Who knows what lies behind the mask: the strange case of Teddy Sherringham « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
by Tony Attwood
Who knows what lies behind the mask
What do players do when they retire? Apart from making idiots of themselves on the media, where can they go? What will Henry do when it is all over? Come to that what is Bergkamp doing apart from painting the walls of his houses in just a perfect shade of white…
It is not as if they can turn to another sport where age is less of a barrier. Even in an earlier world when cricketers played football, and vice versa, the ability to get it right in more than one sport was rare. We remember Andy Ducat from the Woolwich Arsenal days, and Dennis Compton too, but few others.
So here’s an oddity: players who have actually moved from football into card playing. And before you say Paul Merson, let me say that I am not thinking about people who get hooked on gambling (and we all know about Paul’s fight against his demons) but professional card players who make a living from the game.
Now from this point on this is going to be something of an unusual story – but stay with me, because it does have its moments.
Part one of the strangeness is that I am going to write about Teddy Sheringham – not the sort of topic that one might normally cover here (at least without a range of sarcastic overtones and general derisory whatnot), but it turns out the old fellow has an interesting second side to his personality. Part two of the strangeness is that this is about poker.
Sheringham, you will recall, played for Millwall, Nottingham Forest, some club I won’t mention from the dirty end of the Seven Sisters Road, and then another bunch up north who are currently having a spot of difficulty with their centre forward who doesn’t like them any more. Except maybe he does.
Anyway, he moved on, as players do, going back to the Tiny Totts, before playing for Portsmouth, West Ham and Colchester. He was notable for playing professionally into his forties. He also got an MBE.
And then came poker playing.
Sheringham, it seems, began his poker playing career much like many amateurs, playing either in games with coaches or in back room poker games. Apparently he also spent time looking up Texas Hold em poker websites for cash games online.
Reports suggest that over time he “honed his skills” (as they say) and started playing in live casinos and eventually some professional tournaments.
Now I picked up on this when Sheringham was featured on the Poker Million on Sky Sports in 2008. I am not a card playing or gambling man, but I was just bemused to see this guy to whom I had given my share of abuse over the years, actually transformed into something utterly different.
Apparently he finished 2nd in a charity event at the EPT Grand Final in 2009. Then he went on to the 2009 WSOP Europe and that, according to reports, is when he started to become a big time player.
The World Series of Poker Europe is an extension of the World Series of Poker held every summer in Las Vegas, NV. Professionals, and Ultimate Bet amateurs, from all over the world and Europe turn out for this event that awards the same gold bracelets as the events in Las Vegas.
Sherringham put up the £10,000 buy-in and took his shot at £801,603. All of the big names of poker were in this event that paid only 36 out of 334 players. Sheringham would eventually make the money of this event and finished 14th in the event, outlasting pros David “DevilFish” Ulliott, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. While Sheringham’s £40,481 was well short of the £801,603 top prize, it put the poker world on notice that he had game.
Sheringham has also proven to be a force on the European Poker Tour. So far, he has three EPT cashes, including a recent final table at the EPT Vilamoura. He finished 5th in the event and took home €93,121 in prize money.
And now the really extraordinary bit. Sheringham has a grand total of $259,272 in career tournament earnings as a professional poker player. He also ranks 181st on the England All-Time money list for poker. Quite an accomplishment for someone really just getting started in the game and who spent his time playing for clubs like Tottenham and Man U.
Teddy Sheringham has taken his game from the pitch to the felts of the poker world. Of course online Texas Hold’em poker site feature virtual felt, so you can say he went from he pitch to the computer screen online. While he may not compete in front of 100,000 screaming fans, he has begun to make his name in a sport that has taken the world by storm.
So what’s my point? Well, nothing much – except it just goes to show that watching a player on pitch never really gives a total insight into what the player is like underneath. Quite probably in the current Arsenal team we have a player who will go on to write a novel that will win the Booker Prize, and another who will play devote his retirement years to working for the homeless. Who knows?