Brad Lidge probably hopes to fall to his knees in victory after another World Series like he did for the Philadelphia Phillies back in 2008. That's because Lidge is currently competing in the 2016 World Series of Poker's Main Event.
PokerListings.com recently caught up with Lidge to talk about his affinity for cards and not surprisingly a couple of fun tales of former Phillies throwing cash around came up.
“The highest stakes we ever got up to were in the Phillies clubhouse,” he said.
“I don’t think it would surprise anyone that Jonathan Papelbon and Cliff Lee were big-time action guys. They were not afraid to throw the cake around.
“We always had a good time with it though and no one’s feelings ever got hurt. We were all good friends.”
I'd wager a guess that Lee and Papelbon's feelings never got hurt because they had so much darn money to lose that even if they did throw some big "cake" around and came up on the wrong end of a Lidge changup, it wouldn't be the end of them.
As of this writing, Lidge is still alive in the World Series of Poker Main Event which has a $10,000 buy in. He's currently improved his chip count from the starting 50,000 to roughly 82,800, according to the event's website.
Are there any similarities between closing a baseball game and winning in a poker tournament? Sure.
“I think one of the biggest things you can understand — that really helps — is that sometimes you can make the best pitch in the world and the guy might still get a hit," Lidge told PokerListings. "Sometimes you can have the best hand in the world and you might still get beat.
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The Main Event saw the most entries in 5 years so the winner of the whole tournament will take home a cool $8 million.
While plenty of players in the tournament like to represent their favorite sports team -- football more than baseball -- we're going to guess Lidge kept his Phillies jersey at home. Who knows, though, he has won a World Series in it before.
