David Haye missed out on the chance to fight in Las Vegas – but dreams of adding a poker bracelet to his boxing belts.
The former cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion took up the card game last year with considerable success.
Twelve months after his first lesson, he finished 40th of more than 9,000 players in the Goliath tournament last summer.
And while success in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker remains a pipe dream, there were shoots of success on the Hayemaker’s last visit to Sin City.
“Every time I’ve been to Vegas I’ve played,” he told Mirror Sport . “I went when I was over for Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder and I won my first tournament in the MGM Grand.
“I went straight from the airport to the casino and went to the first poker table to reacclimatise and I won.
“It wasn’t a professional game, it was just a random poker tournament, but it’s nice to know I’m not just a random guy who plays poker now and that I know what I’m doing.
“I only won a couple of thousand dollars but it was the thought of going into a tournament not knowing who was playing or the level and coming first; it was a million miles away from when I was struggling to learn the rules.”
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Haye was the undisputed cruiserweight champion before moving up to heavyweight and defeating seven-foot giant Nikolai Valuev to win one of sport’s greatest prizes.
And having never defended the belt on the famous Strip, he added: “The final table at the World Series is as big as it gets in the world of competition poker so you never know, I might have one of those bracelets to add to my belt collection.”
David vs Goliath is available on Amazon Prime from Friday, April 17
