Something that hasn’t been reported nearly as much as it should be, is the involvement of professional athletes in the poker world during their down times. Poker is one of the most popular hobbies for people throughout the world, and especially in places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and multiple other cities with casinos. While a lot of athletes keep the fact that they play under wraps, Michael Phelps’ love for poker has come out more than once.
While Phelps has been spotted multiple times out playing and partying with the big names in poker out in Vegas, he really has no reason to hide his enjoyment of playing poker as a hobbie. A few years back he was spotted playing on Thanksgiving, while also being connected with poker legend Doyle Brunson. An even bigger story though was back in 2009 when he was spotted partying with Phil Ivey. Ivey is one of the biggest names in poker, and I’m sure Phelps could only hope that Ivey was giving him some poker tips.
Michael Phelps has also been connected to playing on the Merge Network. In a post on the two plus two forum, it was said that there may be a connection between Mer Brit and the Phelps family. On Mer’s twitter account, she is only following 32 people; and three of them are Michael Phelps, his sister Hilary, and Michael’s girlfriend Nicole Johnson. Of course this is all speculation, but there has been some contact between Michael’s sister and Mer on twitter. On the other side though, Phelps is only following 60 people, and one of them is Mer Brit.
It seems that Michael Phelps doesn’t care about hiding the fact that he has a general interest in poker, but it leaves the question of how many other athletes play poker? Of course there are quite a few who you can run into in a casino out in Vegas, especially retired players in the NFL, and NBA. So next time you’re out in Vegas, or Atlantic City, or even Tunica or Biloxi; keep an eye out for a professional athlete or two. I know I’ve seen a few in my time playing out in the casinos.