02 Feb 12

Why Do So Many Retired Sports Stars Come to Poker?

If you want to meet a former World Cup winner, Wimbledon champion, or cricket legend, your best shot is possibly to play poker. Barry Carter discusses the popularity of poker with famous sports stars.

Is poker a sport? That is a question I have asked, or been asked, for many years. Ultimately, the answer I arrive at is 'no....there are some similarities, but not really'.

I, and most other poker players, are probably not the best people to ask, we are hardly known for our athleticism. Luckily, for us, we do have a wealth of players who know how close it could be to a sport; famous sports stars themselves.

As long as poker has had a mainstream interest, it has been a home for sports stars with a bit of gamble in them. Boris Becker, Lothar Matthäus, Shane Warne, Toni Polster, and Santiago Cañizares are all examples of famous sports stars who now call themselves poker pros.

As well as that, names like Greg Mueller, Audley Harrison, Teddy Sheringham, Ken Doherty, Steve Davis, and Tony Cascarino are all good examples of sportsmen who not only play the game, they have proven to be pretty decent at it.

Most of the sports stars are, like any other celebrity player, pretty bad at the game. There are, however, enough examples of sportsmen showing a knack for the game to suggest that the qualities that made them successful athletes are transferable to poker.

Boris Becker is a sponsored pro with PokerStars

Why poker?

I heard a great quote, which I believe was from Scott Huff (Forgive me if I got it wrong), about this, which was "Poker is where sports stars go to die".

What I believe was meant by this is that poker seems a natural pastime for a sportsman to take up, to fill the void left by retirement. Many of them go to golf of course, but poker has some benefits they probably won't be able to get anywhere else.

First of all, it obviously is a great way to channel that competitive spirit. This, if anything, is probably the reason why some sportsmen end up making good poker players, because they want to get better and beat everyone else at the table. Not all poker players are competitive, many want soft games and easy money, but a competitive spirit is found in all the top players in just about every game.

The second attractive feature, although they are probably not aware of it quite in this way, is the variance factor. What I mean by this in the particular context of sports stars is that when they are running well, not only will they make money, they can very quickly rediscover past glories.

A footballer is not going to be lifting any golf trophies in their first few years of retirement, but that is a very realistic proposition were they to play poker. Being able to fast-track your way to success is one of the big appeals poker brings for all of us, it must be even more enticing for someone who has felt it in a former life and wants it back.

Likewise, you do not need to be one of the best to play against the best in poker. The combination of money, competitive spirit, and a thirst for glory, means that a sports star can jump right into the biggest games in the world. Someone who has won the Champions League or a Grand Slam does not want to sit in a €20 rebuy tournament at their local casino; they want to play in a €5,000 EPT with the best players in the world.

Of course, the biggest players in the world welcome these sports stars with open arms. Most of the time, they will be the softest players at the table, with more money than sense.

Shane Warne is a legend in Australia, bringing new blood to the tables

Starting at the bottom

I have met quite a few sports-stars-turned-poker-players, and the one difference I have noticed between the better players and the weak ones, is how they approach their apprenticeship as a player. How they start out in their first few years in the game.

The ones I would label as bad, tend to jump right into the biggest games, get a sponsor, and announce they are a 'poker pro' before they even understand the hand rankings. These are the ones seduced by the lure of past glories, and let the variance fool them into thinking their skills on a pitch/court/field are magically transferring over to the felt.

The players I would suggest are pretty good took a different route. Footballers Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino, boxer Audley Harrison, and snooker player Steve Davis have all proven to be solid players, and for the most part, they stayed under the radar for their first few years.

They all started out in smaller games than their bankroll would suggest they should play. Sheringham, for example, became a local at the Vic cardroom in London, Audley Harrison learned to play in the $5/$10 games in LA, and Steve Davis is a regular at $1/$2 PLO online. They all play online, and importantly, kept their screen names quiet.

Walking before they run, I believe, is the reason why these players can hold their own at tough tables these days. It must be very humbling to start at the bottom, but this is probably why they have the respect of their poker peers now; they paid their dues.

Champions League winner Teddy Sheringham made an EPT final table

Good for the game

The relationship between famous sportsmen and poker is tremendously good for the game. Not only does it usually mean more soft money coming into the poker economy, it also means mainstream exposure for the game. Someone like Shane Warne, who is nothing short of god-like in Australia, will have no doubt brought thousands of new players to the tables.

They also serve an important role of improving the reputation of the game to those who will never play. Poker will always be considered a back street degenerate gambling game for some, but when someone who is famous for their proficiency in a particular field endorses the game, it helps those that are on the fence to recognise poker as a skill game also.

It won't always be the case, last year Canadian ice hockey star Roberto Luongo came under fire from a psychological counsellor for promoting an online poker room. He was cited as a role model, and his endorsement was compared to someone promoting smoking to children.

Which actually demonstrates why it is important that we do have these sporting role models to champion the game of poker for us with the general public, because poker is still looked down upon by many corners of society.

It's great that they publicly choose to play the game, it's great that they endorse poker rooms and bring new blood to the table, and it's even better when one of them actually finds a bit of success; if only to suggest that poker and sport are not that far removed from each other after all.

by Barry Carter