Bodog Beat

Famed Australian bowler Shane Warne has opted to play poker instead of cricket. (Image Courtesy of FoxSports)

Most of you may look at the headline of this post and think, "Ummmm, yeah, no shit. Is this really news?" Well, it is for all of those British Commonwealth countries that are now as obsessed with cricket as they are football thanks to last century's rampant imperialism.

So, it was big news (big in a small kind of way) when Australian cricketer Shane Warne, who plays for Hampshire (UK), informed them that he would be unavailable to play with the club for their Twenty20 Cup campaign this summer. All because of poker. Since retiring from international cricket, the spin bowler has taken up poker and now says that there are some deals in the works for him to play some tournaments for an unnamed company.

"There is a deal in the pipeline with a poker company that will involve playing in certain events through the year. I can fit what I do around the cricket," said Warne in his Times column.

The tournament he plans on attending is the WSOP in Las Vegas, most likely the WSOP Main Event.

"The World Series takes place in Las Vegas at the same time as the Twenty20 Cup," he said. "I definitely want to go to Las Vegas and I have not played Twenty20 for the past few seasons."

So, with bated breath on the edge of our seats you can cpunt on the Beat to keep you updated on the performance of this cricketer turned pokerer this summer from the 2008 WSOP.