With Aaron Paul and Kevin Hart showing they are serious players, is a celebrity winning a major event the best hopes for a second poker boom?

Kevin Hart

It’s been an interesting week for poker as we have seen two genuine A-Listers playing for serious money at the PokerStars Championship. Aaron Paul made a good account of himself in the Main Event and comedian Kevin Hart played in the $100,000 Super High Roller.

The kneejerk reaction for all of us, especially poker writers looking to fill space, is to suggest that it would be really good for the game if one of these mega stars actually won a major event. There was once a time when an amateur winning the Main Event ignited a global poker boom but since then professionals and amateurs alike winning tournaments is not exactly news. So we all collectively pin our hopes on somebody with an existing level of fame to open the door to new excited amateurs hoping to emulate their hero.

So would a celebrity winning a major poker tournament create enough attention for poker to ignite a mini poker boom?

Everyone is a celebrity

Jennifer Tilly

Of course 'celebrity' is a very subjective term, especially in poker. Rick Salomon and Dan Bilzerian are arguably famous for some less than desirable reasons. Vicky Coren-Mitchell and Jennifer Tilly are famous outside of poker but we largely consider them poker players first and foremost. We largely think the same about certain sports people like Boris Becker, Shane Warne and Teddy Sheringham.

There have already been a great deal of notable poker wins from big celebrities already and none of them really ignited the poker world. The aforementioned Jennifer Tilly has won both a bracelet and a WPT Invitational event. In the UK Teddy Sheringham, Tony Cascarino, Audley Harrison and several famous snooker players have had big results too. Ben Affleck won a $10,000 buy-in event for $356,400 which is arguably both the most notable win and the most famous player, yet it didn’t do a great deal (though to be fair that was in 2004 when the game was booming anyway).

Likewise it is possible that Tobey Maguire is the biggest winning poker player ever if the book Molly’s Game is to be believed. However, the reason that didn’t attract much attention was probably because he was quite keen to stay under the radar.

A-Listers at the top of their game

Aaron Paul

Where things may be a tad different with the current crop of celebrity poker players is that they are all arguably A-Listers currently at the top of their game. No offence to some of the other celebrities mentioned but poker does tend to attract athletes when they retire and entertainers when they have time on their hands.

Kevin Hart is currently the highest paid comedian in the world. Aaron Paul co-starred relatively recently in the most critically acclaimed drama in TV history. Neymar Jnr and Cristiano Ronaldo are both considered two of the current best footballers in the world. Not only could one of these guys winning a big event attract a ton of attention but it also sends a good message that A-Listers with the world at their feet choose to spend their free time playing this game we love.

I am skeptical that a big win by an A-Lister could do anything long term for the game other than possibly sanitise it a bit in the eyes of people who look down their noses at poker. Poker is already somewhat in the zeitgeist these days so it doesn’t have that underground surprising element that Rounders showed us. We are also so positively inundated with news and celebrity gossip these days that a celebrity poker win would only command a small amount of mainstream press time. Sadly the game would get more attention if a celebrity was caught misbehaving at the poker table, rather than excelling.

Maybe the best we can hope for with celebrities playing poker is that we can sell it as a game where you could be sat next to anyone, whether that is Phil Ivey, a plumber or Cristiano Ronaldo.

Would a major celebrity like Kevin Hart or Neymar winning a tournament spark a mini poker boom? Let us know in the comments: