Neymar Secrets Exposed: 'Friend' Tells All

A friend of the soccer phenom and poker pro Neymar tells the Sunday Express this week, Neymar is so into poker these days that he uses all of his downtime to play the game.

Brazilian poker pro Andre Akkari was recently befriended by Neymar in an effort to hone his own poker skills.

"He plays on Saturday for PSG, on Sunday he plays poker tournaments online," Akkari exclusively told Express Sport.

"I believe it's good for him. He can stay in his house with his family and still play.
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"He's getting better, he's good. He's probably in the top level of non-professional players. He's improving a lot, he's asking questions every day to get better at poker.

"We discuss hands and strategies but he's a soccer player - he's not a professional poker player. Although I think it helps a lot in the way you make decisions. We talk a lot about that.

"In poker you are looking for the optimum decision every hand, every minute, every second. I don't play soccer but I talk to him about it - and he talks about the micro decision-making aspect of that.

"Sometimes he forgets about micro decisions and poker is about that."