Who knew that Tito Ortiz knew how to play holdem? Anyone who has watched his rise in the UFC, and his behavior during the show “The Ultimate Fighter” would calculate that the pot odds were better that Tito would punch you in the mouth than out bluff you on a drawing hand. While he is not one of the established poker stars, his appearance on the show “PokerStars.Net Million Dollar Challenge” may make him one very soon. Not only did he play the sort of poker that displayed a depth of knowledge well beyond the basic rules of poker, but his demeanor during the hands of live poker showed us aspects to his personality that have been invisible during any other television appearance he has made.
If you look for Tito at the final stages of a World Series of Poker event or a World Poker Tour tournament, you may probably won’t find him hiding among the rest of the poker stars. This is because he is not primarily known for his holdem game. He is more famous for making other grown men cry. PokerStars.net is not an outfit that doesn’t know what they are doing, and when they signed him to be part of the show “Million Dollar Challenge”, they were probably aware that they wouldn’t have to explain to him the rules of poker. They had to know he was already well schooled in the game.
During his first live poker appearance on the show, not only did he give us the heads up performance of the year, but opened up to his wrestling coach opponent about how the sport of wrestling saved his life. He claimed that were it not for that particular athletic obsession, he would have been on the streets with the gangs. The frankness and honesty from this extremely tough fighter has subtly changed his perception in the media, and many of us are looking forward to seeing more of him at the poker table. This, of course, doesn’t mean that the pot odds of him putting you in a triangle choke after a bad beat aren’t still pretty good.
