A new chapter was added to the ongoing saga of what Michael Phelps will eventually do with regards to his possible future in the game of poker (see one of my previous posts on this here). Earlier this week Phelps played in the Caesars Poker Classic and managed to do quite well in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. He took 9th place in the tournament and also earned $5,213 for his solid finish.
Phelps’ day wasn’t quite done after the 9th place finish since he also took part in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tourney too. Things didn’t go quite as well for him here though since he busted out early on in the tournament. However, after taking his $1,500 and $1,000 buy-ins against the $5,213 he made, that’s a $2,713 profit which is better than most poker players fare with the game.
Obviously the $2,713 is just a drop in the bucket for Michael Phelps since he earns at least $5 million in endorsements every year (probably way more now after his record-breaking Olympic performance), but it shows that he does have some game. And people are eagerly anticipating what Phelps will do next since a ton of excitement was generated when he made an appearance at the WPT Festa al Lago with Phil Hellmuth. Many were hoping to see him in action but Phelps was there more as a spectator than anything else.
He probably won’t be able to fully immerse himself in the poker world for another four years since he’s going to be training for swimming off and on until the next Olympics. But Phelps did indicate that he plans to retire after 2012 at the age of 27. Once he is retired, then it’s probably more conceivable that we will be seeing the 14-time Olympic gold medal winner in more poker events.