave suddenly make you play like Phil Gordon? Of course not. But if you’re willing to sit in a chair for forty minutes just to rid your face of hair you are obviously a patient person, and they tell me that patience is a virtue, especially when playing cards. The willingness to part with a not insubstantial chunk of change just to experience this pleasure is also a positive sign—low-stakes players should probably stick with their Edge shaving cream and Mennen aftershave. Could getting a straight-edge shave improve you game? There’s only one way to find out. After all, the motto at Truefitt & Hill is Grooming Men For Greatness.
