Evan Mathis Poker

7:55pm: Championship Week for Evan Mathis Level 7 – Blinds 400/800 (BB ante 800) Tomorrow night, the University of Alabama will play Clemson University for the national championship. Tonight here in the Bahamas, we have a former four-year Crimson Tide lineman in our midst. Guard Evan Mathis 500 to 450 Weight Release Bench Press. Matthew 'Matt' Matros (born May 13, 1977) is a professional poker player and author from Brooklyn, New York, who has won three World Series of Poker events. Matros holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College. On Day Three at the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship, the bubble burst, but not for CardsChat Ambassador Jacki Burkhart or former NFL Pro Bowler Evan Mathis. PokerGOPoker After Dark returns with another magically delicious cash game featuring Antonio Esfandiari. Watch “The Magician” headline the second night of “Lucky Charms” action with Jennifer Tilly, Bill Perkins, and Super Bowl champion Evan Mathis.

Evan Mathis Poker After Dark
Evan Mathis Poker Player

The NFL is no stranger to the game of poker. While the relationship is not as close as in other sports leagues, there are plenty of players who have retired from the gridiron and taken a seat at the table, and quite a few who are currently active in both areas. And there are probably countless Dolphins fans throughout the US regularly hosting home games on their Miami Dolphins branded pub tables during the major matches of the season.

While live poker games will always attract sports players and celebrities, there’s a new breed of poker that celebs like Jennifer Tilly, A-Rod, and Don Cheadle are going crazy for – online poker. Ok, so it’s not exactly new, having originated at the turn of the century, but it rises in popularity every year and has now reached the upper echelons of society.

In 2020, professional online poker tournaments are held in the same regard as live tournaments like the WSOP, and the online game is enjoyed by newbies and pros alike. There’s an abundance of online platforms and sites catering to players of all levels that are a hit with sports players and celebrities alike – and they could end up being preferred by Dolphins stars since they offer that all-important anonymity.

Now that we’re all dealing with the fallout of potential disruptions to the start of the 2020 NFL season, which is due to get underway early this month, we thought it would be fun to take a guess at which NFL players (and their League cohorts) we might see gathering around virtual gaming tables.

Evan Mathis – Miami Dolphins

A former Offensive Guard for the Dolphins, Mathis was first drafted into the NFL by the Carolina Panthers in 2005. He was signed to the Dolphins in September 2008 and released just two months later after playing a total of seven games (he was signed at a time when Donald Thomas was placed on injured reserve). He’s also played for the Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, and Philadelphia Eagles, and has become an avid poker player having recently finished in 35th place in the global PSPC Players’ Championship.

Sammy Watkins – Kansas City Chiefs

This fourth overall pick for the Buffalo Bills in the 2014 NFL Draft, Watkins has played for the Los Angeles Rams before settling in as the wide receiver for the Chiefs. His love for the game of poker is well known, and has even got him into a spot of bother with his former team.

During the 2016 offseason, a time when players are expected to continue their training and set game strategies with their coaches, Watkins decided to hot foot it to North Carolina to spend the time playing poker games with his college teammates. He even took to social media to boast about his poker prowess, which is what got him in hot water with his team.

Anthony Francis – Miami Dolphins

The former defensive tackle for the Dolphins has had quite the NFL career, having also taken defensive positions in teams including the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers – all of which were possible due to being signed by the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2013. But he’s since reinvented himself into quite the renaissance man.

Francis, aka the recording artist FRAN¢, is now a professional wrestler under the WWE banner and a major poker enthusiast. He’s participated in numerous poker tournaments alongside other celebrity players, including the 2017 Hurricane Irma Relief event, where he made it to the seventh round. Other former NFL players who we can imagine filling up online poker tables in 2020 include Calais Campbell, Emmitt Smith, Shannon Sharpe, and Richard Seymour.

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Valerie Cross

As some professional NFL players were gearing up for the wild-card playoffs and the divisional playoffs, retired NFL offensive lineman Evan Mathis was heading to the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure to play some high roller poker tournaments.

Before his trip to the Caribbean, Mathis didn’t have a HendonMob profile. Now Mathis has $278,880 in live cashes to his credit, compliments of two cashes in the Bahamas. He finished 35th of 1,039 players in the $25,000 buy-in PSPC for $86,400 and followed that up just a couple days later with a sixth-place finish in a $50,000 for $192,480.

Though he came to PCA with no live tournament cashes under his belt, the nine-year NFL offensive lineman is in no way new to the game of poker. He started playing back in college with friends and was relatively active playing online cash games and tournaments around 12 years ago. His focus shifted to playing in the NFL beginning in 2008, but now two years into retirement, he may be able to fit in a bit more poker.

“I liked the line-up for the PCA and I thought that the $25K was kind of a no-brainer based on the structure.'

Still quite busy with other obligations in his home base of Michigan, Mathis sees poker as more of a side hobby, but he has several friends who play poker regularly. It was these associations and the attractive PSPC event that led to the Caribbean poker trip.

“I liked the line-up for the PCA and I thought that the $25K was kind of a no-brainer based on the structure,” Mathis told PokerNews at a break during the $50K. “I had a couple friends that were playing in it too. So I put it on the calendar and came down here to play.”

Towering Table Image

Like his good friend Jason Koonce, an amateur who took fifth in the PSPC for $1,304,000, Mathis is often underestimated at the poker tables. The six foot, five-inch tall former O-Lineman stands out at the table, and opponents eventually do a little research to find out Mathis was a long-time NFL pro. He does his best to play up the novice poker player image that often comes along with the pro athlete status.

“Some people will see who’s at the table and they’ll Google my name and see that I’m a football player,” Mathis told us. “Sometimes I try to use that to my advantage to kind of play dumb and act like a big dumb football ogre. Sometimes I’ll try to create an image where initially, they think I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Sometimes I try to use that to my advantage to kind of play dumb and act like a big dumb football ogre.'

Of course, eventually his opponents will discover that he’s no dumb giant, and he’s got some real poker chops. Mathis enjoys the challenge of poker and sees plenty of parallels between the two activities.

“Both of them are very competitive and take an incredible amount of discipline and mental toughness.”

Playing with the Best

Rated as the best guard in the NFL by Pro Football Focus in the 2011, 2012, and 2013 seasons, the Alabama native knows a thing or two about getting better in competitive games. We asked him about his willingness to hop into high rollers at the PCA where he played alongside big-name poker pros.

“It’s great. Any time I want to get better at something I want to put myself around people who are smarter than me or better than me, or more experienced than me. So diving into an event like this, the $25K and even more so, the skill level that’s in this $50K, is a really good experience for me. I think I’ll get a lot out of it.”

'Any time I want to get better at something I want to put myself around people who are smarter than me or better than me.'

In addition to the first-hand experience he acquired while playing with some of the top pros in the game, Mathis was profitable after going deep in both the $25K and the $50K events he fired. With friends like Jeff Gross, Jason Koonce and Bill Perkins, who knows – He may even continue to turn up at some big poker events. While he makes no promises, Mathis could see himself coming along a bit in the future.

“Just being around them will probably bring me back around [poker] more often.”