NBA star Paul Pierce has had an illustrious career spanning 19 years thus far, where he has represented a host of top NBA teams. Now the Small Forward finds himself playing in the nation’s capital for the Washington Wizards in what could be his last year in professional basketball.
During his well-publicized career, Pierce managed to bag a Championship with his star-studded Boston Celtics team in 2008 that also featured his partner in crime Kevin Garnett, among other stars. From there he joined the newly formed Brooklyn Nets for a single season before making the switch to the Wizards this summer.
Although Pierce has had quite a busy last 24 months with a series of trades, it hasn’t stopped him pursuing one of his other passions, poker. Pierce has been a fan of the card game for many years and has been a regular in non-competitive games for the best part of 10 years. The majority of his play revolved around mixing it with teammates on planes to away matches and in the online poker rooms that many have utilized to help them become better players.
Once the first portal was launched in the late 90s through InterCasino many sports professionals used this as an avenue to hone their skills with an eye on transitioning into the sport upon their retirement. You only have to look at the likes of ex-Tennis great Boris Becker and soccer star Teddy Sheringham to see how well ex-professional athletes have done in the realm of elite poker.
Maybe it’s the willingness to win that helps ex-professionals blend in at the tables of the world’s biggest tournaments. Pierce certainly held his own at this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event where he made a “remarkable run” according to ESPN. He finished in approximately 800th place out of a total of over 6,000 players. And he nearly made it to Day 4 of the event, but was unlucky when he was finally eliminated after playing more than 28 hours of poker.
If Pierce’s performance at this year’s event proved anything, it was that he has what it takes to hang with poker’s best. And he has already said that he’s going to participate in next year’s main event in Las Vegas. With the curtain coming to a close on Pierce’s basketball career, don’t be too surprised if he transitions across to poker on a full-time level upon retirement.
