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Jamie Gold’s Winning Diet For WSOP 2006 Champ, Blueberries are a Sure Pay Off
The colossal 2006 World Series of Poker win, the result of poker champion Jamie Gold’s aggressive betting and psychological competitiveness, remains the biggest in history. At the time, his style was unusual, even suspicious: he talked openly to opponents at the poker table; he would even tell them what cards he held. His constant consumption of sizeable bowls of blueberries during the series only added to his idiosyncratic method of play. This November, the 2008 WSOP champion, Peter Eastgate, came closer than anyone has, but he couldn’t touch Gold’s record-breaking $12 million take. While reports chalked Gold’s passion for blues up to superstition — the reluctance to change behavior that is common for athletes once a winning streak takes hold — Gold said his munching had nothing to do with luck.
“They make me feel good — they are comfort food to me,” he said of blueberries, which are not just his favorite fruit, but his favorite food. His WSOP routine included multiple servings for breakfast, dinner, and as snacks during each 15-hour day of the arduous 10-day series. “Throughout the day they give me energy. To me, they are the best tasting food.” Though Gold admits he can’t imagine that he wouldn’t have won if he didn’t eat them, when he was asked in an ESPN interview following his historic win how he was able to dominate play for so long, he answered decisively: it had been the blueberries.
He was kidding — sort of. “I know for a fact [poor nutrition] affects my judgment, and I can’t think straight. I have to stick to a certain kind of diet to keep myself level. I’m sensitive to a lot of food and I’ve never felt bad eating blueberries.” Growing research indicates that flavonoids in blueberries enhance brain function and memory, and their low glycemic index makes them one of the best foods for keeping glucose levels low, which can contribute to brain performance and concentration. That blueberries have a reputation as brain food was something Gold has always known, and his massive intake of the fruit — both at the poker table and the dinner table — confirms that his reputation as the most ardent, and arguably the most famous blueberry proponent in the world is no bluff.
A Winning Diet of Blues
Gold describes the final day of the grueling tournament as surreal. There were 90 million chips in play; expectations were that it would be a 24-hour day. Gold hadn’t been sleeping much due to the rising excitement of the series combined with relentless post-play media interviews. His father, badly affected by ALS, could no longer travel and was at home. With his chip count progressively mounting, Gold chose an inadvisable course of aggressive play, taking player after player, and finishing the win in a mere 14 hours. “I had had enough,” he said. “I really wanted it to end. My dad was really bad then, and I really wanted to get home to him.” He did.
In addition to being physically demanding, the WSOP is a mental marathon. For breakfast every day before play, Gold would have a large bowl totaling two pints of blueberries every morning, along with carrot juice and a bran muffin. Lunch was usually a salad and a piece of chicken, and dinner would usually be fish, greens and another large bowl of blueberries. After day three of the series, Gold had a secure lead, and to help him remain focused, he began accepting offers of help from friends and family supporting him on the sidelines. “Whenever anyone would ask me, ‘What do you want?’ I’d say, ‘I’ll have a bowl of blueberries.’ ” Gold averaged two bowls of between-meal blueberries per day, and during the last three days he estimates he ate approximately six bowls daily — a grand total of around 75 pints over the 10 day period.
Once the media noticed his passion for blueberries, the fruit attracted a spotlight of its own. Public excitement about poker was at its height, and the media attention was hot. That food was being consumed at the table was unusual and created a buzz, and as a result, fans would bring him even more. Gold, reacting to the hype, hammed it up for the cameras. “If I was thinking about the hand, and I didn’t know what I was going to do, I would stop for a minute and eat my blueberries,” he said. By day seven, blueberries played as large a role in the WSOP as the poker chips.
Winning the World Series of Poker was all the ex-Hollywood agent, who has worked with stars such as Lucy Liu, Jimmy Fallon, and Kristin Davis, wanted to do. But the first one out, “I killed it,” he said. “Once I accomplished that goal I didn’t have the drive.” Gold seems practiced at answering questions about why he hasn’t continued to rack up additional wins. Over the last two years, he has been part of helping raise over $100 million for charity, is deeply involved in Parkinson’s and MS research, and he is an Ambassador for the MDA ALS Division (Gold lost his father to ALS in 2006). He said he could not remember the last time he played a tournament that wasn’t for charity. “I’m not like some poker players. All they want to do is win more and more. That was never my path. I have other more important things to accomplish right now.”
Champion of Blueberries
“There had to be a spike in sales,” Gold says credulously of the heady time following his 2006 win. “Right afterward it seemed to me that everyone I talked to and everywhere I went people were eating blueberries. They would always make a comment, and say, ‘Hey look I’m eating blueberries — they really are brain food!’ or ‘Wow I love them. I never realized how much!’ I think people forgot how much they really did love them.” With televised tournaments, Gold is still on TV often, and when he is, he’s eating blueberries. He has received calls from companies seeking help promoting blueberry concentrates and blueberry drinks, but so far he hasn’t been impressed enough with the quality of a product to put his name behind it.
While not an official spokesperson, Gold’s love for the fruit remains unabashed. “When people give me a fruit salad with three blueberries I get very frustrated,” he said. “People usually view them as garnish. If you going to give me a bowl of fruit, why not give a substantial amount of blueberries in the same way you give strawberries or other berries?” He eats them on cereal, in yogurt, and on salads, but his favorite way is washed well, straight from the bowl, and usually with a fork (“I just stab at them.”). “It’s everything from the texture to the sweetness, the way they break in your mouth,” he explained.
A health-conscious eater that consumes little meat, no alcohol and no caffeine, Gold appreciates the berries’ health benefits, but mostly they conjure up the tinge of nostalgia associated with childhood comfort food. “I’ve eaten them my whole life. It was always the thing I requested as a child. If my mother would ask me, ‘What do you want?’ I would always say blueberries.”
