Recently, the National Enquirer posted an article covering Michael Phelps’ new passion – poker. This story isn’t about a diet fad or new celebrity relationship, which seems to be this tabloid’s most common topics; instead, they’re covering the Olympic legend’s deep interest in poker. Apparently this interest has led to Phelps waging high amounts of money during poker games. Here is a peek at what the National Enquirer had to say:
“All Michael thinks about is gambling,” said a poker buddy of the star swimmer. “When he’s home in Maryland, Michael plays in a weekly card game where the buy-in is $25,000. Michael has wagered hundreds of thousands of dollars on poker already, and now that he’s retired from competitive swimming, everyone’s worried he’ll be betting millions more.”
As with a lot of tabloids, the sources are hardly reliable and gossip magazines don’t mind printing false claims. So you can take the “poker buddy’s” claims with a grain of salt. But since Phelps is most likely done with competitive swimming, it’s possible that he is putting his full focus on poker. A line in the Enquirer article addressed this with the following:
It’s obvious he is competitive, but by not swimming competitively anymore he will need to have something to focus his energy on. Poker is competitive enough, and he already confessed that he has some friends on the inside. Phelps admitted: “I love to play poker. I’ve been playing for a few years…I’ve met some of my best friends at a poker table.”
He’s used online poker to better his game, beginning with $1/$2 games and eventually working up to $100/$200 No-Limit Texas Hold’em games. Seeing Michael Phelps transition his success from swimming to poker would be exciting and may even create new interest in the game. As for the complete National Enquirer article, here’s the link.