The off season provides NHL players—and all professional athletes—with precious time away from the game, time to explore other ventures and skills, and time with loved ones. For Phil Kessel, the offseason has also meant a trade from Pittsburgh to Arizona and the beginning of a new era in his remarkable NHL career. But amid the mid-June uncertainty regarding his career with Pittsburgh, Kessel was leaned over a poker table in Las Vegas, competing with top professionals in the World Series of Poker.
Right Wing Phil Kessel (#81) of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It’s not unusual for professional athletes to try their hand at other skill-based games-—whether it be poker, chess, or e-sports—but it’s not always the case that they excel or find any significant success that garners public attention. In fact, the media invests little time spotlighting elite players’ competitive hobbies or offseason activity—unless it involves luxury-vacation Instagram posts or legal missteps, of course. However, Kessel has been an exception, finding success, garnering media attention, and befriending top professional poker players with his card-playing acumen. And he’s done all of this while being a scoring beast on the ice and leading the Penguins to a Stanley Cup.
A Pastime Paying Off
For the better part of a decade, Kessel has participated in the World Series of Poker every summer, playing a few tournaments each year. What’s impressive is that he’s cashed six times over this span, which is a solid cash rate for any tournament poker player, much less a non-professional. The feat becomes even more praiseworthy when you consider that tens of thousands of players enter 20-30 events each year and don’t cash at all.
Kessel developed a passion for poker through playing Pot-limit Omaha with his father, Phil Kessel, Sr., who also participated in the 2019 WSOP. After entering the NHL, 
Kessel played (and still plays) Pot-limit Omaha and No-limit Hold’em with teammates and in casinos, continuing to sharpen his game. Drawn by the competitiveness and strategy of the game, he frequently studies to improve his skills (which is going beyond what most “recreational” poker players do). It seems his dedication and drive from hockey carry over quite well, and he’s earned a nice profit (and reputation) at the tables as a result.
From One Game to Another
We seldomly expect amateurs to compete with or outperform seasoned professionals—and this seems true in business, sports, academia, and an endless number of skill-based activities. Imagine the average professional poker player skating out onto the ice and getting checked for the first time—not pretty. So, when we see a successful crossover, the immediate curiosity is how they were able to do it. This curiosity can only be amplified when a professional hockey player crosses over into poker and matches step with professionals.
On the surface, the two activities couldn’t be more opposite in terms of the nature of the competition. You have the physically-active nature of hockey vs. the passive sitting down in poker, the team dynamic in hockey vs. the everyone-in-it-for-themselves dynamic in poker, and the physical threat of a puck flying at one’s face vs. the threat of a paper cut from a poorly-dealt card. It wouldn’t be difficult to think of Kessel as having two very distinct talents and skill sets. But poker and hockey have much more in common that first meets the eye.
Kessel isn’t the first professional hockey player to find success in poker. Greg Mueller, who discovered and played the game during team travel, has taken his dedication to poker to new heights since retiring. He has become a fixture in the high-stakes poker world and at the WSOP. According to The Hendon Mob—a website that tracks poker tournament winnings—Mueller has amassed a nifty $3,410,220 from his “hobby.” And now Phil Kessel seems to be on a similar path.
If we omit physicality, it becomes much easier to recognize the similar skills at play between hockey and poker. Psychologically speaking, success in hockey and poker both involve consistent desire and self-motivated study. Both involve taking risks, predicting opponents’ strategies, countering using acquired knowledge, and an extraordinary focus on timing and decision making. Performance under pressure is also key, as there are direct consequences for decisions made (e.g., pressured decisions immensely affect whether one wins or loses in hockey, just as they do in poker).
Like Mueller, Kessel seems to have tapped deep into these skill sets and continues to excel on the ice and at the tables, with room to grow. With his move to Arizona, which has struggled to make it to the postseason, Kessel’s motivation, risk-taking, and decision-making skills will be tested. Regardless, he continued to make his mark on the poker world this summer, proving that his success hasn’t been a one-off. Now, aside from figuring things out with the Coyotes, his only task will be booking his annual pilgrimage to Vegas.
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