blonde poker forum

A lot of poker players seem to come from high sporting pedigrees in the past, despite poker players being labelled fat slobs who sit at home staring at the screen for hours on end.

I'd be interested to hear about peoples past involvement in competetive sport and how they got into poker...

Fire away

:)

Does competative eating count?

That'll be me then...........

I was in my school hockey, netball, rounders, football, athletics (hurdles, high jump and shot put) and swimming teams  :)up

Interesting point. I used to play all sorts of sport (cricket, football, athletics, hockey, tennis etc) but when I damaged both my cruciates in an 18 month period, I stopped. I still occasionally play cricket and BB6 will be the first time I set foot on a football pitch in 3 years (which I'm sure my team are gonna love to see!) but poker was something recreational to do cos I couldnt play sport.

used to play every sport going, damaged my knee, stopped playing sport, started playing poker more, became a little fatty.

I'm still fairly active and still play sport.  I think there are all sorts in poker.  I'm sure Patrick Antonius is more active than Todd Brunson (that's just a hunch, not based on any direct evidence).

Without wishing to hijack Sundays thread how many poker players were gamblers before they found poker but dont bet as much now they have found it?

 ;indestructable;

before i became ironside

i ran, played football, basketball, hockey, golf, boxed a little, played 1 game of rugby (never again), badmington

after i became  ironside i played basketball and tried my hands at badmington and tennis

after i broke my neck i gave up sport


before i found poker i had a telephone betting account with my local bookmakers
since i found poker i havent touched it last thing i remember doing was putting £100 in it wonder if its still there

I had to give up serious rugby at the age of 21..I dislocated a shoulder and tore a rotator cuff..out for the season. First game back lacerated a kidney, out for 2 months. Second game back, did the same shoulder. Specialist advised me to give up. Still have trouble with the shoulder and the screws that went in to pin it

Now twenty years later I expect advances in technology and physio would mean I'd have carried on

Didn't discover poker til 2004, in between played a lot of cricket (a stodgy opening bat), put on a lot of weight and wished ever since I'd been able to carry on with the rugby. Also bet a fair bit. Much much less now, just as well

Back in those amateur days I'd played for Notts Lincs and Derbys U21 and been on the bench for the full team, at a time when the county game was the main stepping stone to serrious representative teams

Played most sports till a double fracture of my leg. Then took up pool more seriously, no money in that so switched to poker.
A lot of business people seem to well in the game also

 ;indestructable;

I don't bet at all now, apart from a little dabble in something if I'm watching it on the TV.

As a teenager I played quite a bit of football and cricket at local club level, pretty mediocre at both but good enough to get a run out every week. Then i discovered alcohol and decided to concentrate on that.

As for gambling I dabbled abit in Sports betting at uni badly. Then i discovered Arbritrage betting and later casino whoring, enjoyed that more as winning all the time is fun. Through this found online poker at some point in early 04 the rest is history.

poker saved me really. bet for fun but i don't bet anything really significant to me anymore.

I was never a gambler,apart from an annual trip to goodwood where i would go for it big time,then i moved house and became a regular at my local pub which has a sporadic 7 card stud game for reasonable stakes(£3-5 hundred swings).It fascinated me,the characters and banter,so i jumped in with both feet,did my b******* for the first few months but after a while i could really hold my own and eventually became a regular wiinner,then i discovered LNP on ch4 and just loved it.Got myself a computer and "thats all she wrote"

I pretty much fit into this category.

I never gambled before Poker. I think Poker is different as you have more control over your luck. I have also never been tempted to gamble since playing Poker (apart from the occasional trip to the dogs where I gamble/spend £10 or less). 

Before poker I cycled and did X country running.  I had a bad crash and needed a couple of operations on my back so cycling was over.  I still run a bit just for fun and occasionally go a short ride for an hour or so when my back is healthy.   As a Kid I was overly competitive and found competition in everything, even stupid things like eating a bowl of pasta. Fortunately I had competitive friends who also liked competing at things.  I love poker and approach it will 100% desire to win, unfortunately I am crap and my competitive spirit does not make up for lack of talent.  One day though this will be different ( hopefully ). I am putting in a few hours after work each night and slowly getting better. 

Interesting the sports being mentioned. Sounds like some nasty injuries aswell!

i managed to score 10 points on trampolining on the wii the other day.  :D

I also did well on the long jump on the wii, which reminded me of my long jump when I was young. My ambition which I sadly did not realise was to do a jump which reached the sand.  :'(

yeah, I was just thinking that, sounds like we are all much safer now sitting indoors piling on the pounds.

To answer both questions, before poker I was Paul Merson.

lol

I played football/badminton/rugby/etc etc, athletics, all at school and some outside too... I'd like to say i got injured, but its just a case of being lazy that i dont do any anymore..

I used to fence pretty much full time. I'm hugely competitive.

After playing football at school & college I had a period of a couple of years climbing & mountaineering. I was living & working in Snowdonia at the time, & just got hooked on the adrenalin. I was never particularly good, but the experience of meeting so many fascinating & eccentric people who were involved in the sport was great.
Returning to London to work meant I lost interest in climbing. Started swimming to keep fit, but that's become less & less over the years.

Got anything good, I'm looking for a TV.  :dontask:

 ;tightend;

Used to play Football & Tennis. Now cba with football, its too much effort, but play tennis for my club and captained the Mens Teams last year.

Never did anything else though, hate Rugby, Cricket & others.

As far as the other Q goes, i gambled big time before i played Poker, and still gamble big time now. Think its an interesting one tho, as Ace2m said its helped him etc...

I used to play football from when i was like 5 till about 18-19, was a pretty decent player, had trials and was in academys and played for the county teams. I could still play were i to get fit again, but id rather just play poker.

Poker was my downfall. Always used to play tennis with Horneris and other mates. We'll still probably still have the odd game in summer, but it used to be football then other things for me. Now its poker first.

All started from LeKnave and inviting us to one of his poker nights, and it just carried on from there. I gamble a little bit, but only for fun on footy, horses or tennis mainly.

Always enjoed football and played at a reasonable standard in London - still play cricket despite my advancing years, in the Herts league, free flowing, fast scoring No. 4 (slogger).

At schoolboy level, though I preferred football, cricket and Rugby I represented Wilts & Dorset (top  counties ;) at Basketball.

Used to gamble a fair bit but since 2004, when I first picked up an online poker hand, I could count the number of bets on one hand

I used to swim and play cricket at fairly competitive level, this all went down the pan once I went off to university though. Have always played football for fun, im pretty pants but always enjoy a game and still do.

Gmabling wise, I started doing football acc's when I was about 16 but never anything too serious. I then got into horses and thouroughly enjoy a day at the races, more for social pruposes then gambling though. When I was at uni in leeds I had a job in the william hill call centre but that curbed my gambling on horses and other stuff just through some of the stuff I saw. Working late on saturday nights you would get the same people phoning again and again to bet on anything going, american racing, virutal racing etc.. When you see ppl literally max credit cards or empty bank accounts in front of your eyes it makes you think. For example, joe blogs calls up and wants a 50 quid bet on a horse, sorry sir that transaction has been declined, erm ok try 46 quid please, thats gone through, thank you for calling william hill......

I used to play golf quite a lot and go all over the shop playing,  then i just stopped playing comps when i managed to find poker. 

if i played pretty reg i could be a decent player again, and i could probs win a tonne off sledge and horneris doing so.  ;carlocitrone; come to think of it maybe il go back to it.

I played footy from age 5-17 every week.

^^^^^^^^^^^
dillusional fatty imo.

I played football with various teams from Under 8's to under 16's - at under 15 I got a trial with Coventry City - 2 weeks before that was due to take place I done my cruciate and anterior knee ligaments that stopped me playing for 8 months.  Put on a few pounds gradually turning to a few stones. 

I also used to compete at weightlifting having been Britains Strongest schoolboy I won Scottish and British titles at Under 16, 18, 21 and 23 - when I done my knee the first time s topped playing football but when I regained fitness I continued with the weightlifting uptil the age of 21 I done my ligaments again attempting to break a long standing Scottish record. 

Lol at Rich and Knave, you make it sound like your 55 or something and cant play any sports anymore cause the doc said so!

Im 35 and still play football every monday and golf and tennis every week...wake up you future fatsos!!!!!! (well more fat than you are now...oops  ;nana;)

Lol, i worked at Will Hill Call Centre in Leeds from July-October last year, until i realised it was too depressing. But yeah, its still exactly the same with people trying to use their last pound. While working there, i used to bet a little bit more than usual. Which isnt much, but it was just to keep me occupied with something to rail whilst being bored out of my head listening to the same people go on and on. Towards the end i stopped though as you see what happens to people and it puts you off, plus id rather us the $$ to play poker.

lol Sledge, its not that. But now if i had a choice between Poker and some sport, it would be poker. Whereas until i started to play poker, id do anything for a game of footy or tennis.

erm. Who won the monies last time & only time we've played?!?!!?!?!?!?!!

Horneris' penis needs to make a BB6 appearance imo after all the hype in Luton..

 rotflmfao rotflmfao

Maybe he was 'doing an Ivey'?

Holes for rollz.

Are we still talking about Horneris' penis?

^^^^^^^^^^^
dillusional fatty imo.

...the new John Daly??

lol shhhhhhhhhh. keep it quiet.


no shots next time then.  + tht was 2 on 2 imo.  HU holes4rollz?

Why would i play you with no shots, your one of the best players in yorkshire and im terrible.

Handicaps are there for a reason.

I came to poker late after motor racing and golf. I raced 125cc karts in the late 80s and then did Formula Renault in 1991 where I raced alongside Jason Plato and current Mclaren F1 reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa.

I say raced 'alongside them' cos I never got anywhere near them...lol

It was all good fun until a friend died in front of me at Oulton Park and I subsequently ran out of money.

So, as you do, I took up golf and have only recently packed it in. I can hit every shot in the book apart from the 330 yard tee shot and I just got so frustrated that someone like me is just not allowed to compete because the powers that be have allowed golf to be totally dominated by power rather than skill. Bastards.

So now I like poker because ANYONE can play it and it tests so many facets of your character.

The money situation however is remarkably similar to golf and motor racing - i.e. the more money you have behind you the easier it is. Boo hoo..

I think it's interesting that a lot of us played sport before poker and it shows how you really have to be of a competitive ilk to be good at it.

But do I think poker is a sport?

No way!

It's an immensely challenging game, requiring intelligence, discipline, character, honesty, guile and cunning. But it's not a sport in the true sense.

Would I rather win the WSOP or the Open golf championship? The golf, which is why I think poker can't really be a sport in my eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I love it and wished I'd found it sooner, but I think we'd all rather have succeeded at our chosen sports - or does anyone disagree??