Phelps was playing poker before 200m race
Talk about poker face! Record breaking Olympian was playing online when THAT photo was taken.
Michael Phelps' infamous "death stare" was trending last week when, just before the American competed in a 200m Butterfly qualifier at the Rio Olympics, an event he went on to win, he was filmed sporting an angry face while, in the foreground, South African rival Chad le Clos was shadow boxing.
Now it has been revealed that Phelps, who has 28 Olympic medals, was in fact playing a game of Pineapple on his phone and, we can assume, losing a few hands before he came second in the semi-final. Phelps later went on to claim gold in the final while Le Clos finished fourth, outside the medals.
When asked to explain his pre-race face during an interview with US newscaster NBC, Phelps responded; “Texting sometimes. I was playing Pineapple, it’s a card game, and I was changing music”.
Pineapple is a variant of open face Chinese poker that has become popular within the poker community and championed by a number of pros including Jason Mercier and Phil Hellmuth, the latter of which tweeted a salute to the most decorated Olympian in history.
Cool that @MichaelPhelps was playing @playpineapple when Le Clos was shadow boxing before race #IgnoreBS Go to 2:30 https://t.co/Ea9hZlyhmW
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) August 17, 2016
Most decorated Olympian in history and serious grinder
Phelps has now retired from the sport and is likely to dedicate more time to poker, a game he clearly loves and has been a fan of for many years.
As far back as the Beijing games of 2008, Maryland born Phelps gave an interview to the Baltimore Sun in which he outlined his ambitions to play in some of poker’s biggest events. Later that year, he cashed at a $1,500 buy-in WSOP Circuit event and not long after the London games of 2012 he won $100,000 at Caesars Palace. The following year the swimmer competed at the World Series of Poker and the PCA.
Do you expect to see more of Phelps at the felt in future?
