PokerStars announce plans to hold another Jonathan Ross Charity Special Event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo and Rafael Nadal says he turned to poker to help him through his seven-month layoff.
PokerStars continue to push their marketing campaign towards the elite of the sports and entertainment world with the announcement of the Jonathan Ross Live Charity Event scheduled to take place at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo on May 10th.
It will be the second time that PokerStars have held this unique event, and they even stump up the first prize of £105,000 that the winner donates to a charitable cause of his or her own liking. The first event was held in the winter of 2012 and it involved the comedians John Bishop and Jason Manford, former tennis star Boris Becker, PokerStars Team Pro Victoria Coren and an online qualifier called Adam Mohamed.
A few crackers to come out of the mouth of funny man Ross included:
“I have been playing successfully for many years under the name of Ace Johnny,” and, “Hey Boris when did you stop being Ginger? What happened?”
Victoria Coren took the title after defeating the online qualifier in heads-up action, whilst Ross was the first man out of the door. It seems likely that Liv Boeree will replace Coren at the table in Monte Carlo and the line-up for the rest of the celebrities has yet to be revealed.
Rafael Nadal Took Refuge in Poker and Golf
Another celebrity with ties to PokerStars is the Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal. The pair agreed a deal back in June 2012 just weeks after Nadal had secured his 11th Grand Slam title with victory at Roland Garros; Nadal joining fellow PokerStars Team SportStars Boris Becker, Fatima Moreira De Melo and Marcus Hellner (just weeks ago the former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo also joined that list).
Nadal was then beset by injuries that saw him miss seven months of his playing career. He returned to a place he loves when he competed in the recent Monte Carlo Masters, a location Nadal had remained unbeaten for eight years. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be nine as he lost in the final to the Serbian Novak Djokic 6-2, 7-6.
So how did Nadal keep focused during his layoff from the game? By playing plenty of golf and plenty of poker.
“Those were the only two things in which I could really compete over those months, golf and poker. I’m a competitive person, I like sports, and through all that time I could not practice movement sports,” Nadal told the DPA at the current Monte Carlo Masters.
“I learnt to play poker. I did not understand the game, and now I understand it I see it’s fun, competitive. You need to have self-control, to measure times in which you can attack or defend,” he said.
