Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Finnish tabloid claims: Ziigmund and Kimi Räikkönen "played for hundreds of thousands"


A Finnish tabloid magazine is claiming that Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and the race car driver, former Formula One World Champion Kimi "Iceman" Räikkönen recently played a huge poker game where hundreds of thousands were on the line. Ziigmund and the Iceman say they did play but just for fun.

The Seiska magazine claims that Räikkönen challenged Ziigmund to the game in Helsinki in June and that the F1 champion first won approximately €500,000 from the pro before losing it back.

Another Finnish tabloid, Iltalehti, got hold of both men for comments and they deny the rumor about the sums in play.

"Sure I play poker, but those claims are not true," Räikkönen is quoted as saying. His agent Riku Kuvaja adds that the stakes were "a few euros" maximum.

Ziigmund's comment is along the same lines. "Nah, it was just for fun. Let's say we played just for matches," Ilari said.

Räikkönen's agent says his client is not particularly experienced in poker. The two men have met before, but this was the first time they played together.

Iltalehti draws rather colorful comparisons between the two men, saying they both have "a close relationship with alcohol" and listing some of their drunken feats: Räikkönen has fallen off from the deck of his boat, taken out his penis at a strip club and physically attacked Michael Schumacher, while Ilari "once lost 1.3 million euros in one day because of a hangover".

Naturally, if Ziigmund had the chance he would probably love to play for "hundreds of thousands" with a rich amateur player like the Iceman, whose reported income in 2008 was 30 million euros - not quite as much as Guy Laliberte's but plenty for a friendly game with a real poker pro.

Source: Coinflip.com
Courtesy: _TaniaS_

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