Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Riddick Bowe Wins Poker MTT

Riddick Bowe is the latest sport star to turn his attention to playing poker. The former heavyweight boxing champion of the world is becoming a regular in the online poker world.

It is a couple of months since Bowe tweeted about an issue he had with PokerStars. Nobody thought it was actually the Riddick Bowe at the time, but it turns out it was.

He’s more accustomed to knocking out opponents in the ring but Bowe seems to have decent poker skills too. The 53-year-old was one of 675-players who bought into the WSOPC Series: $300 Sunday Triple Chance. Those entrants created a $188,325 prize pool that the top 107 finishers shared.

Some of the world’s best poker tournaments players bought in alongside Bowe. Plenty of those reached the money places and saw a return on their $300 investment.

Pablo Silva, Rui Ferreira, Samuel Vousden, and Niklas Astedt finished in-the-money. Bryan Paris, Bert Stevens, Pascal Hartmann, and Caio Pessagno did too.

Bowe Guaranteed $2,500, Sets Sights on $32.5K

Each of the nine finalists locked up a few cents more than $2,500. Gabriel “gtavares10” Tavares got his hands on this sum when he busted in ninth place. Austria’s Chris Puetz joined Tavares on the rail with the $3,446 eighth-place prize.

Seventh-place and $4,748 went to Omar “nviDiablo” Gonzalez before “bobbele” crashed out and banked $6,543. Croatian grinder “macaulyk” was the fifth-place finisher. Their exit secured a five-figure prize for Bowe and the three other surviving players.

$12,425 made its way to Toni “AnsuFati31” Bosch’s account when he ran out of steam in fourth. The exit of “goodgave” resulted in a $17,122 payout for the Brazilian and sent the tournament heads-up.

Bowe and Norway’s “jochee” locked horns one-on-one for the lion’s share of the prize pool. It was Bowe who claimed them, knocking out his final opponents to get his hands on $32,512. The Norwegian runner-up walked away with a $23,593 consolation prize.

WSOPC Series: $300 Sunday Triple Chance Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Riddick Bowe	Canada	$32,512
2	jochee	Norway	$23,593
3	goodgave	Brazil	$17,122
4	Toni “AnsuFati31” Bosch	Moldova	$12,425
5	macaulyk	Croatia	$9,017
6	bobbele	Austria	$6,543
7	Omar “nviDiablo” Gonzalez	Mexico	$4,748
8	Chris Puetz	Austria	$3,446
9	Gabriel “gtavares10” Tavares	Brazil	$2,500

Bowe also put a deep run together in a $2,500 buy-in tournament. He finished 10th, bursting the final table bubble, in the WSOPC High Rollers Blade Prime. That result padded Bowe’s bankroll by an additional $7,650.

Two Time Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World

Bowe won 43 of his 45 professional fights, 33 of those coming the way of knockout. The only defeat Bowe suffered was against Evander Holyfield. The loss cost Bowe his WBA and IBF heavyweight titles.

He was the first boxer in any division to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO titles during his career.

Ring Magazine named Bowe the 19th best heavyweight of all time. They called him a super talent and a super waste, saying he could have been a true great if it wasn’t for his laziness and ill-discipline.

He’s not the first sport star to try their luck at the poker tables. PokerStars sponsored soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr. for a while. Tennis legend Rafael Nadal is partial to a game of cards too.

Golf’s Sergio Garcia played several times at the now-defunct PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

It isn’t only Bowe and his fellow sportsmen who love playing poker. Hollywood A-listers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play regularly. As do the likes of Tobey Maguire and Kevin Pollak. Even partypoker have a movie star on their book, a certain Kevin Hart.

It remains to be seen if Bowe will enjoy more success but there’s no reason why not on this showing at least.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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