When talking about wrestling most people probably associate this sport with WWE, blood, anger, and injuries. Even if we know that WWE is scripted, wrestling can indeed look dangerous. Most of the wrestlers dedicate their whole lives to the sport, leaving them little space for risks. This is why some of the wrestlers are often associated with casinos.
Years and years of training, multiple hours at gyms and arenas, and all to improve their performance. Regardless of the fact that these professionals are focused on their goals, they are still human. They too need some occasional relaxation, side hobby, or simply an activity that will help them unwind. There are tons of wrestlers out there who visit casinos and love the glitz and glamour that comes with it. Poker, blackjack, slots or craps, you name it – every casino game will find its secret celebrity admirer.
John Cena
Initially popular as one of the greatest WWE wrestlers, John Cena is invested more in his acting career nowadays. Some people might know him from his roles of Peacemaker in the Suicide Squad, but also the Peacemaker TV series aired on HBO. However, John Cena has had some interesting hobbies in his past, one of them is playing poker. During his active years in WWE, Cena was known as an avid Texas Hold’em player. Moreover, John Cena admitted that he got hooked on playing one of the greatest casino games ever – poker. During his interview with Bluff Magazine, Cena admitted that he was lured into playing by watching the World Series of Poker on TV.
As a matter of fact, the interview occurred in 2006 when online gambling and online poker sites you can now find at https://casinosters.com/3-pounds-minimum-deposit-casinos/ became popular. Some call this period a golden era of Texas Hold’em poker, while it was also the start of the online gambling frenzy. Poker, as well as, blackjack, slots, craps and other casino games become available to amateur players or anyone who wants to try their luck. In addition, the whole online gambling trend was fueled by Chris Moneymaker’s winning of the Main Event at WSOP. Chris Moneymaker was a poker-playing amateur who also got the WSOP gold bracelet in 2003.
Dana White
If you love and follow UFC, you probably know who Dana Frederick White Jr is. Apart from being the president of the UFC, White is also a casino enthusiast and a quite successful player for that matter. Dana loves playing one game in particular – blackjack, and his stakes are known to go way up. With big stakes, luck and knowledge come big money. And when talking about Dana White’s wagers, he is known to place bets as high as $25000. While this might sound like an insanely big amount of money, this is probably nothing for a businessman of his calibre.
The fun part of this story is not over. Dana White was actually popular as being a very good blackjack player. In order to be a great online blackjack player you don’t need to “trick” the video game, you definitely need to be good at math, know all the catches and be a great strategist. As a matter of fact, Palm Casino where White played occasionally had to ban him from playing blackjack. First, they started by creating special rules for Dana then, they had to ban him from playing fame. The main reason for this was big winnings – some of them went as high as $5 million. Thus, it is no wonder that the president of the UFC had a “special” treatment in that venue.
APA Hosting a Poker Game
The Acolytes Protection Agency (APA) led by John Charles Layfield better known as Bradshaw and Ronald Simmons is known as Faarooq was a professional wrestling tag team. The team wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation for seven years from 1998 and March 2004. In essence, the idea started with the duo initially known as The Acolytes wanting to be a part of the Ministry of Darkness – a professional wrestling stable in the WWF, which was led by The Undertaker.
The duo first split in 2002 and had multiple attempts at reuniting. Bradshaw dedicated his career to hardcore wrestling and the team split for good in 2004. However, a fun game of poker got them together one more time, in a non-competing environment along with other Hall of Famers. On January 22, 2018, when online casinos were already immensely popular, the Acolytes Protection Agency appeared during WWE Raw 25 Years event. The APA hosted a poker game backstage during the event, together with Jeff Hardy, The Usos, and Ted DiBiase, and many others.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeremy Raynolds is the Content Lead of the site and he is also the author behind some of the blogs you can find at the site’s blog section. He has been writing since high school, and he also uses all of his free time for creating casino-related content. Jeremy loves writing about eSports, casino games as well as sportsbook betting.
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