Poker has always played well to music. From poker songs such as the hugely popular The Gambler by the late, sometimes great Kenny Rogers to card-flicking montages that make up much of ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker, cards and music go together like Phil Hellmuth and a snapback – somehow, you’re not quite sure how, they work together.  

What about the music that was top of the charts when some of poker’s biggest moments in history took place, however? From the late 1970’s to recent poker heroes, we’ve trawled the archives (well, YouTube) to find out what was number one in the UK Top 40 the day that each winner took home five of the most dramatic WSOP Main Event bracelets.

For the purposes of this list, we’ve gone with hits that were top of the pops in Britain, because it’s the home of music, with bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the Spice Girls creating a legacy of lyrics that we will never forget and musical melodies that are still hummed the world over to this day.

1976 – Doyle Brunson Wins His First WSOP Main Event

Coming from a close family in the Garden of England, our latest subject in the Poker Idols series is often called ‘Stevie’, and has one of the most familiar poses in poker. Who is he? Well, the man in 6th place in the all-time money list for live tournament players and the most successful tournament poker player in British history.

Stephen Chidwick has become synonymous with success in this era of GTO play. In fact, he might be the GTO player. So how did this supremely talented and highly respected individual conquer the poker world? Let’s take a look.

No Big Deal

Born and bred in Deal, Kent, the young Chidwick didn’t play his first live poker tournament until he was 19 years old, but when he did, he got off to a globetrotting start. Chidwick’s first-ever cash in a ranking event was an outright win as he took down the PCA $1,000 side event in January 2008 for $88,760. Over the next couple of years, Chidwick would only cash a handful of times live but he booked five flags from five different countries in those early results in The Bahamas, Barcelona, Paris, Punta Del Este and Las Vegas, with his first World Series of Poker cash coming courtesy of a 40th-place finish in a $1,500 bracelet event.

In the past few years, many facets of football media in particular has headed online. While the audience for Match of the Day is still huge, viewers no longer feel the need to tune in at 10.30pm on Saturday night to watch it. Instead, weekly highlights are viewed on demand, along with daily videos direct from the clubs themselves.

YouTube has become a treasure trove of football-related content, free and on demand.

One of the most popular of these channels isn’t one that comes from the club in an official capacity but was created by fans. Predictably, perhaps, it’s called Arsenal Fan TV, and is by far the most popular independent fan channel in the world.

AFTV, as it is abbreviated to, holds court with short interviews post-game with some of The Gunners’ biggest fans, such as the long-suffering host Robbie, ultra-positive headphone-wearing Ty, foul-mouthed rageaholic DT, Arsenal’s fan fam from the streets Troopz and moody old-timer Claude, though both the latter two of that selection no longer appear on the channel.

It’s been a busy year in poker for many players, but it’s hard to think of one who has been putting out content with the regularity and energy of Daniel Negreanu.

The 46-year-old, known as ‘Kid Poker’ is a big fan of the Rocky movies, but he found himself up against the ropes across the 12,000 hands played in the first half of the challenge.

It all started so well for Negreanu as he took a six-figure lead in the live portion of the challenge, which constituted a fairly thin 200 hands, all broadcast on PokerGO. Master of the live arena, Kid Poker banked a decent profit, but Polk was always going to be fine with that given the next 24,800 potential hands would be at the felt where he is king.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDj1viQ4E4Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: High Stakes Feud | Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDj1viQ4E4)