Poker Enthusiast and Cricket Legend Shane Warne Dead at 52

A cricket genius, Shane Warne was to his sport what Lionel Messi is to football or Rafael Nadal is to tennis. Like both those sportsmen, he not only reinvented the game in ways that others would spend a career avoiding having to even attempt, but he redefined the sport he has become an immortal part of.

Shane Warne was a right-handed leg-spinning bowler who could pitch a ball so wide of the mark as to leave the batter confident of leaving it before the ball pitched back like a boomerang and clipped a stump with a display of impudence. Not only did he bowl the so-called ‘ball of the century’, but he repeated the trick on an insanely regular basis. When he didn’t he had convinced the batter that he would and straight-skittled them instead. Warne inspired generations of young cricketers to attempt skills that only he had mastered.

This weekend, Shane Warne died suddenly of a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Thailand. The world rightly mourns a cricket legend. But the loss of Shane Warne is also one felt by the world of poker, within which ‘Warney’ had a special place.

A Love of Light Entertainment

Shane Warne’s poker life began while he was still a professional cricket player, with games between colleagues for fun. His first cash in a ranking tournament, however, came in 2010 by which point Warne was in the twilight of his cricket carer at Rajasthan Royals, with his final Aussie ODI appearance five years in the past.

Warne took to poker with a natural flair for entertainment, a carry-over from his ability on the cricket pitch. At the felt he was chatty, engaging and fun. He lived his life in the headlines, occupying plenty of front pages to go with the back pages he hogged during a career of success, but it all seemed to melt away when he had cards in his hand. As the cricket writer Andrew Miller shared on ESPN, Warne’s ability to grind through hard graft wasn’t limited to the cricket pitch, however. He would put in the hours at the felt and ran all the way to 597^th in the WSOP Main Event in his time.

Warne cashed for $161,325 in ranking tournaments in his lifetime, a comparative drop in the ocean of what his talent probably deserved in poker terms. Despite representing 888poker and others during his years playing the game, Warne’s winnings were not at the stage where he could be spoken about as a major celebrity poker player. Part of the problem in attaining this was the sheer entertainment that he provided. He loved to entertain so much that he admitted he could overplay hands or be exuberant when passive was more profitable.

What Could Warne Have Achieved in Poker?

It is easy to speculate that any sportsperson who passes so young could well have enjoyed success later in life at the game of poker. They will, after all, likely have a lot longer to spend at the felt after the majority of their work in their chosen sport is completed. Sadly for everyone, this never turned out to be the case with Shane Warne.

Warne never had the time to put the major volume in that poker demanded in order to become one of the best. I’d seen him at the felt after events, cutting a frustrated figure, and it was obvious that he wished his skill was able to go through the gears quicker. He was a man who in every sense lived like he was in a hurry, a tragically true epitaph to his life in general. This applied to Warne’s poker game, where he made waves, entertained fans and players alike. He saw everyone as the audience, even his rivals. He wanted everyone to be in on the humor of any situation and at times, it cost him. True to himself as ever, he refused to care beyond the moment.

I once saw Shane Warne playing in a £5,000 invitational in London at the Rotunda, near the London Eye. Invited into the game as a freeroll, he was in his element at the felt, but such was the structure, he was one of 100 players who busted in two hours. It was designed to welcome celebrities with a champagne reception and a game of poker. Winning it was something that only a couple of dozen fortunate players had a chance of doing and most were on their way a few hours after arriving and having their pictures taken and interviews on camera fulfilled.

As soon as the opportunity for him to win had passed, Warne was on his way out of the building. If the poker party wasn’t going to include him, then he was vocally looking for another one. Other celebrities – including Teddy Sheringham – were already recruited, and a gang rolled out of the door in search of the next room that would bow to Warne’s illuminating personality, the Aussie leading from the front like he had done on a cricket square.

The Poker World Pays Tribute

“He loved the game, and the feeling was mutual.”

Poker will miss Shane Warne, who was playing the game only a few days before his death and enjoyed a live cash in late January in his native Australia. Were Warne to have arrived at this summer’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas at Bally’s and Paris, it would have been no surprise. He loved a party and Las Vegas in the summer is a great one of those.

British poker legend Barny Boatman paid tribute to Warne’s impact on poker history and mourned a legend on the pitch and felt.

Tony G told Twitter that ‘It was only a few days ago that we had a conversation about having a poker game soon.’ Knowing he was still interested in playing will only sadden poker fans even more.

Shane Warne’s legacy is that of an entertaining figure who loved life with an innocence that beguiled cricket fans, sports fans in general and, of course, poker fans. Everybody who met him felt the buzz that followed him. The young man who became an overnight superstar of his sport found the spotlight landing on him when he bowled Mike Gatting and quickly realized that to embrace the spotlight was his best choice. He did that, and how.

His last tweet was a tribute to another Australian cricket legend, Rod Marsh, who passed within the same 24 hour period that Warne tragically lost his own life. That his words echoed so many about him such a short time later was bizarrely even more tragic. He was entertaining to his very last public words.

In the days before his death, Warne spoke of getting fit, hoping that he’d be ‘shredded’ again. At 52, his time at the poker felt was possibly only just beginning, and it is clear that he saw it as a part of his future. Warne was denied a lot of time at the felt due to his other commitments and we as poker fans have been denied time with him due to his tragic early death.

What might have been is a question it seems churlish to ask; Warne would never have wanted anyone to live in maybes. He created enough memories to bask in the glow of talent whenever we choose to, on and off the felt.

The game of poker should dim its lights, if only because the world is that bit duller for Shane Warne’s passing.