It is not unusual for sportspeople to have a second career at poker. Lots of people pick it up after, or even during, their first calling. Tobey MacGuire is a prominent example of this trend, though he is an actor. However, that is not to say that soccer players, or footballers as the rest of the world calls them, cannot also be among this number – for a good reason. Especially in Canada, where the gambling laws are pretty lax, live poker is a significant draw. You can find tables in every major casino across the country. With the promise of new online casinos Canada is one of the most popular destinations for professional poker players to come and play games.
So, why footballers? Well, it’s only the most popular sport in the whole world, and the English Premier League is the most popular of the European National Leagues out there. Everton, which plays in that league, is a rather famous club. Some potential talents on that team, both current and former, have it in them to make great poker players.
Whether you’re a fan of the club, the sport, or just good old poker, there is a lot to take away from this article penned by our resident expert Kevin N. Cochran. Find out who stands a chance at the table among Everton’s numbers and who you should be keeping an eye on.
Thomas Gravesen
This is someone who needs a little introduction. Not because of his football career, though he was very successful there also, but for what he did afterwards. Thomas Gravesen was one of the driving forces that led to Everton taking fourth place in the 2004-05 season of the EPL. The club was just making a comeback under David Moyes, and he proved to be the lynchpin.
However, post-retirement, Gravesen took all his money and moved to Las Vegas, where he began to play poker successfully. In fact, he did so well that he lived among the likes of Nicolas Cage and Andre Agassi. To say that he has done well for himself is putting it mildly. Eight years he has spent being a high-roller at Vegas, and that has opened the door for more.
Wayne Rooney
If Gravesen needed little introduction, then Rooney is a household name. He was an unmatched talent for Manchester United and later Everton, able to change the tides of a match with the effort he put into a game. As a result, he won thirteen titles for United, which is no mean feat. However, he has also had a history of gambling addiction which almost ruined him financially.
Now that he is retired from professional football, Wayne Rooney shows great promise as a potential poker player. He dabbled in gambling before, but he is an older and wiser head now. He now knows how to best pay for online gambling. Plus, he was known for playing every position in a pinch. Who knows, maybe he’ll be just as quick to pick up poker in a professional capacity.
Michael Keane
The young centre-back shows a lot of promise, both for his professional football career as well as a potential poker player. Being the foundation of defence, he is a player who has to read others, predict what they are going to do, and then react accordingly. These are skills that transfer directly to poker.
Should he decide to go into poker, the young Michael Keane will make for a great reader of faces, and he will get more than just a few split seconds with which to react to it and make up his mind. Time is a weapon in poker, and the more you can have of it, the better your chances will be of getting a read and learning the tells of everyone else at the table.
Séamus Coleman
It takes a certain kind of will to be the captain for both Everton and the national team of the Republic of Ireland. Nerves of steel, the capacity to make tough decisions, a cool head, the ability to manage and gain insights into groups of people and formulate plans that lead to victory. Strategic and tactical, in other words.
Now, all of these things come into play for any poker player worth their salt. If we were betting, then the dear captain would be at the top of the listing for potential success in the realm of pro poker.
Conclusion
Soccer players have all the tools necessary to become the best poker players. There are lots of skills that carry over from one sport to another, and hopefully, you now know which players will stand the best chance at the table.
