To be honest, poker can surprise us in so many different ways. Did you know, for example, that a player who started with Magic: The Gathering collectible cards has managed to amass a respectable amount playing the game online and popping off for the occasional offline tournament? Yes, poker is intriguing, crazy, and slightly unexpected. So, what to make of Antonio Esfandiari and Kevin Hart who are set to box?
Esfandiari and Hart Exchange Punches
Yes, Antonio Esfandiari and Kevin Hart have decided that poker is a game and if one wants to be taken seriously, a boxing match is next on the menu. We can see how this is rather flabbergasting to begin with. But it’s also mighty amusing. Besides, Hart and Esfandiari are hardly the first pair to have decided to pursue their rivalry off the felt.
This is not an ordinary skirmish, though. Both Esfandiari and Hart are good friends, so having them exchange punches will be most amusing. They are expecting to meet in March, playing off a bet whether, or rather – who, can beat the other in a boxing match.
Esfandiari is not too optimistic about what may happen on the ring though. He has said that Hart is not only a poker player, but an athlete who spends a lot of time working on himself. This is quite understandable, too. But the long odds of Esfandiari may yet be improved if he decides to focus on improving his legwork in the time between now and March.
No Money on the Table?
Nobody knows exactly how much the pair or betting or if they are betting at all. However, their combined winnings easily soar past several dozen millions, which makes it quite easy to expect that they have bet each other in a big way.
Looking at the players as athletes, they are both 39, but Hart is in a much better shape, having been going to the gym regularly whereas Esfandiari has opted for the quiet life and improving his poker. Even then, Kevin Hart is also known as a player who can turn a bad hand into a devastating defeat for the enemy.
And even if Hart spends more time working out, he’s still as good a poker pro as Esfandiari himself, which makes him a well-rounded athlete in the fullest sense of the word. Looking for a competitive edge over him will definitely not be an easy thing.
A Similar Move with Upswing Poker
Doug Polk and Fernando Habegger have also had a beef over whether Habegger had been stealing customers from Polk’s Upswing Poker website. A quick refresher may be needed. Upswing Poker is a poker academy online, property of Polk.
Habegger was briefly part of the team, but after Polk had allegedly discovered that Habegger had been syphoning off users to his own platform, Polk had to let him go. Ever since the incident, Habegger has cranking up the social media dialogue, even challenging Polk to a boxing match, which he has now turned down, as he is otherwise occupied.
