Several athletes have etched their names in the world of professional snow sports, including Molly Bloom (skier), Ingemar Backman (snowboarder), and Petter Northug (skier). These pros have conquered challenges on the slope, but their athletic prowess hasn’t stopped there — they’ve also proven that they can dominate on the poker felt. After all, poker and winter sports are more connected than you think.
According to ski guide Mike Austin, playing or experiencing the high-stakes nature of poker can boost decision-making when navigating complex situations like avalanche terrains. This is because poker forces players to acknowledge uncertainties and craft strategies to avoid costly losses. Thus, playing the card game can help backcountry skiers and snowboarders enhance their situational awareness by looking for early signs of trouble when navigating high-consequence terrain. In other words, skiing or snowboarding in complex terrain is like playing high-stakes poker: one should learn to calculate if the risks are worth the reward, and when to fold or walk away from danger.
This link between poker and winter sports is partly the reason why quite a few snowboarders and skiers have tried their hand at the card game. This is coupled with the card game’s widespread popularity, with a YouGov survey finding that 60% of Americans play poker. If you’re still not quite sure how the two fields intersect, take a look below at three prominent examples of skiers and snowboarders who have ventured into the world of poker.
Molly Bloom
Molly Bloom is a former U.S. Ski Team member who ranked third in the North American Cup for moguls. She was well on her way to qualifying for the Olympics before a crash derailed her career. Since then, Bloom faced a significant career shift, turning to the world of poker as an alternative. Bloom was helped in part by the poker boom ignited by Chris Moneymaker, an ambassador for the US online poker platform Americas Cardroom who is best known for winning the 2003 World Series of Poker and making history as the first champion to qualify for the tournament through online poker. Moneymaker’s poker boom contributed to the card game’s popularity, allowing personalities like Bloom to set up their own poker careers. Bloom, also known as the “Poker Princess,” ran an underground poker empire in the 2000s, reportedly earning $4 million annually. Her venture into poker was featured in the film Molly’s Game, as well as in her book of the same title.
