Tennis star to try professional poker

[omahilo]

no he wasnt that good... I think he made a few final tables and MAYBE I mean MAYBE won a tourney but thats about it.

[drewjax]

actually was asking if VVP was any good as a tennis player, although I highly doubt it. Also, how good of a poker player was/is Mike Sexton?

[omahilo]

oh lol my bad. Not sure how good VVP was as a tennis player.

[jimmytheg]

supposedly, VVP was a monster in the hollywood home games to the creators of the WPT used to play in. I know that sounds cheesy, but i read an interview (cant remember where) with two of the guys that were really involved with getting the WPT off the ground....and they talked about how Vince was a huge winner in the home game circles that they played in.

Think about, where did this guy come from? He had to have been playing somewhere, and had some kind of rep, to get asked to be involved with the Wpt. It's not like Vince Van Patton was a well known, big-draw celebrity who would bring in the viewers to the show.

he also finished 16th in the Plaza championship over the summer, the tournament that Negreanu won and was televised on Fox. That field only consisted of 70 odd players...but they were all pro's.

That being said, I hate VVP with a passion and find him to be horribly unfunny....almost as bad as Norman Chad, who's never won a dime in his life at cards yet feels comfortable criticizing the play of professionals

[nutbag]

Well I always had a dream to play against Kaf., and now i'll be able too. And have a chance to beat him.

[Defendant]

I remember watching him play tennis, man this guy was good at like 18...then it got real quiet around him...

I really hope he plays as exciting poker as he did tennis.

Defendant

[GeoffM]

That's how it always is in tennis, good when your young and then slowly deteriorate, unless your name is Agassi.

I am a little surprised Ben Affleck hasn't won anything major aside from the California State championships. I'd think that with his celebrity status he would intimidate a lot of players. Kafelnikov will be well known and it would be interesting to see if he can use this to his advantage.

[eddo31]

if you have seen any of the old broadcasts of the wsop (espn classic has been showing them at midnight), you will notice that the announcer is dick van patten, vinces father. i would have to assume that it was his fathers involvement as an announcer for earlier poker events that got his foot in the door. it definitely isnt his insightful commentary.

sexton is apparently a very good player. he seems to do well in the events that he enters, but of course he is limited to non wpt events, which clearly limits his earning potential. he has been around for a while, and seems to be very respected by other pros.