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One of the biggest names in mixed martial arts, #11 ranked UFC middleweight Paulo Costa is now an official ambassador for crypto-based poker site CoinPoker.com, and is set to live stream a poker game on the site this Sunday on YouTube.
He joins a star-studded team alongside former world champion boxer Carl Froch, and some of the best online poker minds in the game - including fellow Brazilian pro Olivio 'Bigfat' Gontijo, Triton main event final tablist Mario Mosböck, Bobby James, Tony G and more.
Paulo Costa’s Passion For Poker And Crypto
Followers of Paulo - 800,000 strong across X and YouTube - will know he’s a crypto enthusiast, often posting about Bitcoin and meme coins when he’s not discussing politics or the MMA and BJJ scene.
Originally from Minas Gerais, Brazil, Paulo discovered poker while training for fights in Las Vegas. Speaking to CoinPoker, he described how he first got into Texas Hold’em:
Whenever I watched poker tournaments for money on television, I was intrigued by that. There was so much money involved, a huge fanbase of people from all over the world and many celebrities playing, well-known people from other sports, from other sectors and then, I thought: "man, how interesting".
But I never knew how the rules worked, I had never played. I've always played Truco, which is very typical of Minas, but I'd never played a type of game like poker that can be played by several people, maybe 6, 7, at the same time, all competing against each other. So I started researching and then one of the times I went to fight in Vegas, we had the opportunity to go to the casinos and there were also some poker rooms and then I personally saw people playing and betting real money.
That sparked the desire to learn even more and I started playing it on some apps, no real money. After four, five, six months playing, I learned better strategies watching some live tournaments on YouTube. It increased my passion for it - the inclination for the desire to play and to learn and discover more and more. And then I started playing online against other people and then I started playing for money, real games, especially in Las Vegas but some times in my hometown also.
It was a surreal experience, like, getting super adrenalized, even betting a little, like, 50 dollars, 60 dollars, the adrenaline felt like I was betting my house, or a car worth millions. That's when the whole mental and emotional aspect of the game came in. That made feel like I can say that the game is 90% mental, the mind game is strong to be able to make a bet when you have nothing or when you have a good hand, but not great and then an opponent comes and raises the stakes, you have to go all in and such.
So it really is a unique and very peculiar game, that touches all the emotions. The emotion that poker brings is indescribable. Only Poker can provide that. That's why it's such a captivating game, which reaches more and more people every day. I'm a big fan and passionate player and I'm trying to learn more and more to be a better player. It really is a game that gets the adrenaline pumping. I'm addicted to adrenaline. And poker is a great place where I can live this experience and all the emotions at a poker table.
Join Paulo Costa on CoinPoker
CoinPoker hosts No Limit Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, in both cash games and tournaments - players will now have the opportunity to play against Paulo, including freerolls aimed at the Brazilian market - hosted by Olivio Gontijo - as well as worldwide players.
Paulo will be live streaming high stakes poker on his YouTube and the CoinPoker channels (Twitch or YouTube or both), chatting with players and giving away exclusive autographed merchandise.
The first live stream by Paulo will take place on Sunday, December 15 at 2pm BST on CoinPoker’s Twitch (and his own YouTube) with giveaways and free tickets to a $25 Paulo Costa PKO tournament (progressive knockout).
Being a blockchain poker site, all countries are accepted and players bet with Tether (USDT), equivalent to US dollars. Stakes range from as low as $0.02/$0.05 and free-to-enter tournaments, all the way up to $1000/$2000 and higher.
CoinPoker is known for hosting the largest pot in online poker history, an over $7 million PLO pot won by Tony G, and at the time of writing is hosting a Cash Game World Championship event with online poker crushers like LLinusLLove and DavyJones at the NLHE tables.
CoinPoker also recently became the new regional sponsor for the Argentina national football team.
