Every poker room has one. He’s been sitting in the same seat for three hours, nursing a cup of coffee, reading the newspaper and patiently waiting for pocket aces. When he finally raises, you know it’s probably time to fold.
He’s Old Man Coffee, or OMC, one of poker’s most recognizable player stereotypes. The poker term has been thrown around poker rooms and online forums for years, but where did it actually come from?
As it turns out, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Alex Livingston says he’s the one who made it up.
How Alex Livingston Came Up With Old Man Coffee
Appearing on the Table 1 Podcast with hosts Art Parmann and Justin Young, Livingston was asked how much credit he takes for the term Old Man Coffee.
“Oh, all the credit. I invented the term,” Livingston replied.
According to Livingston, the phrase dates back to around 2009, long before his deep runs in the WSOP Main Event in 2013 (13th) and 2019 (3rd), when he was an active contributor to the popular Two Plus Two poker forums.
“I made a long post that was kind of an intro guide to live poker, and part of that was different player types and player profiles you’d run into, how to play against them.”
The guide was intended to help players recognise different opponents at the table and understand how to approach them. Of all the player types Livingston described, OMC was the one that stuck.
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What Exactly Is an OMC?
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, Old Man Coffee describes the stereotypical older poker player who sits in low-stakes cash games, plays an extremely tight range of poker hands and rarely gets involved without a monster.
Livingston offered his own description of the original OMC during the podcast.
“The prototype would be an old man who wakes up at six in the morning, reads his newspaper, has his coffee, goes to the casino, sits there, nut-pedals.”
In other words, he’s not particularly interested in running elaborate bluffs or battling for every pot. He’s happy to wait for pocket aces, play them, then return to his broadsheet and piping-hot paper cup before repeating his caffeine-fueled cycle.
The stereotype has become so familiar that players will often describe an opponent as an OMC without needing to explain anything else.
Whatever Happened to MAGWEP?
Old Man Coffee wasn’t the only player type Livingston came up with in his original guide.
Another was MAGWEP, however, that never quite entered poker’s everyday vocabulary.
“I can just think of one more off the top of my head, which was MAGWEP, which was Middle-Aged Guy With Everything to Prove.”
Livingston mentioned that these opponents were regular fixtures in the games he played in his early twenties and were responsible for a share of his more than $10 million in live poker earnings.
The conversation also brought up just how different some live cash games used to be.
Young harkened back to playing in a $10/$20 game when he first moved to Las Vegas, where the vast majority of his opponents fit the OMC description.
Young brought up that some of the regulars would pull him aside if he tried bluffing certain players.
“We don’t bluff Pat here,” he recalled being told. “You check it down with him, and that’s how we play.”
Those games have changed considerably over the years, but the Old Man Coffee stereotype has definitely survived.
Calum Grant
Senior Editor & Live Events Executive