Australian cricket legend and keen poker player Shane Warne has died after a suspected heart attack while in Thailand. The former 888poker Team Pro was 52 years old.
A brief statement from Warne’s management team broke the news.
"Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived. The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course."
Warne the Cricketer
Warne is widely regarded as one of the best spin bowlers to have ever played the game of cricket. His incredible record on the international stage for Australia showed the cricketing world what a superstar he was.
Warne played his first Test match in 1992 when he was only 23 years old. He went on to take more than 1,000 international wickets across 145 Test matches and 194 One Day Internationals (ODIs).
His tally of 708 Test wickets was the record for any bowler until Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan broke it in December 2007. Warne retired from all forms of cricket in 2013. He is a member of both the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and Cricket Australia’s Cricket Hall of Fame.
Warne the Poker Player
Poker was a large part of Warne’s life; his website even has a section dedicated to the game. There, he compares poker to professional cricket and describes his love of tournament poker and the World Series of Poker in particular.
888poker signed Warne to their roster of professional poker players and ambassadors in January 2008. He remained with 888poker until January 2015, shortly after former November Niner Sam Holden and J.C. Tran left for pastures new.
According to The Hendon Mob Database, Warne accumulated $161,325 in live tournament cashes from 18 results. His third-place finish in an A$10,200 High Stakes Event at the 2010 Victorian Poker Championship earned Warne A$40,000 ($35,899) which remained his largest-ever haul.
Other poker-related highlights of Warne’s career include a 22nd place in the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event won by Scott Davies, a fourth-place finish an A$2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2018 Aussie Millions worth A$41,225 ($33,320), and a cash worth $17,282 in the 2015 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.
Most recently, Warne reached the final table of the A$1,000 Players Champs at the APT Brisbane festival. He finished seventh for A$4,500 ($3,243).
Warne’s son, Jackson, is also a keen poker player, one with $12,670 in live tournament winnings. Jackson Warne’s latest cash also came at the APT Brisbane festival.
Warne The Philanthropist
The colorful, often larger-than-life Warne used his superstar status to raise money for countless charitable causes. He and fellow Aussie Joe Hachem hosted a charity poker tournament in 2014 to raise money for The Shane Warne Foundation.
In 2020, following the horrendous country-wide bush fires in Australia, Warne helped raise A$1 million for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. Warne auctioned off his "baggy green," the only cap an Australian poker player receives when they first represent their country.
On selling this piece of his legacy, Warne said: "The fires have touched all of us. We've all seen the images and everyone's trying to do their bit. So to show how much it has meant to me personally, I thought, well what's something that I cherish? And it's that cap. I had that in my hand for the best part of 20 years during my career, so it's been worn a lot."
Warne is survived by his three children Jackson, Brooke, and Summer.
Reaction to Warne's Death
Numerous poker players have reacted to Warne's death with shock including Tony G and PokerNews European Executive Editor Will Shillibier.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CasuC0JBd0l/
PokerNews offers its condolences to Warne’s family, friends, and colleagues at this sad time.
