The swimmer who stunned the world by setting a new record with his eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing made a statement in one of his post-amazing-feat interviews. Michael Phelps told the Baltimore Sun, \”I think it would be cool to play in the World Series of Poker. My game is a little off right now, so I\’ll have to start improving it a little bit. But I think that would be cool, and it would be cool to meet some of those poker guys.\”
Oh yeah?
Within days, Poker Shrink reported that Phelps was officially invited to play in the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Championship. And shortly thereafter, it was the Asian Poker Tour, which is gearing up for its Macau stop scheduled for this week. A representative from the APT wrote an open letter to Phelps, which was posted on 4Flush, with sentences like, \”Some have said you are a \’human dolphin\’ but we\’re keen to know if history\’s greatest swimmer is really a fish. You may have feet that can reach angles others cannot to give you the ultimate swimming technique but just you wait until you\’ve got sharks like Vegas poker legend Doyle Brunson chasing you. We\’ll see how fast you really are then when they smell blood – get some flippers on those size 14\’s!\” (Really? Fish and shark references? *Sigh.*)
Most likely, offers from Visa are taking precedence over poker tournaments for Phelps, but it will be interesting to see if he takes anyone up on their offers. My money would be on the NBC Heads-Up Championship, but I imagine the guy just wants to go home and have a beer right about now. If he accepts an offer to play in a poker tournament, it would be absolutely huge for the game…
