Under the Gun: Gilbert Arenas Was an All-Star in the NBA, But a Fish in High-Stakes Poker
Gilbert Arenas earned roughly $119.1 million in a long and colorful career in the National Basketball Association (NBA), playing for the Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic.
He was also a very controversial player, to say the least. He was suspended by NBA Commissioner David Stern in 2010 because of a locker room incident that involved a card game and bringing guns to the arena.
So it should not come as a surprise that Arenas is a high-stakes poker player himself. Recently, he bought-in for $10,000 to participate in the Main Event of the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), one of the most prestigious and expensive poker tournaments today.
NBA players in poker are not rare occurrence as the likes of Paul Pierce, Jordan Farmar and Shawn Marion have taken their shot at poker glory, joining the World Series of Poker (WSOP) events in recent years.
And it looks like none of them have been successful at the poker felt so far.
The three-time NBA All-Star, who averaged 20.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game in his 11-year NBA career, busted out every early in the PCA tournament after being sent to the rail just three levels into the tournament or just roughly four hours of play.
Arenas faced the prospect of being eliminated when he went all-in with just jack-queen versus another player’s pair of queens. This came after a mis-call when he put in the wrong chips that forced him to raise, according to PokerNews Live Reporting page.
Unfortunately for Arenas, that would be his bust-out and final hand of the tournament.
Curiously, it was the player who busted out Arenas, Dylan Hortin that came out as chip leader after the first day of the main event. The Arenas-killer led all players with 160,500 in chips after Day 1A, which draw about 300 players.
Roughly 200 survived and advanced to the next round-- that’s silver lining for Arenas is that he joins around 100 others who are either a fish—or just unlucky—in poker.