Rafa Nadal Wins PokerStars Charity Challenge And €50,000 For His Chosen Charity

Rafa Nadal is better known for beating the likes of Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic on a tennis court than he is for his poker playing skills, but the PokerStars Sporting Professional took to the poker tables rather than the tennis courts this weekend to take down his first major poker tournament to win €50,000 for charity, beating Daniel Negreanu in the process.

The European Poker Tour (EPT) was in Prague over the course of the weekend for the latest leg of the tour, The Prague Poker Festival, with the EPT Charity Challenge attracting some of the biggest names in both sport and poker. As well as Rafa Nadal and Daniel Negreanu the event was also attended by footballers Ronaldo (the Brazilian version) and Andriy Shevchenko, with Italian skier Alberto Tomba another star name in attendance.

Nadal signed for PokerStars 18 months ago and has appeared in several online events, but this was his first proper experience of live poker. Speaking immediately after his triumph he said, “I played for the first time in a live poker tournament and it was a big honour to play against a lot of stars around me, some in sports and other ones in poker. I had fun and I enjoyed it, and I felt a little bit lucky that I finally won.”

Nadal even managed to knock-out the world’s current number one poker player in Daniel Negreanu, who was philosophical after his exit. Negreanu said, “Nadal played a solid game and he didn’t make any mistakes. He knew when to make adjustments, to play more aggressively and he did. It was good fun, and the bottom line is that everybody wins, because all the prize money is going to good causes.”

In all the prize fund for the EPT Charity Challenge was €100,000, with Nadal winning €50,000 for his chosen charity The Good Hand Project, a project that was set up by PokerStars and forms part of The Adecco Foundation, a cause that helps young people get back into work.