Often in their free time, football players open online poker applications or sit down at the gaming tables in expensive tournaments or casinos. We have compiled the top star footballers who love playing poker.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano was spotted at the tables of the late Full Tilt Poker, where the Portuguese played PLO against poker stars and his friends Patrik Antonius and Daniel Cates. They say that Ronaldo was not much inferior to Antonius who earned over $5 million in poker during his career.
In May 2015, Ronaldo signed a contract with the world’s largest poker room – Pokerstars, where thousands of his fans will be able to fight against the Portuguese.
Ronaldo
The 2002 world champion the great Ronaldo is also a member of the Pokerstars team, but unlike his Portuguese counterpart, he has achievements at the poker tables. Brazilian is a regular player in the Latin American series and has been spotted at the EPT tables.
Neymar
Another face of the Pokerstars brand is Neymar. The Barcelona striker loves to play poker so much that he even called his dog poker, and among the endless selfies on Instagram. His last success was the victory at the WSOP qualifying tournament in the summer of 2016. It is also rumoured that the Brazilian player actively tries his luck on different casino Canada websites.
Gerard Piqué
Pique loves poker so much that he once asked not to be called up to the national team in Spain, citing a microtrauma in order to take part in a prestigious tournament. Piqué has been spotted at several WSOP and EPT events. So at one of the stages, Gerard Pique took 19th place in the high roller tournament – an expensive tournament where the opponents of the Barcelona defender were recognized poker masters Negreanu and Mercier. Piqué won €21,000.
Luis Suarez
In the spring of 2014, a couple of months before moving to Barcelona, the Uruguayan signed an expensive contract with 888 Poker, becoming its official. However, after the 2014 World Cup, where Suarez bit Giorgio Chiellini, 888 Poker terminated the contract with the player.
Gianluigi Buffon
Buffon has been playing online poker since 2009 when Pokerstars hosted a charity tournament at his home in Versilia. A year later, Pokerstars signed an advertising contract with Gigi, and Buffon began to popularize the company in Italy.
Francesco Totti
No Totti, no poker. The permanent captain and legend of Roma, unlike the above-mentioned characters, signed a contract with the Party Poker room. Totti plays cash games, tournaments, travels to the WPT and takes part in Italian poker shows.
Vasili Berezutsky
The best of the Berezutsky brothers met poker by chance. Vasily often plays poker on the Internet – probably Sit and Go. His best achievement was winning a 400-man tournament and winning $1,500 at a Las Vegas casino.
Andrey Shevchenko
“For me, poker is an intellectual game, not just a passion. To play poker well, you need to study many disciplines – psychology, tactics. I don’t think that success in poker rests on luck,” Shevchenko shares the secret of poker success. The ex-striker of Milan and Chelsea was also the face of Pokerstars at one time. Through the freerolls, users could get the opportunity to play with Andrey at the same table and tickets for the Milan match. By his own account, Shevchenko plays poker for fun but has been spotted playing in the prestigious EPT series.
Teddy Sheringham
Perhaps the most successful star player in poker. Teddy Sheringham started playing poker seriously in 2005, being a professional football player. In 2008, Sheringham won a small tournament in Las Vegas, and a year later came a really serious success – at the WSOOP 2009 in London in the World Championship Event, Teddy achieved 14th place, earning $67,000. In total, Sheringham has raised over £450,000 in poker tournaments.