Have you ever wondered what the Hollywood elite do once the cameras stop rolling? While some of them may retire to their mansions in Beverley Hills, others like to relax by hitting the casino. Plenty of movie stars are also poker players. In this article, we discuss six of the most famous actors who also play poker.  

Ben Affleck 

Ben Affleck has pretty much ticked all the cinematic boxes possible. He has been an actor, screenwriter, and director, managing to do them all to perfection. He rose to prominence as a poker player in the mid-2000s, taking lessons from professional players such as Amir Vahedi.
  
Even before his career at the poker table, he was doing well in casinos. In 2001, he won $800,000 at a game of blackjack. By 2004 he had moved to poker, winning $356,400 at the California State Poker Championships. He is also known to be one of the celebrities who would take part in high-stakes poker games at the Viper Rooms in Los Angeles.  

Tobey Maguire 

The aforementioned poker games at the Viper Rooms were organised by arguably the most fanatical of Hollywood’s poker players, Tobey Maguire. He also started his career around the same time as Affleck, circa 2004 at the height of the poker boom. Like Affleck, he was trained by the very best, hiring Canadian six-time World Series of Poker winner Daniel Negreanu to train him.  

Jennifer Tilly

Jennifer Tilly is a Hollywood actress, who has featured in movies such as Bullets Over Broadway, Bound, and even horror thrillers like Bride of Chucky. One of her early movies was Let It Ride, a movie about gambling on horse racing.  

Her early life was spent in Harbour City, Los Angeles, where she has said she was given a poker video game by her father. This sparked her interest in the pursuit and this move paid off. She has been coached by player Phil Laak, who she has also been romantically involved with.  

To date, her achievements include a World Series Poker winners bracelet and she has won the Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold’em competition. This has seen her net over $1 million in winnings. Despite a few breaks where she has returned to acting, she continues to play to this day.  

Shannon Elizabeth 

Shannon Elizabeth was almost a professional tennis player, before becoming a teen idol in Hollywood during the late nineties and early noughties. Her acting break came when she was cast in the American Pie trilogy. 

However, it could be said her poker career has been more successful than that of her acting. She once described it as her second career. Between 2006 and 2010, she played in the main event of the World Series of Poker. She then won a tournament celebrating the opening of a new room at Caesar’s Palace. With a few more accolades under her belt, she retired in 2010 without saying why and has now made a return to acting.  

Kevin Hart 

Kevin Hart has had quite a career as a poker player. A lot of his income has come from brand associations, being sponsored by some of the biggest online sites for poker players in the US and beyond. They provide a range of games and are part of the reason the popularity of poker has spread so far. Many of these poker sites are ranked on a range of criteria, including the quality of the user experience, and the range of buy-ins catering to all levels of player.

 With his “everyman”, funny guy-next-door attitude, Kevin Hart is a great choice as an ambassador who shows that poker can be enjoyed by everyone. 

This has meant his tournaments have had some huge buy-ins, including a 2017 super high roller event which had a $100,000 buy-in. After this, he went to another in Las Vegas with a $300,000 buy-in. However, his style is extremely aggressive and sporadic, meaning he either wins gloriously or fails in the same fashion.  

Matt Damon 

Matt Damon is another veteran of the Viper Room games. Despite being known for this, and even featuring in the movie Rounders which is a classic poker-themed game, Damon shies away from the cameras. Most of his poker playing is done in secret, ensuring only the inside circle knows how good he is and how much he has managed to win.  

There are plenty of other celebrity poker players, from game show hosts to sports stars. However, Hollywood provides some of the most interesting characters at the table, with money to spend and the urge to take risks. It can’t be long before a new crop arrives on the poker scene.