Has Shane Warne Asserted Himself as a Premier Poker Player?

The WSOP Asia Pacific Main Event has come to an end, with Scott Davies capturing the bracelet and the first place of AU$850,136.

One footnote of the event was the participation of Shane Warne, who was knocked out of the event in 22nd place out of 329 participants.

For those who don’t live in cricket-loving countries or who just aren’t cricket fans, Shane Warne was an Australian professional cricketer in the 1990s and 2000s who is widely viewed as one of the best bowlers to ever grace the game.

He’s perhaps the cricket equivalent of Zinedine Zidane or Ronaldo, and he had (and continues to have) the fame associated with being such a player.

Warne remains a highly famous face in Australian society despite being retired from the top levels of cricket for seven years.

Case in point, Warne was recently featured in a number of popular advertisements for online betting company Sportingbet. In those ads, Warne was put in highly frightening, but humorous situations like being a target for paintball shooters, going a round with a professional female kickboxer and being confronted by a spider (Warne apparently has a fear of spiders).

Another thing that has also been known about Warne is his love of poker. He was previously sponsored by 888 poker and has participated in poker events in London and the United Kingdom.

While the 45-year-old has proven to be a skilled player on the felt, the main reason for his focus in poker has been due to his stellar cricketing career.

However, that may change from this week.

That’s because of Warne’s 22nd place finish in the WSOP APAC Main Event, a truly solid performance given the high level of competitiveness in the tournament.

He may have only walked away with AU$23,441, but that does not fully represent what he achieved.

This was an event that featured such poker superstars as Frank Kassela, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Tony Hachem, Nam Le, Phil Hellmuth and Antonio Esfandiari. Out of all those players, Kassela was the only one who Warne did not outlast in the Main Event.

In fact, Warne had looked like he was on track to make it to the final table throughout Day 3 of the Main Event. For most of the day, Warne’s chip stack hovered between the seventh and ninth largest of all the remaining players.

He was stopped by its then-chip leader, Victor Teng, when his Ace Queen was able to beat Warne’s Ace King after another Queen came out on the flop.

It was a sudden and unlucky exit from the event for Warne, and while he didn’t make it to the final table, his play at the Main Event shows that he is well and truly a shark at the poker table.

His play on the felt may never match his play on the cricket pitch, but that is a complement to his cricket skills and not a knock on his poker abilities.

Warne will forever be known as one of the top cricket players of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, his stellar play at the WSOP Asia Pacific Main Event has shown that he should no longer be seen as a celebrity poker player.