Bloom Is Back Amongst the Winners With Victory in Vegas
Make mention of Tony Bloom and most people will immediately associate the name with the blue and white striped racing silks worn by Paul Townend aboard 2024 Champion Chase winner Energumene.
Tony Bloom leads in his Cheltenham Festival Stayers Hurdle winner Penhill. Brighton’s Chairman has enjoyed similar high-profile success at the poker tables. ©GettyImages
If not that horse, 2018 Festival Stayers Hurdle winner Penhill may come to mind. Possibly 2017 Cesarewitch Handicap winner Withhold – a horse backed from 25/1 into 5/1 favoritism 24 hours before the race – will be a stronger association.
Tony Bloom has enjoyed plenty of success in horse racing despite having owned just a handful of horses. But he has achieved bigger things in Football. Taking control of Brighton & Hove Albion as the club’s chairman in 2009, his financial support has raised the club from League One minnows into a Premiership side with Champions League aspirations.
Poker Skill Set and a Gamblers Edge
And then there is poker. Long before the 52-year-old came into the public eye, Tony Bloom was a renowned poker player. The source of his wealth has always been gambling. In the late 90s, he worked for Victor Chandler – later to become known as BetVictor – where he successfully headed-up football trading the far-eastern market.
But tournament poker is primarily a game of skill and not a gambling game. The Brighton-born man with the Midas touch has bundles of skill. Put bluntly, his tournament poker CV is remarkable.
In the scheme of things, his $3.9 million in tournament earnings does not register on the Richter scale. But very few players that have won more – thought to be 425 people globally – have played less poker. In any other field of sport or even life, Bloom’s poker-playing activities would be described as ‘reclusive’.
Two Impressive Poker Million Final Tables
Bloom first appeared at the tables in 1994 and played for around a year before vanishing from the game. After five years in the poker-playing wilderness, he resurfaced to play in the inaugural Ladbrokes Poker Million.
The first Poker Million was a groundbreaking event. It was organized by sports promoter Barry Hearn and, for legal reasons, played on the Isle of Man. It was the first-ever live-broadcast poker tournament. And a £1 million first prize bettered the World Series of Poker main event at that time.
Bloom finished fourth in that 156-entry competition. More notable success followed. In 2004 he won the Aussie Millions. Later that year he made final tables in a World Poker Tour event and a World Series of Poker competition.
2005 yielded victory in the made-for-television VC Poker Cup and the Nations Cup filmed in Cardiff. But as business took precedence, Bloom once again appeared to play very little poker. After another five-year hiatus, he was runner-up in the 2010 Poker Million.
Back to Business in 2024 Vegas Masters
In the following six years, Bloom only played at the Aussie Millions where he took a handful of second and third-placed finishes in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 festivals. Between 2016 and the present day, sightings of Tony Bloom at the baize have been as rare as snowflakes in the summertime.
However, it must be cold in Vegas as the cloistered Tony Bloom unexpectedly appeared in Las Vegas last week and promptly hit the scoresheet with success in a high-stakes Omaha Poker Masters competition at the PokerGO Studio.
The competition did carry a lofty €25,000 entry fee. Forty entries generated an even $1 million prize pool, and Bloom’s share was $360,000. A handsome dividend, albeit with the Professional Football Scouts Association (PFSA) indicating the average Premier League player earns precisely that sum every month, it is probably loose change to Tony Bloom.
Can Tony Bloom mastermind a Champions League appearance for Brighton? ©GettyImages
Will He Play the Premier Rush?
If Bloom decides to play his rush and make more appearances in card rooms across the globe remains to be seen. The best football betting sites currently make his Brighton team 16/1 to finish in the top-four of the Premier League and contest the 2023/24 Champions League.
A place in that competition is worth a minimum of €15 million with the potential to win at least €85 million. It is a game made for a skillful high-stakes player like Tony Bloom …so do not back against it!
