许多人认为扑克是一项运动。他们的理由是这样的：在比赛中玩的时候它有竞争力，熟练的玩家赢得了数百万美元，这是ESPN的现场播出。这幅画只有一个问题，那就是关于扑克玩家。

　　扑克玩家只是看上去并不像运动员。没有运动员们的调子，体育，强大和迷人的。专业扑克玩家是那样的松弛，懒惰，不忍描述，甚至需要重的东西，按住自己的底牌。更重要的是，妇女经常为一争高下，而与男性殴打。即便你80岁，您还可以赢得一场比赛。

　　抛开运动性，扑克仍然一个非常吸引人的体育比赛，有线电视的高收视率就是很好的证明。它总是令人印象深刻，特别是其彻头彻尾的古怪的顶级扑克选手的实力。

　　这里是扑克怪人：

　　迈克·马图索

　　迈克·马图索错过了他在生活中真正的呼唤：波士顿爱乐乐团演奏口风琴。迈克的冗长可能导致他从拍卖赛马评论员以及任何职业道路中失败，最后他选择了扑克，并很好地利用他的电机，利用浓度打败了他的对手。

　　迈克是哭了，这是电视直播后的几个优点之一，是著名的事件，看到一个坏牌点，是他挥霍筹码导致。麦克也是一个扑克怪胎，尽管赢得最大的扑克比赛，种种迹象表明，他用自己的脚趾来算斗争。

　　菲尔Hellmuth

　　菲尔Hellmuth是不奇怪的，他有着这么多尴尬的傲慢。 Hellmuth认为他自己是世界上最酷的扑克玩家。他的表现是令人兴奋的壮举，像铺设一支AK反对口袋火箭和他的赞助商的汽车崩溃。

　　Hellmuth有时被描述为“扑克小子”，由于他经常倾斜，运用口头攻击，击败其他玩家。尽管需要调整心态，但是这是没有什么争论的，Hellmuth是一名优秀的玩家，他赢得了12个世界系列扑克锦标赛手镯。

　　戴夫Ulliott

　　戴夫Ulliott是英国最成功的扑克玩家。 Ulliott被称为“章鱼”，来源于他那自小的类似于强盗的所有风格和穿着感海洛因推皮条的服饰。

　　Ulliott是公认的在世界上最可怕的玩家之一，对于一个赌桌上经常推迟的对手他会耿耿于怀。 Ulliott的低俗形象是无人能及的，他有着一双自制的黄金指节，并且显然是从使用的电机油用来理发。

　　斯图·温加尔（1953年9月 - 1998年11月）

　　斯图·温加尔无疑是最大的比赛玩家。也毫无疑问是有史以来为拉斯维加斯增光的扑克玩家之一。温加尔的技能卡昂贵得不得了，这倒与最终杀死了他的休闲药品很匹配。

　　著名的温加尔在他的职业生涯中赢得三次世界系列扑克的主要赛事。这实际上无法比拟的壮举，更引人注目的是他最后的胜利，当他被打败，因为朋友对他的怜悯而帮他支付他购买进入主要事件的机会从而赢得比赛。

　　译文

　　The Weirdest Poker Players of All Time

　　Many people describe poker as a sport. Their reasoning goes something like this: it’s competitive, it’s played at tournaments, skilled players win millions of dollars, and it is broadcast live on ESPN. There’s only one problem with this picture – poker players.

　　Poker players just don’t look like sportsmen. Sportsmen are toned, athletic, powerful and glamorous. Pro poker players are flabby, lazy, non-descript and even need heavy things to hold down their cards. What’s more, women routinely compete against, and beat, men. You can also win a tournament when you’re 80.

　　Sportiness aside, poker still makes a pretty engaging spectator sport, as is proved by its high ratings on cable television. However, it’s not always the prowess of the top poker players that impresses, its their downright weirdness. It’s watching Matusow on a meltdown or Phil Hellmuth on a tilt that keeps us coming back for more.

　　Here is a selection of the wackiest poker weirdos:

　　? Mike Matusow

　　Mike ‘the mouth’ Matusow missed his true calling in life: playing the mouth organ for the Boston Philharmonic. While Mike’s verbosity could have lead him down any number of career paths from auctioneer to horserace commentator, he ended up in poker and has put his motor-mouth to good use destroying the concentration of his opponents.

　　Mike is one of the few pros to have cried on live television after suffering a bad beat, and is famed for the meltdowns that see him squander chip leads after a bad beat. Mike’s also a bit of a poker freak, having won some of the biggest tournaments in poker despite giving every indication that he’d struggle to count his own toes.

　　? Phil Hellmuth

　　Phil Hellmuth isn’t weird so much as embarrassingly arrogant and over the top. Hellmuth rates himself the coolest poker player in the world. He has performed mind blowing feats like laying an AK down against pocket rockets and crashing his sponsor’s car.

　　Hellmuth is sometimes described as the ‘poker brat’， due to his frequent tilts and tendency to verbally attack other players after a bad beat. Despite being in need of an attitude adjustment, there’s no arguing that Hellmuth is a good player, having won 12 World Series of Poker bracelets.

　　? Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott

　　Dave Ulliott is the most successful poker player from the United Kingdom. Known as the ‘Devilfish’， Ulliott is a former small time gangster and card sharp with all the style and dress sense of a heroin-pushing pimp.

　　Ulliott is recognised as one of the most fearsome players in the world, and his brooding presence at a table is frequently enough to put his opponents off their game. The topping on Ulliott’s sleazy image is a pair of self-made gold knuckledusters and a haircut apparently sculpted from used motor-oil.

　　? Stu Ungar （September 1953 – November 1998）

　　Besides having undoubtedly been the greatest tournament player who has ever lived, Stu Ungar was also without doubt one of the wackiest poker players ever to have graced Las Vegas. Ungar’s skill with cards was matched only by an expensive appetite for recreational pharmaceuticals that eventually killed him.

　　Ungar is famous for winning the World Series of Poker main event three times during his career. This virtually unmatchable feat was made all the more remarkable by the fact that his final victory was achieved when he was broke, and was only facilitated because friends took pity on him and paid his buy-in to the main event.