One of the key reasons poker is so popular are the celebrities and famous poker pros that play the game. Unlike athletes in pro sports, poker pros are very accessible and can be found at the tables at online poker sites as well as at WPT and WSOP tournaments. Many online sites sponsor well-known poker pros who regularly play on the sites, and top pros can also regularly be found in cash games in Las Vegas as well as at premier live poker events around the globe.

You’ll likely never have the chance to compete with Federer or Tiger Woods, but if you play your cards right you can tangle with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth. You’re not relegated to getting their autograph and shaking their hands, as you can take a seat at the table and take them on for real, something not possible in nearly every other sport.

The best online poker sites to find poker pros at are Full Tilt and PokerStars, as both sites have signed a huge roster of pros that play for them, both online and at live events. PokerStars is the home of many former WSOP Main Event champions such as Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Cada, while Full Tilt made an early name for itself by being the home of Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Howard Lederer.

Both sites have greatly expanded their rosters of poker pros in recent years, with the result being that you can find sponsored pros at a wide range of stakes and buy-ins, and not just at the highest nosebleed stakes. Even if you don’t want to tangle with the pros, it can be exciting to watch them play one another for huge pots that exceed what most of us make working for an entire year!

In addition to some of the world’s top poker players, there are also plenty of well-known celebrities that have taken up the game of poker. Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Matt Damon, and Sam Simon are just a few of the Hollywood celebrities that show up regularly at the World Series of Poker each year, and sports stars such as Boris Becker, Mats Sundin, and Sebastien Chabal have also been spotted at the poker tables.

Jennifer Tilly and Ben Affleck are two other celebrities that have not just spent time rubbing elbows with poker pros, but have had success of their own, with Tilly winning a WSOP Ladies event and Affleck winning the California State Poker Championship in 2004.

Some people might question why you’d ever want to play with the world’s best poker pros, as poker is a game where you’d obviously prefer to be the best player at the table. And it is a good question, but it also speaks to the competitive nature of many winning poker players. If you don’t feel the desire to battle it out with one of the all-time poker greats like Doyle Brunson to see if you’ve got what it wakes, well, you may have a hard time grinding your way to the top of the poker world.

Sites such as Full Tilt also offer special prizes if you knock a pro out of a tournament, as you get a cash award of whatever the entry fee was for each poker pro you knock out, as well as a free t-shirt.