Nicklas Bendtner, former Arsenal striker recently admitted that he lost £6 Million while playing poker. He said that he has been playing since he was 19 years old.

Big losses for the player

The former Arsenal and Denmark striker was first introduced to poker when he was 19 and has been playing ever since. To date, he has lost over £6 Million to the game. He admitted his misadventures in poker when he appeared in a reality television show that he and his girlfriend Philine Roepstorff host. The 32-year-old said, “I have lost lots of money – a totally unrealistic amount.”

A lot of this money was lost while he was playing for Arsenal and living in London. He would regularly participate in high stakes games in the city. He suggests that he doesn’t have a problem gambling issue. In fact, the huge amount of losses he has made has led him to adopt a more conservative approach to gameplay. The losses he claims are his best estimation and he doesn’t know the exact figure that he lost during the years.

When discussing his major losses, he talked about a turning point in his life when he was participating in a game in London. He said that at that time, the outcome would have been very bad, but it was thankfully avoided. From that day on, he only plays with smaller sums and suggests that he does it more for enjoying the game rather than for money. He also suggests that he plays poker with friends with a buy-in of about £12.

Who is Bendtner?

Bendtner is a big name in the field of soccer and played for Arsenal between 2005 and 2014. He has also played for VfL Wolfsburg, Juventus, and Sunderland. He has represented the Denmark team 81 times, scoring 30 goals. However, he hasn’t played soccer since he was released from FC Copenhagen at the end of 2019.

Bendtner has also been involved in some controversies over the years. In late 2018, he was sent to 50 days in prison after he assaulted a tax driver. He served the sentence under house arrest. Before this, in 2012, he was involved in another controversy during a Euro 2012 group game. He scored a goal against Portugal and went on to expose a pair of underwear. The green underwear had the name of Paddy Power on it, which is a popular sports betting operator. UEFA fined him €100,000 which was eventually paid by Paddy Power.