In the past, we’ve covered the metal poker sharks who are known to go all-in when they’re off stage. Some are more famous than others – icons like Lemmy and Slash – but there’s enough space in the limelight for other artists in metal and rock scenes that like to put on a poker face. That’s why we’ve gathered three more rockstars who have tried their hand at playing competitive poker, including one who swapped a music career for world-record success at the felt table.
Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains)
While Anthrax’s Scott Ian gets his flowers for being a natural at poker, Alice in Chains founder Jerry Cantrell is sometimes left out of the picture. He has participated in multiple rockstar poker events for charity, many of them televised, and later worked with Scott Ian to start a Las Vegas bar called the Dead Man’s Hand, named after Wild Bill Hickock’s dying poker hand.
This all happened in the late 2000s, early 2010s, but Cantrell still hosts his own poker nights, and posts images from them on Instagram. Like any musician that’s moved with the times, he knows that posting about both his music and his off-stage adventures on social media is a great way to engage with fans. It’s also crucial in order to stand out in a time where the internet is already brimming with daily pop culture and poker news, covering a ton of big upcoming events. Cantrell’s latest bout of televised poker was in 2018 where, once again, he collaborated with Scott Ian for an episode of Rock Royalty Night.
If you missed Scott Ian’s poker bona fides, you can read all about it in our previous article.
Steve Albini (Shellac)
Best known for his work with the noise rock band Shellac, the late Steve Albini was an influential figure who also lent his sound engineering talents to some of Nirvana’s and The Pixies’ most iconic albums, to say the very least. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the rock sound engineer often put his methodical mind to other pursuits – in this case, poker.
Albini competed in two different World Series of Poker events – one in 2018 and one in 2022. While he was an avid poker player, he elaborated in 2022 that “poker is one part of my life” and that he “only play(ed) tournaments at the World Series of Poker” but would “play cash games informally in Chicago.”
Liv Boeree (Nemhain)
Our last one is an exception – someone who’s more known for their poker exploits, yet to this day, they’re nicknamed for their love of metal music. It’s none other than Liv Boeree, known in poker circles as the Iron Maiden or the Poker Queen. That’s because she’s the only woman to win a World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour event, and she ranks top five in total winnings with the world record for the single largest cash prize won by a female poker player.
Before she became one of the most successful poker players in the world, Liv played lead guitar in two different rock bands. The first was Dissonance, while Liv was in university, but not much is documented from those days. After that, she performed as Liv Fast for the London-based goth rock band Nemhain. Nemhain was a project started by Adrian Erlandsson, long-term drummer from Cradle of Filth, who wanted to start his own thing. Within their first year, Liv would leave to pursue competitive poker and make a name for herself in other ways.
Together with other big names like Lemmy, Slash, Scott Ian, and Sully Erna, these are some of the most prominent metalhead poker players you’ll find in the scene. As new artists enter the limelight, we have no doubt we’ll see other rockstars drawn to the thrill of poker in the future.
