Brazilian Football Legend Ronaldo in Barcelona For EPT Main Event

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Press Release
Published on:
Sep/02/2013
Brazilian Football Legend Ronaldo in Barcelona For EPT Main Event

Brazilian football legend Ronaldo was in Barcelona today to take part in an invitational poker tournament as part of Spain’s biggest annual poker festival, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT).

Ronaldo, who recently joined PokerStars as a brand ambassador, sat down to play in the €5k ‘Phenomenon Table’ freeroll (Mesa de "el Fenómeno") against Spanish online winners Jose Luis Saez from Madrid, Vicente Delgado from Malaga and Manuel Correas from Cordoba. Also taking part were Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Leo Margets, Andre Akkari, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and 2010 world champion Jonathan Duhamel. Selbst won the event and will be donating her €5,000 prize to charity.

The man known simply as ‘Ronaldo’ is widely considered one of football’s all-time greats, earning numerous awards during his 19-year professional career. He joins an impressive group of sports stars who have become Team PokerStars representatives including Spanish tennis superstar Rafa Nadal, Dutch Olympic hockey player Fatima Moreira de Melo and Olympic gold medal winning Swedish skier Marcus Hellner. Highly competitive by nature, these players are passionate about the challenges and excitement that poker offers them.

“I always look to give my best in everything, in football and in life. Poker is another challenge that excites me,” said Ronaldo. “For me, there are a lot of similarities between football and poker – it takes a lot of mental discipline, practice and training.”

After the “Phenomenon Table”, Ronaldo competed in a second tournament – the €2K No Limit turbo - but bust before the money.

Almost 3,000 players from around the world have headed to the Catalan capital this week to take part in the 11-day Barcelona Poker Festival, competing for more than €14 million in prize money. Earlier this week, the Estrellas Main Event attracted a record-breaking field of 1,798 players, making it the largest €1,000 event ever to take place outside of Las Vegas. The festival marks the start of the Season 10 of the European Poker Tour.

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