New spin on high-stakes poker, by Clinton Van Der Berg - Business Times - 7th September 2008
Cricket and boxing bad boys Warne and Fenech trade knockout blows across the table
You could never mistake Shane Warne for a fighter.
Tanned, blond and handsome, the cricket pin-up says he wouldn’t have the guts to take a punch anyway.
That he would leave to his mate Jeff Fenech, the hell-raising three-time world champion who would, in turn, never be mistaken for a male model. He has a nose only a boxer’s mum could love and the coarse texture of his face is testament to a life spent eating leather.
You wouldn’t expect them to have much in common, but the two share a reputation for being among the bad boys of Australian sport. Controversy could be Warne’s middle name given his shenanigans over the years.
Fenech’s had his share of nonsense too: he’s been stabbed, shot at and is known to handle himself in bar fights. It’s a habit he shares with good mate Mike Tyson.
Now there’s another bond that connects Warne and Fenech: poker.
It’s an ironic choice for Warne given how he likens the card game to cricket. “You’ve gotta be patient, disciplined ... it’s all about position, how much you bet, how you read people.”
As Freudian slips go, it’s a clanger, but there’s no mistaking Warne’s passion for the game. He was in South Africa this week for the Sun City Million Dollar Poker Tournament — and not just for celebrity value.
He contested the World Series in Las Vegas earlier this year, ending 726th out of 7000 starters.
“I did okay,” he says. “After two 14-hour days, I lasted seven hours into day three, so it was 35 hours at the table. I was really happy.”
Fenech, 44, plays a first-rate hand too. Days before his comeback fight against Azumah Nelson earlier this year, he was up until 4.30am, winning a major poker tournament in Melbourne.
“I needed some sleep for the fight, but I kept doubling up, so it went on until I won. I called people the whole day to tell them. It was more exciting than any fight. I knocked out a lot of guys (in the poker). If that hadn’t happened, I would have used my left hook.”
Warne and Fenech are now in that unfamiliar place all sportsmen occupy: the transitional phase between sport and life largely beyond it. Warne, 39, has quit international cricket, but is clearly energised by the Indian Premier League (his team, the Rajasthan Royals, won the inaugural title), various business interests, his charity foundation and poker.
No more “fat boy” headlines for him either: he’s been exercising for months and, at 87kg, is the picture of good health.
Fenech trains fighters in his own gym and is heavily involved in charity work. He’s obviously enjoying poker, which is as far removed from the blood and guts of the ring as possible. It’s a long way from his days as a rabble-rouser.
“I try and ensure I’m an everyday guy,” says the former three-time world champion who fought with the fury and power of a mini-Tyson.
“But in the late ’80s, early ’90s, I didn’t like myself much. I had too much success, things got to my head. I got a bit carried away, but I quickly changed that. Although I’ve done some great things in boxing, I never thought I was better than anyone else.
“The real heroes are the mums and dads who look after handicapped kids. That’s why I help with the Special Olympics.”
Warne reckons he’s been lucky. He’s pleased how he retired from international cricket — “to walk off with Glenn McGrath was a real honour” — and he can pick and choose how to occupy himself. He has multiple business interests, but it’s poker he can’t get enough of.
He talks animatedly of his approach, with much the same enthusiasm he brought to his leg-spin art. “You’ve just gotta hang in there and maximise when you get a good hand,” says Warne, who was once fined for sending an SMS in the middle of a poker game. “It’s no use having the best hand and everyone folds all the time. You’ve got to find a way to make it work. Also, the beauty of poker is that anyone can play — they can be chairmen, CEOs or car salesmen. The mixture is good fun.”
And the pressure? Warne eats it for breakfast. “A lot of people don’t want the ball to come to them in cricket. I was very lucky: I wanted the ball. That’s in my nature. If there was one run to win, one wicket to get, I wanted the ball in my hand. I’m an aggressive cricketer and I’m an aggressive poker player.”
The other appeal is travel. As the captain of 888.com’s world team, he gets to visit new places and is seldom away from home for more than a week, a welcome change from three month-long cricket tours.
Warne loves the revolution cricket finds itself in, saying the popularity of Twenty20 cricket fits perfectly with our “super-fast culture”. He just wishes the ICC would get its head around IPL cricket and embrace it rather than fight it.
For all that, Warne says international cricket, more particularly Test cricket, must have primacy. “If you ask any top player, what they want is to be regarded as a top Test player. It’s the ultimate test of discipline, fitness, skills, technique and stamina.”
Warne loved his time as captain-coach of the Rajasthan Royals. He took a famously relaxed attitude to the role. Armed with a beer or a cold drink, players typically gathered around the hotel pool to discuss how to construct an over, how to work a batsman or how to read a scenario.
Warne sticks to his belief that coaches are overrated at international level. “Don’t need ’em,” he says. “At that level, it’s all about attitude and the way you think. All that happens in international cricket is your attitude changes. It’s nothing to do with technique. You have b ad days, you have good days — that’s sport. Hopefully if you’ve prepared right and have the right attitude, you’re gonna be okay.”
He’s looking forward to the year-end cricket series between Australia and SA. “I think Australia will do well in the one-day stuff, but the Tests will be very interesting, very exciting.”
If cricket seems in robust health, Fenech paints a dreary picture of boxing. “It’s on the way out,” he says. “It’s all about mixed martial arts in the US. Until someone in boxing makes competitive fights from day one, boxing’s gonna go backwards.”
He cites the example of the upcoming “superfight” between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao, the most exciting fighter in the sport.
“Oscar’s best weight was at light-middle and Manny’s best is featherweight, and they say Manny has a great chance to win. Come on! And they’re paying these guys 20-30-million.
“The last big fight was Oscar against Floyd Mayweather — and neither of them had a mark on their face afterwards. The other day, Australian Billy Dib was carrying on like a fool after beating your guy (Zolani Marali). I felt ashamed for the Aussie — he lost every round. He’s an embarrassment to the sport. Decisions like that turn people off the sport.”
He says he would have loved to fight Brian Mitchell. “I respect him, he was a great fighter. .. but none of them wanted to fight Azumah the way I did.”
Pointing to Warne, he says the reason they’re mates is because “we’re both winners.”
“You reckon?” asks Warne.
“You betcha,” laughs the fighter.
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