As celebrities go, you don’t get much bigger than Mr Affleck. Affleck is a ‘grade A’ celebrity, no doubt about it. The man is fabulously rich, good looking, and a Hollywood movie star – having played the lead in such blockbuster films as Armageddon and Pearl Harbour.
Not only that, but he is also the ex-fiancé of Jennifer “don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got” Lopez, and famously bought many of the “rocks that she got”. Together they starred in one of recent history’s most public (failed) engagements along with the spectacular flop that was the film ‘Gigli’.
In short, Affleck is such a huge star that even if he’d only dabbled in poker, it would warrant a page on our website. But Affleck hasn’t just dabbled in poker; oh no, ‘Boston’ Ben Affleck is a bona-fide student of the game, and a state champion to boot.
Affleck has been a student of the game for sometime, and a dedicated one at that. Receiving tutoring first from Amir Vahedi (6th in the 2003 WSOP and winner of $1500 NL Hold’em), Affleck now gets his advice from none other than Annie Duke, regarded by many as the best female poker player in the world.
On top of the tutoring Affleck also plays in a weekly game with Mike Sexton and pals, flying to and from the game in a private jet. According to Sexton, Affleck is ‘extremely bright,’ ‘has great poker instincts,’ and ‘soaks up information like a sponge’.
Sexton’s words rang spectacularly true when in 2004 Affleck won the California State Poker Championship, outlasting a 90 strong field and pocketing the princely sum of $356,000 – a huge amount of money to everyone (except a Hollywood star). Of course for Affleck it was more about the respect than about the money; he wanted to be acknowledged as a poker player, not a celebrity who plays poker. That he has most emphatically achieved, with a win that any lifelong poker professional would be proud of.