Poker and MMA seem to work well together, there's the fact that a lot of events are held in Las Vegas but also I believe there's a lot of the mental aspect that comes into play.

Matt Hughes and Mike Swick are 'Friends of Full Tilt Poker', although Full Tilt were recently dropped as sponsors of UFC events in favour of Ultimate Bet.

Bruce Buffer is apparently quite the player too...

Ring announcer Bruce Buffer, a 12-year veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime poker enthusiast, cashed for the first time in an official World Series of Poker event on Friday.

Buffer, a semi-professional poker player, survived the bubble and placed 158th out of 1,646 entrants in Event 11 ($2,000-buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em) of the 2009 World Series of Poker event. Payouts went to the top 171 finishers.

The tournament, one of many scheduled before the $10,000-buy-in 2009 WSOP main event commences on July 3, featured a total prize pool of $2,995,720. Buffer earned $3,894 for his finish.

The event took place at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Buffer busted out on Day 2 of the three-day tournament holding pocket nines. Facing a raise from Patrick Stemper, Buffer pushed all-in with his pocket pair. However, he busted out of the tournament when Stemper, holding an ace-10, spiked a 10 on the river. A first-place finish would've been worth $569,199.

Although Buffer has cashed in some major tournaments, including a sixth place finish ($5,000) at the World Poker Tour's season-three WPT Invitational and a 75th place finish ($24,150) in the season-four Five Diamond World Poker Classic, he had never previously placed in the money in a WSOP event.

Buffer will return to the octagon next weekend for UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany.

Source: MMA Junkie

__________________
Strike First - Strike Hard - Show No Mercy