Premier League footballers are linking high-stakes poker losses to poor performances on the pitch according to new research handed to the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Birmingham
I look around the poker table and peer deep inside their hearts.
They are all in trouble.
I know what they do for a living. I can tell by the reaction to their losses that they are playing with scared money. But most of all, I know it because I can feel it. I am it.
My local game started as £1/£1 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE). In the early days, you could lose £100-£200 per night. Over time, the game evolved, so we could keep tapping the vein. The game always remained £1/£1, but we started to play Dealers Choice (DC). The pots seemed to grow as each year passed. Wins and losses crept into four figures.
It no longer became about the game. It was all about the money. There was no fun; only stress. I became Walter Mitty. There was nobody home. My work suffered. My relationship suffered. I would dream of aces. I was suffocating in a sea of doubt.
So I’m not surprised to read that the British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference is about to be thrust underneath the sporting spotlight after Graeme Law, of the University of Chester, decided to choose Premier League footballers relationship with poker as part of his Ph.D.
If welders, gas fitters, and railway workers can no longer play for small stakes after been bitten by a much larger bug, then what happens to poker players paid an average salary of £44,000 per week?
It’s Affecting Performances
As part of his research, Law interviews players from all over the world, primarily focusing on the Premier League and the lower UK leagues. He learned that playing poker on the team bus and the hotels before and after the game have become a common way for players to deal with the boredom of living in a bubble.
Players confided confidentiality to Law that losses in those games, and playing in online games, had affected their performances on the pitch, and created rifts between teammates who took a dim view on their habit.
“I had a stinker. It’s all I thought about throughout the game,” one current Premier League player told Law about gambling losses.
In 2014, a survey of professional footballers and cricketers found that 6% of the 350 questioned fell into the realm of problem gambling.
The Martin Demichelis Mystery – Resolved!
If, like me, you were wondering why Manchester City centre-half, Martin Demichelis was so bad, we know have the answer.
In the lead up to his side’s 2-2 draw with Paris St Germain, in the Champions League quarterfinals yesterday, the Argentinean admitted 12 breaches of Football Association (FA) rules connected with betting on the outcome of football matches, between 22 and 28 January, something which is illegal under FA rules.
Demichelis’s admittance of error in no way suggests that he has a gambling problem, but there are a few bad eggs that have rolled out of the box in the past few years.
Former Newcastle and Cardiff City forward Michael Chopra once admitted losing an estimated £2m gambling on sports, with £30,000 losses a regularity on team bus rides to games. Former West Ham winger Matthew Etherington admitted losing his £120,000 monthly wage in a fortnight and ended up £1.5m in debt. Former Liverpool star Dietmar Hamann admitted losing £288,000 on a single cricket bet after becoming a gambling addict. The same happened to the former Chelsea star Eidur Gudjohnsen, who blamed boredom for wasting £400,000 in a five months timespan back in 2003.
The Modern Age
Many of the world’s top footballers have a connection with poker. Only the world number one footballer Lionel Messi stands above Barcelona, and Real Madrid stars Neymar Jr. And Cristiano Ronaldo in the higher echelons of power, and they are both sponsored by PokerStars.
Former Brazilian World Cup star Ronaldo also represents PokerStars. Former Brazilian star Denilson represents 888Poker, as did Luis Suarez before he turned into a cannibal.
Barcelona star Gerard Pique is a regular at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), as is Wolfsburg forward Max Kruse, who was fined by his club a few weeks ago after leaving £60,000 in poker winnings in the back of a cab. Kruse later admitted having an addiction to Nutella.
And our very own Sam Trickett has been a regular at games with the Man Utd stars, although, during an interview, he did admit that the stakes were small. West Brom captain Darren Fletcher, Sunderland stars Wes Brown and John O’Shea, and the former Man Utd stars the Da Silva twins featured in the game with the Global Poker League (GPL) London Royals wildcard pick.
