Richard Seymour doesn’t just play poker. The former New England Patriots defensive lineman actually is pretty good at it, most recently evident by him finishing 131st (out of 8,569 players) and winning $59,295 at the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas.
“My temperament fits poker well,” Seymour, who spent eight seasons with the Patriots and four with the Oakland Raiders, told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday. “I’m naturally kind of reserved, I’m not super emotional one way or another, so if bad things happen, which they’re going to in poker, it’s about how do you respond?”
Seymour first became familiar with poker as a child, when his father, Richard Sr., would play video poker at a store in South Carolina. The seven-time Pro Bowl pick began to take the game more seriously upon retiring from the NFL in 2012, however, viewing it as a good way to fill the void created by no longer playing football.
“Once you’re done playing football you still have a competitive drive,” Seymour told Yahoo! Sports. “Poker is an outlet for me where I have a competitive drive, you have to be very cerebral. It requires a lot like it did for me in football — I have to be patient, I have to know how to pick my spots, pay attention to guys’ tendencies. It was just a natural progression after leaving sports at a high level.”
Seymour, 39, won three Super Bowl rings with the Patriots and even uses one as a holder for his chip stacks. Maybe someday he’ll add a poker bracelet to his jewelry collection, as the drive certainly is there for him to succeed in his post-football endeavors.
