Former Arsenal ace opens up on wasting his money playing poker

Ex-Arsenal man, Nicklas Bendtner has opened up on how he spent a sizeable chunk of his fortune on poker.

The Dane spent several years at Arsenal and he scored 45 goals for them in almost 200 games before departing in 2014.

He is currently a free agent, but he has started his own reality tv show with his model girlfriend and he opened up on his poker habit which he doesn’t actually see as a problem in one of the episodes.

The 32-year-old revealed that he has been hooked on the game of poker since he was 19 as he started by playing Texas Hold’Em.

While based in London and playing for the Gunners, he claimed that he was always involved in high stakes poker sessions and reveals that he has spent around £6 million on the game.

He, however, insisted that he doesn’t think he had an addiction problem because he could always control it.

Bendtner said as quoted in the Sun: “I have lost lots of money – a totally unrealistic amount.

“I’ve played a lot of poker in my life. I’ve been playing against a professional poker player since I was 19.

“It is difficult to put an amount on how much I have lost, but it is around 50 million Danish crowns – £6m.

“This was on gambling, fun and trouble.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a gambling problem at all. I’ve always been able to control it.

“However in the past I played in really big games. One night in London things got out of control, and they could have ended up really wrong.

“It ended up not so badly. It was something I could have lived with.

“But from that night on, playing in high-stake games has been over for me.

“Since then I have chosen to play for far smaller amounts.

“Now I mostly play for the sake of the game.

“I’m due to host a poker night with a new group of friends. We just put in 100 crowns – £12 – each.”