World Number One Tennis Player Rafa Nadal to Face Brazilian Football Legend Ronaldo in Charity Poker Tournament

ONCHAN, Isle of Man, December 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

World number one tennis player Rafa Nadal revealed today that he will take on Brazilian footballing legend Ronaldo at a live charity poker tournament taking place on December 12, 2013 as part of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague poker festival.

The tournament, which was announced in November, will be Nadal's first experience of live poker, and is something that he has been working towards since taking up the game in June 2012. Other players who will be competing for the €100,000 charity prize pool include former Ukrainian footballer Andriy Shevchenko, Italian skier Alberto Tomba, Dutch ex-field hockey player Fatima Moreira de Melo, and professional poker player Daniel Negreanu.

"Ronaldo has always been a hero of mine and I'm looking forward to taking him on at the poker table, said Nadal. "The great thing about poker is that it's a common ground for us to compete on, and there are many similarities between sport and poker strategy, so it will be good to see how he translates his game from the football field to the poker felt."

Ronaldo is no stranger to live poker tournaments, having already competed in events in Brazil at the Brazil Series of Poker (BSOP) and at the EPT in Barcelona earlier this year. He said: "This is going to be a great event, and it's one of the few opportunities that I have to take on Rafa and the other athletes on a level playing field. We are all sports professionals, but in completely different fields, and poker is the level ground on which we can all compete fairly."

See how Rafa has been getting on with his poker training in this behind-the-scenes video: See how Rafa has been getting on with his poker training in this behind-the-scenes video: http://psta.rs/1eVkNvi.

To embed the video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ybuYHzwL2Ng" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Follow the conversation on Twitter using #RafaPrague.

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