Rafa Nadal to play Ronaldo in new poker "Duel"

Brazilian football legend Ronaldo has challenged fellow PokerStars ambassador Rafa Nadal to a live head-to-head poker match, dubbed "The Duel." The 14-time tennis Grand Slam winner has accepted the challenge, with the game scheduled to be live broadcast from London on November 6.

In recent months Nadal has taken a short timeout from playing poker in a live environment, but will now resume his training regime. He will be honing his skills over the next couple of months in preparation for the match, which will be something of a revenge mission for Ronaldo…

Nadal v Ronaldo - The two sports stars first clashed at the poker table last December in the European Poker Tour Prague Charity Challenge, which raised €100,000 for charity. On that occasion Nadal claimed the victory, seeing off the likes of Daniel Negreanu – the highest-earning live tournament poker player of all time – along with Ronaldo, en route to winning the six-man tournament.

Nadal said: “It was my first live poker tournament when I last played against Ronaldo and one year later I’m more confident with my skill level. I really enjoy playing poker and the challenge of learning as quickly as possible, so I can’t wait to get back into training on my game and to play against Ronaldo.”

Ronaldo, who is hoping to take top honors this time, added: “I challenged Rafa to a rematch after finding out he was preparing for another live poker game. The last time we played together Rafa won the match and it was a lot of fun. This time it will be different, though, because I have been improving on my own poker strategy and will be more prepared.”