Teddy Sheringham is one of the most successful soccer players of the last half a century. His professional career lasted twenty-four years, making him one of the game’s survivors. His quality as a player earned him an MBE, presented to him by Prince Charles for services to soccer on the 20th of November 2007.

He is also father to Charlie Sheringham, who has had a successful league and non-league career, and now plays for AFC Wimbledon as a striker. Teddy too played mainly as a second striker, first for Millwall between 1983 and 1991, before moving on to Tottenham Hotspur and then Manchester United – it was whilst playing for MU that he was named PFA Player of the Year in 20001.

He retired in 2007/08, at the age of 4, spending his time improving his poker game. He is now a frequent on the world poker scene, and has racked up over $300,000 in live tournament winnings, including two World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes. He also has a final table finish at a leg of the European Poker Tour under his belt, which netted him a cool €93,000.

Two final table appearances in the Palm Beach Big Game and a final table finish at The Ritz Club mean that he is no rookie – he has been playing seriously for the last six years, but has been playing poker throughout his adult life.

He learned to play poker in dens, hotels and on coaches, and says that he really learned to play poker by losing money. He has a tendency, like a lot of new players, to go for big hands and pairs, to be flash and cool. Now he says “it’s more about trying to figure out what other people have got, using real skill, and whether they’re bluffing. You have to think ahead.”

Luckily, since bwin started up, you don’t need to lose money to learn to play poker well. For beginners, Texas hold’em is usually considered the best starting point, you can find all the details here: poker.bwin.be/nl/texas-holdem.

You can practice hands and enter freeroll tournaments with bwin without spending anything at all – and according to most pros out there, the new guys who learn online are the best players out there. Start with free tournaments, learn the ropes, and then build up to cash games with the free bwin poker school.

I couldn’t help but switch over from ESPN3 and ESPN2 to ESPN1 … and wow, what a game. I’m curious to see how TV numbers compare for what is essentially the FIFA Ladies Event vs. those for the November Nine.

Anyhow, check out Adidas’s new ad campaign on display around the rails at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany — targeting fans of international women’s soccer with phrasing that may or may not have been grifted from poker:

“adidas is all in”

BTW, go USA still, but really, seriously, gg Japan.

UPDATE: Apparently the “adidas is all in” campaign launched back in March. Click here to see the multimillion-dollar YouTube commercials wrapped around a distinctly poker phrase … as interpreted by the world of sports.

If you are one of the couple-hundred+ people playing for swag in the Wicked Chops FC World Cup bracket … the real competition is just starting to take shape as the first few groups move to the knockout stage. (Go USA!).

Click here to check up on where you stand, click here to see Wicked Chops teaching us the power of WAGs, and click here to check in on Soccerati … which kinda sorta might need someone out there to design us a T-shirt.

The BIG event of the summer is about to get underway. No, not the Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8-or-Better World Championship … we’re talking about the World Cup. I’ll just betcha a few poker players are kinda into soccer, or football, or fútbol … whatever you wanna call it (just please not “footie”).

With South Africa 2010 just days away — our sister-site Soccerati has partnered with our poker allies at Wicked Chops for some World Cup bracketology. Together we’ve got “awesome” prizes in store for the winners. What exactly they’ll be … well, just play along, and we’ll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it. (Hint: I still have a few red and yellow cut cards left, which theoretically could work for soccer, too.)

Here’s how you can join in the fun while showing your Euro-friends that, believe it or not, you know your Totti from your Eto’o, and really are a bit more than just an American wanker:

First select which two teams will advance out of each the eight groups. The order you select them – 1st or 2nd – determines where they are placed in the 16-team bracket. Then predict the winner of the 15 bracket matches throughout the Finals. All picks lock with the first kickoff on Friday, June 11, 2010. Good luck!

Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/bpredictor/en-us/group?groupID=19078

Group: Wicked Chops FC
Password: wickedchops

A little excitement at WPT Bucharest this weekend, when controversial soccer agent Giovani Becali got kicked out of the tournament … Hmm, throwing chips and threats of blows … seems like a little Phil Hellmuth + (old) Hevad Khan + Bobby Knight with maybe a dash of European football violence thrown in.

Kinda funny to see the new-and-improved, PartyPokerfied Tony G becoming an etiquette ambassador instructing poker bad-boys on how to behave at the tables.

Meanwhile, as WPT-Bucharest continues … the WPT is hyping a pretty competitive field for a relatively small (161 players, €3,000+300) new WPT event:

More…

That’s about all we know, but who knew, and glad to know … the US Men’s National Team striker has been recovering from injuries suffered in a major car accident. To help his healing, he’s been playing some $5/$10 no-limit hold’em at Bellagio.

It’s starting to occur to us that a lot of poker players out there might have a keen interest to bet some international football gamesin the coming months. Bear with us, and we’ll see if we don’t know anyone who can help that cause.

ALT HED: Phil Ivey, the Ronaldinho of Poker?

Meanwhile, Nick Geber, formerly the multimedia guru at Bluff and a Sirius Radio soccer analyst, is back in public action … just in time for the World Cup — over at The Ref’s a Wanker.

Funny … as Brazil accelerates efforts to ban online poker+gambling, Argentina is going completely the other way — looking to legally regulate it. And in a hurry, no less …

From Dow Jones via NASDAQ:

The Argentine government is working on plans to allow online gambling throughout the country, presidential Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez said Wednesday.

“We’re working so that this will become law within two or three months,” Fernandez said, adding that it could take notably longer and possibly up to two years.

Fernandez said the main aim behind the project is to combat illicit gambling that’s already occurring.

Wow, just a year ago Argentina was looking to ban online gambling — looking to force ISPs to block citizen access, threatening jail time for offenders, and shutting down a site run out of Buenos Aires ( FormoApuestas.com.ar ). So why the change of heart? Common sense, and money of course. But supposedly also soccer.

In what was a controversial Argentinean political issue this year, the government basically ran a hostile takeover of soccer broadcast rights from private cable operators (to the tune of $154 million) in an effort to bail out the AFA (their version of the NFL), which had several major clubs owing tons of back taxes and unable to pay their players. Though the government will neither confirm nor deny the connection, conventional wisdom south of the equator says that online gambling is what will bring in the revenue to pay for that.

Last November, Argentinean futbol got a taste of what the sites they want to regulate could bring to the table, when PokerStars (dot-net variety) — as part of its aggressive move into Latin America — signed on as a (very warmly received) sponsor for River Plate (pictured above).

… for USA vs. Mexico!

It’s 1-1 in the second half. Great game, from Estadia Azteca, where the Americans have never one. Supposedly Pauly put some big money against the Americans when we were bigger favorites. Click here for info on watching the game live online (en Espanol). And here for info on real television viewing. And, of course, @Soccerati @Pokerati has some micro-coverage, too. We will be back to regular programming shortly.

You should be taking this same brief pause from poker, too. It’s good for you.

We’re always doing a little technical clean-up around these parts — especially around this time of year, you know, when there’s not much to write/read about. Anyhow, in making some repairs recently, we I broke our RSS feed. Now we Scott and Ed have fixed it, but you may need to resubscribe if your Pokerati posts have not been showing up as regularly as usual in the RSS reader of your choice.

It’s a pretty fancy URL you need to click to make things right in the poker blogoverse once again:

https://pokerati.com/feed/

If that doesn’t work, try this: https://pokerati.com/feed/rss2

(I admittedly don’t understand the difference, but also get the same results when I click either, so …)

And if you like soccer and/or Sangyfarha, click this: http://soccerati.com/feed/

Semi-related to poker … was working on a post over at Soccerati (our baby brother site), about how an online gambling op (188Bet.com) has come in to buy up the jersey space on two English Premier League teams. It just seems kinda funny to me — considering that the NFL is so anti-online gambling, and the EPL is so pro. Soccer in general seems to have totally embraced the online gambling biz. Such a clear distinction between American football and European football.

In fact … check this out … you have very major teams across the pond (and a few minor ones) that have direct links and betting pages on their official sites. The Spurs, for example, are supposedly working with their sponsor Mansion to develop a Tottenham skin, and already host weekly freerolls for game tickets.

The people making money off Peyton Manning jerseys hate online poker; meanwhile the other kind of football teams proudly support it — or are being supported by it.

Now you know I’m not much of a boycotter — really, I generally think they’re stupid and ineffective — but it does occur to irk me how much “free advertising” poker players give NFL teams by wearing their jerseys. Considering that American football gives nothing back to poker, and in fact subtracts from it … maybe it might be time for poker players to hang up their lucky Tony Romo jerseys, ya know? Just sayin’ … all it takes is watching a little soccer to realize how wearing any NFL promotion at the WSOP wouldn’t be too different from wearing a Bill Frist or Jim Leach campaign button un-ironically.

It’s becoming less and less of a secret that I get excited about most things soccer-y … and since moving to Nevada from Texas I really miss Mexicans. (We have Latinos here in Las Vegas, but the food, the music, the lawn care … not the same.) So you can imagine I was quite delighted to see PokerStars getting in bed with Mexican Futbol’s Primera Division.

This development actually probably has more to do with recent WPT World Championship-casher Boris Becker and “sports” in general than it does poker-and-soccer specifically, but still … here’s a sample of the ads they’re running on Mexican TV, this one featuring CD Chivas’ Luis Michel:

More at 2+2.

Ack … I hate that I wrote a hedline that sounds like something out of a PokerStars press release, but not sure how else it could turn out when Italian soccer star Christian Vieri announced his intention to play in the upcoming EPT Championship at Monte Carlo.

The deeper he goes, the better I gotta think it is for (European) poker.

Thanks, Craig, for the link!

I don’t think this has much to do with poker directly, but I’m trying to pimp a new blog indirectly it does because ESPN suddenly finds itself with a little extra programming cash on hand — not to mention some extra air time — having lost the rights to broadcast the Champions League in the US to Fox Soccer Channel.

Perhaps Fox got the funds to outbid ESPN from all those Season 7 World Poker Tour/Full Tilt infomercials they’ve been running? And what do you think the odds are that this could mean raises for Norman Chad and Lon McEachern more poker on TV?

Keep Floppin’ Aces, on RoundersRadio. Lou Krieger’s guest will be none other than my own podcast co-homie, Dr. P. He tells me:

Our topics will be the WSOP final table and November Nine in Las Vegas and if we have time, we’ll chat about my experiences in London and Budapest.

There’s also a call in number if you want to ask any questions…. 810-496-3428.

Usually I don’t listen to these things live — I generally let Shamus direct me to the best episodes and download the podcast. But I happen to be in front of the computer right now, and the Chicago-Columbus MLS Cup playoff game is plenty exciting with just the video, little sound. (Currently 1-0 Chicago in the 40th minute; great uniform match-up, too — bright red vs. bright yellow.)

If you are seeing this after the fact, you’ll be able to find the full episode for your podcast pleasure here a couple days from now.

UPDATE: Chicago 1 – 2 Columbus in stoppage time. Great game — so many beautiful shots and tackles — but doh!

Soccer is more dramatic/difficult/painful (to watch) than poker. Sigh.