Affable Phillips can’t wait to mingle at WSOP Seniors event

Dennis Phillips loves chatting at the poker table, and one of his favorite subjects is 1960s television. But since many of his opponents these days are half his age, the topic rarely comes up.

That won’t be the case this weekend.

“I love it. I’m sitting down with a group of people that have the same background, the group that grew up with the same things that I did,” said Phillips, 60. “I start talking about ‘The Addams Family’ or ‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ they know what the heck I’m talking about.”

Phillips will be one of the most accomplished players in the field when the World Series of Poker’s $1,000 buy-in Seniors No-limit Hold ’em Championship begins at 10 a.m. today at the Rio Convention Center.

The three-day event is open to players age 50 and older and expected to attract a field similar to last year’s record of 4,425 entrants. The $1,000 buy-in Super Seniors tournament (65 and older) begins at 10 a.m. Sunday.

“It’s so cool because most of them recognize me and we start talking. It’s a camaraderie,” Phillips said. “I guarantee that every table I sit at, I meet one or two interesting people and we have a nice talk. It’s fun. It’s almost a shame to see them knocked out sometimes, but I have to admit, I’ll still take their chips.”

Phillips was a successful tournament poker player in the St. Louis area when he won a seat to the 2008 WSOP Main Event. After entering the final table as the chip leader, the account manager at a commercial trucking company finished third for more than $4.5 million and emerged as a bona fide poker celebrity.

With his trademark St. Louis Cardinals cap, white work shirt and boisterous cheering section blaring a diesel truck horn every time he raked in chips, the affable Phillips is widely credited for helping to make the “November Nine” format a ratings success on ESPN in its first year.

“I was trying to be myself,” Phillips said. “I love going down there and sitting at a table and having a chance to make eight new friends, and I’m going to have fun doing it. I took that attitude when I went to the final table, and I think it carried over.”

Since that memorable Main Event run, Phillips has made almost $1 million in WSOP-sponsored events, including a circuit ring in 2011. He finished third in the $1,500 buy-in No-limit Hold ’em Shootout two weeks ago for $113,265 and now has more than $5.36 million in career WSOP earnings.

“You don’t want to be a one-shot wonder, and there have been a few of those in the past that have kind of disappeared from it. And I had to prove myself,” Phillips said. “There’s a number of pros here that just because you run deep in the Main (Event), they don’t accept you as a good player. I think they accept me now, and that’s kind of cool.”

Phillips, still seeking his first WSOP bracelet, has twice made the final table in the Seniors Event. He finished second in 2012 to Allyn Jaffrey Shulman and was fifth last year when Dan Heimiller took home The Golden Eagle trophy.

Phillips went through a period of financial struggle in the 1980s, giving him a greater appreciation for his recent success. He said he plays less poker now than five years ago and spends much of his time traveling or doing charitable work.

He is a vocal supporter of regulated online poker in the U.S. and is involved with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society — Phillips’ brother suffers from MS — along with the Albert Pujols Family Foundation, which helps those with Down syndrome.

“I’ve always in the last 20, 30 years worked with a lot of charities, trying to do things that I felt were necessary but always through sweat and equity, shall we say,” Phillips said. “Most of the time it was me volunteering and trying to help out that way. Now I can do it on a financial level also, and it’s so rewarding to see things like that come through.”

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.