Boxer Carl Froch to Play In The £1M Guaranteed WPT500 UK
Froch, nicknamed “The Cobra,” is set to join Poker Hall of Famer and partypoker Team Pro Mike Sexton for the “shuffle up and deal” ceremony before taking to the felt himself during November 15’s special turbo heat of the WPT500.
In the ring, Froch has a fantastic record of 33 wins from 35 fights with 24 of those victories coming by the way of knockout. Hopefully the only knocking out Froch will be doing at WPT500 is the kind involving players from the tournament!
As Pearce did in his interviews with partypoker, Froch drew parallels between his chosen sport and poker, with psychology featuring heavily.
“There are a lot of similarities in the mental side of boxing and poker. Sometimes, when I watch a heads-up game, I think about being face-to-face with an opponent in the ring and like the poker players, you are looking into their eyes to try to get into their heads, see what they are thinking: do they look scared, confident, intimidated? You can take read a lot into another fighter from that and of course, being able to successfully read an opponent is a massive plus in poker – and of course, concentration is huge has make one mistake in both and you can be knocked out.”
Froch also thinks, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that the manager of his beloved Nottingham Forest (Stuart Pearce) could be a favourite in the ring against Froch’s old foe George Groves. When asked who would win a fight between Pearce and Groves, Froch replied:
“Well George is a top fighter but I’ve got to go with Psycho – he’s a Nottingham legend and a proper hard man, just like me! He’d be able to take the best George can throw at him and come back with more. I’d probably teach him how to throw that big right hand too!”
There will be little time for joking during the WPT500 because with the prize pool guaranteed to top £1,000,000 the stakes are high. That said, Froch has promised that if he is knocked out he will be staying for the players' party and will be giving away a signed pair of boxing gloves.
The WPT500 kicks off of November 9 with the first of its seven starting flights, with Day 2 taking place on November 15 and the champion crowned on November 16.
