From Card Games At The Back Of The Bus To Huge Sponsorship Deals
There’s a lot of time to kill for footballers when travelling to matches. What better way to spend your time than having a few poker games on the bus? Best not to let the manager see, though, unless he’s playing. Playing cards can lead to massive sponsorship contracts with poker companies for some footballers.
Both Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo love playing poker. Like all good card players, they will have picked up the main rules of poker and some top tips before getting to grips with the finer poker strategies.
Neymar may well have a future career playing poker once his footballing days are over. This year has seen him try his luck in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event held in Las Vegas.
This latest tournament appearance was in a $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. He’d have felt at home because it was held at the Paris Las Vegas Casino. Seventy-four players took part in that championship for the three-day event.
Neymar is no stranger to playing in those events. Six years ago, he went to Las Vegas and won a preliminary PokerStars tournament. That earned him a place in a main WSOP tournament, but he was busy playing for Brazil in the Summer Olympics.
Sadly, Neymar didn’t make it to day 2, so he had no WSOP winner’s bracelet to show off to his teammates. Whether that’ll be PSG or another club isn’t known, but the rumours are he might be on the move this summer, perhaps even to Newcastle United. Reports of the championship reveal that the Brazilian international played some risky hands. That didn’t turn out to be the best of ideas.
Neymar doesn’t need to make lots of money at the poker table. He’s doing rather well from the deal that he has had with PokerStars for several years. Recently he became their cultural ambassador, which means high visibility regarding their promotions and advertisements.
He’s had some degree of success at the poker table. Being linked with PokerStars has seen him enter several tournaments. One took place in his home country, and he won $21,072 after finishing in sixth place.
More success came less than a week after his appearance in the WSOP event. He finished 49th out of 2,227 players in a $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em event. His winnings were just $3,959, but a top 50 finish would have delighted him.
It nearly didn’t happen, though, as a security guard who probably doesn’t watch many PSG games told him and his two friends (including PokerStars Team Pro Andre Akkari) to leave the venue. Neymar just put on his poker face, replied, “I’m playing”, and took his seat at the table.
Another footballer who loves poker is Cristiano Ronaldo, currently at Manchester United. He’s also forged links with PokerStars. That company is never shy to ask a high-profile sportsman who just happens to love playing poker to help promote their product. They have to be of a good standard, though. It doesn’t look good if your ambassador doesn’t know whether a flush is better than a straight.
Ronaldo’s love for poker began when he played with his friends at home and his teammates, who soon discovered he was a bit of a handful. It wasn’t long before he realised that poker was a game that needed a great deal of attention paid if you’re to become good at it. Ronaldo is known for the effort he puts into his football training. The same level seems to be put into learning how to play poker.
He’s certainly been able to learn the game to a high level. One occasion, he took on Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul in an online charity poker event. Ronaldo won $200,000, and all of that went to help children’s charities.
He’s on record as saying that while football is his world, it’s poker that has always been “his game.” It’s the “competition, strategy and fun” that most appeals to Ronaldo.
It’s possible, therefore, that we might just get to see Neymar v Ronaldo on the poker table and a Champions League game. If they ended up playing for the same team, then it might be advisable for their teammates not to bet too heavily against them.
