We’ve long been seeing the confluence of poker and soccer. But some of the football people just don’t quite get it yet … the whole gentleman’s game component. Outbursts are not uncommon in poker — but there’s an understanding, whatever you do, don’t mess with the chips … and if you’re gonna come to blows take it away from the table so you don’t slow down the action as authorities come to arrest you.

Check out what happened this weekend at the World Poker Tour’s stop in Bucharest. Football agent Giovani Becali was playing, but supposedly got frustrated at another player hogging the masseuse, and somewhere along the way lost it — throwing chips in the air and cocking his arm as an invitation for the altercation to come to blows:

This was the biggest poker tournament in the history of Romania — so having a brash Romanian sports agent playing seemed a great fit. But after seeing the video of Becali’s spitting in a sportscaster’s face, I can only imagine what it might be like doing a bust-out interview with him.

Earlier this year, Becali got into it with Fiorentina management over his public courting of Man City for his client Adrian Mutu.

Tags: Adrian Mutu, Fiorentina, football agents, Giovani Becali, manchester city, poker, Romania

The US striker had a major car accident in October, but he’s up and about these days, and says he should be ready to suit up for the South Africa squad.

He was seen recently playing $5/$10 no-limit hold’em at Bellagio in Las Vegas. No report on how well he wielded his stack.

[via BluffMagazine.com]

Tags: bellagio, Charlie Davies, Las Vegas, poker, USA Men's National Team

They’re down to 20 players left in the main event of WSOP-Europe — a £10,000 no-limit hold’em tournament that drew 334 runners — and retired Man U striker Teddy Sheringham is currently sixth in chips.

He’s already in the money, but should he make the final table, then he’s in some real dough.

Click here to follow the action.

1st prize is more than £800,000 … or US$1.3 million.

Tags: Manchester United, poker, Teddy Sheringham, WSOP

You mean EPL? No, I mean EPT … the European Poker Tour. Apparently Inter’s Christian Vieri has got the Texas Hold’em bug … and plans to play in the EPT’s Championship at Monte Carlo. That’s the big-boy across the pond, and you can only imagine the sharks are happy to add some Serie-A money to the prize pool. At the same time, every so often a world-class competitor on another field surprises the poker-peeps and shows he can play.

Anyhow, Go Poker, Go Soccer, and Go Christian Vieri.

You can pretty much rest assured, with Poker Stars, at a minimum he’ll get a nifty sponsorship deal out of it.

Thanks, Craig, for the link!

Tags: Christian Vieri, European Poker Tour, Inter Milan, poker, Serie A, sponsorship deals

The soccer world apparently knows a thing or two about inking deals for its players … and Poker Royalty, the Vegas-based card player agency, just opened up a London office, being run by FIFA-licensed Jim Erwood.

Tags: agents, FIFA, Jim Erwood, poker, Poker Royalty

There’s some interesting discussion going on about rule enforcement over at our baby-sister site … in which they are discussing the (theoretical, for now) possibility of using red and yellow cards in poker … and comparisons of tournament directors to soccer referees.

Tags: poker, red card, referee decisions, yellow card