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Athletes Who Were Seen At Poker Tables

There is something about casino games, particularly poker that brings some excitement and joy to players. At this point, it is safe to say that it isn’t only about the money, as we see a list of highly successful athletes who only play poker for fun and not to earn some money.

Poker has always been one of the most popular casino games just because it blends skill, knowledge, acting, and luck into one. We often see athletes who want to test their luck in casino games, and poker has always been a top choice for them.

In today’s article, we will dive deeper into the world of professional athletes and their poker journey. Some did it for charity, others for fun. Some made money, and some lost it all and went bankrupt. Let’s go through the names:

Michael Phelps

Swimming stars are not as popular as other athletes like NBA or football, but Michael Phelps made a name for himself thanks to his impeccable Olympic performance. Throughout the years, he became the most decorated Olympian of all time. But as he conquered swimming, we assume that he wanted a new thrill and poker was his first choice.

Over the years, he has been spotted at multiple high-profile poker tournaments, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Phelps also opened up about his passion for poker as he says that the strategic nature of the game goes perfectly along with his competitive instincts.

Although Phelps is passionate about poker, he doesn’t do it for the money. Most of the money he raised competing in tournaments went to his Michael Phelps Foundation which he opened up in 2008.

Richard Seymour

Here we have another incredibly successful athlete in the world of American Football. For those that don’t know Richard Seymour (if there are any), he is a three-time Super Bowl champion and spent most of his career playing for the New England Patriots.  But after his retirement, Seymour found a new passion, and you’ve guessed it – Poker.

However, unlike other athletes who do it for fun or for charity, Richard Seymour was quite serious about his poker career. He regularly participates in high-end poker tournaments, and accumulated quite a lot of money from his poker journey. Okay, maybe not as much as his football career, but reaching close to $800,000 in total live earnings is not bad at all. His poker skills, however, are not nearly as sharp as his football skills. In the Global Poker Index Ranking, he is currently ranked at 8,078^th.

Boris Becker

From football, we are moving to tennis but not in the era of Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal (he is also a poker enthusiast), but in the era of Boris Becker.

Throughout his tennis career, he managed to accumulate more than $25 million just in tournament winnings and reached the No. 1 spot of the best tennis player in the world in 1991.

After his retirement, he turned to poker. We’ve seen Becker in multiple high-end poker tournaments, and he has become a brand ambassador for sites like PokerStars.

Even though he is passionate about poker, his biggest accomplishment was finishing 40^th in the 2009 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Championship, where he earned $40,855. His total career earnings from poker are around $110,000, and he is 26,310^th on the all-time money list.

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ALSO READ: Other Famous Athletes Who Play Poker

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Paul Pierce

Since we started naming different sports, let’s dive into the NBA. Paul Pierce, the NBA star known as “The Truth” has also grown an interest in playing poker. If you enjoy digging into NBA odds of teams like the Denver Nuggets you can check it on this website.

He retired from professional basketball in 2017, and since then, we’ve seen him participate in multiple poker tournaments.

Although he hasn’t been playing basketball for quite some time, he is still active in the NBA field. We’ve just seen him make a bold comment about Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

And if you like the combo of betting and sports, then you are probably interested in some NBA stats.

Paul Pierce doesn’t take his poker career too seriously, at least not as much as the other athletes we mentioned so far. But he had some fair share moments in poker tournaments. 

Neymar Jr.

Lastly, we have to conquer football, or soccer for our US readers. Neymar Jr. who is considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time has an eye for gambling, especially poker. We’ve recently seen a video where Neymar Jr. celebrates his daughter’s birthday, and at the same time gets on some gambling action on his phone.

He has competed in multiple poker tournaments ranging from charity events to a real competition like the European Poker Tour (EPT and the WSOP. His poker earnings aren’t that impressive.

Throughout his poker “career” or should we say passion, he managed to accumulate total earnings of $32,000, placing him in the 73,819^th place in the All-Time Money List. This isn’t really impressive, but Naymar Jr. probably plays it for fun, and not to make money. 

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for more such articles. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter  and Telegram.

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