Bruno Mars the Cardplayer

(Photo: Twitter.com)

He may be the multi-millionaire singing sensation noted for his ‘Just The Way You Are’ and ‘Uptown Funk’ hits, but the Grammy-award winning songster claimed that he supported himself by playing cards in the LA area before his musical career took off!

(Photo: Tumblr.com)

The 31-year old Hawaiian made the surprising admission during his ‘Carpool Karaoke’ session with ‘The Late, Late Show’ host James Corden as they roamed the streets of LA while belting out some of Mars’ best-known hits.

In-between songs, Corden quizzed Mars on his card skills, asking:

"Is it true that when you first moved to LA you paid your rent by playing cards?”

“For a little while, yeah!” answered Mars, although he didn’t go into any details, the pairs conversation turning into a humorous exchange about ‘poker faces’.

“Give me your best poker-face,” starts Corden, “give me the face that says…”

“I got it?” asks Mars.

“No, you haven’t got it, but give me the face that says you have,” demands Corden.

What follows is hardly worthy of a place in Mike Caro’s famous ‘Book of Tells’, but it is an amusing minute or two for poker fans.

Naturally, if Mars had really been a card-shark or ‘semi-pro’ for any length of time (i.e. more than a night or two!) the chances are we’d all have heard about it before now. However according to ‘Banks2334’ over on the 2+2 forum Mars did indeed play poker.

"I used to play with him at Hollywood Park before he got famous,’ claims Banks, adding: ’He would often come in on a Friday or Saturday night after playing a gig. He was a decent enough laggy player, but I doubt he actually made any sort of living from it. Even back then he had a certain charisma and I'm not surprised that he is famous."

Not everyone thought he was any good at the game, however, ‘BartHanson’ claiming:

"I played with him a handful of times in 2009 at Commerce $5-$10. He was the type of guy that you would "rush" to get a table change for. I also remember him usually losing a single $500 bullet and leaving. There was no way he was playing for profit."

(Photo: Twitter.com)

So perhaps someone, somewhere out there remembers facing a youthful soon-to-be megastar of the pop world across the felt and managed to snap a pic of him at the tables? Over to you guys!