There was a very familiar poker face sat around the virtual card table during Wednesday’s session of the 2025 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).
Brazil international football star Neymar Jr was one of seven players remaining in the WCOOP Super Tuesday High Roller, one of the two-day events being competed in the World Championship that runs until October 1.
Neymar’s love for poker is well known and was cemented when he became a brand ambassador for online casino and poker specialists PokerStars back in May 2015, a time when he was showcasing his football talents as a 23-year-old at Spanish giants Barcelona.
Neymar’s Net Worth Estimated To Be $420 Million
His participation in this year’s World Championship began when he entered the Super Tuesday High Roller (#17-H), one of the high category $10,300 buy-in events which had a total prize pool of $600,000.
That’s not the sort of figure to get the blood pumping for a man whose net worth is estimated to be $420 million.
Indeed the Brazilian superstar once laughed off losing €1 million in an hour playing online poker on a live Twitch stream in 2023, while earning nearly four-times that amount on a monthly basis at French club Paris Saint-Germain.
A long, successful career in football has seen him win glittering prizes with boyhood club Santos in Brazil, Barcelona in Spain and dominant French force PSG, before a quick stint in Saudi Arabia with Al-Hilal.
Neymar, now 33, returned to Santos at the start of the year as club captain and is the all-time record goalscorer for the Brazil national team with 79 goals, ahead of the likes of Pele and Ronaldo.
But the closest he got to a World Cup final with Brazil was a 7-1 semi-final thrashing on home soil by Germany in 2014’s tournament.
Neymar has achieved many things in life, but he has never been a world champion and that’s what he set out to do playing his much-loved card game on Tuesday.
From an original entry of 60 players, Neymar managed to clinch a place among the seven qualifiers for Wednesday’s final table.
There was a guaranteed purse of at least $26,111 for all seven players gathered at the artificial felt with a top prize of $186,434 up for grabs.
World glory once again proved elusive as Neymar started play in seventh place but could not ladder up and had to settle for the $26,111 fee.
Pedro Padilha was the overnight chip leader but he eventually stumbled, ending in fifth, and by the time the field was whittled down to the final pair, Guillaume Nolet was duelling with Talal Shakerchi for the $186,434 prize.
It was Canadian Nolet who took the money with his third career WCOOP title while non-pro Shakerchi scooped $134,352 as runner-up.
The 2025 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker
Online poker and casino games app PokerStars is the title sponsor for the present World Championship which was first played in 2002.
This year’s World Championship began on September 7 and runs through until October 1, attracting online poker players from around the world.
There are 378 tournaments being contested during that time with combined guarantees of over $65 million.
There are three buy-in categories for players with Low, Medium and High levels ranging from $5.50 to $10,300, with the 378 tournaments being split into 123 events including 11 Championship events which attract the big-hitters in the online poker world.
The prestigious title fights begin on September 28, with the main event being the WCOOP 108-H, a $10,300 buy-in with a guaranteed combined prize pool of $4 million.
Last year’s winner was Samuel ‘€urop€an’ Vousden from Finland, who was the last man standing from an original entry of 502 players to pocket the main prize of $1,007,058.
