Sully Erna has had a storied career as the frontman for American heavy rock band Godsmack. He’s got to tour the world and play the music he loves to hundreds of thousands of people. But his passion doesn’t just lie with music.
In 2006, Erna stepped away from the stage and the recording studio, and instead ventured into the competitive world of professional poker. He made his bow at tournament in Las Vegas that year where his progress was tracked by sports channel ESPN. The tournament featured a whopping 8,000 players and Erna ended up finishing in a very respectable 713th place taking home over $17,000.
Following on from that Erna continued his foray in the world of poker appearing at a slew of professional tournaments including the 5 Diamond World Poker Classic, which he took $307,000 home in prize money when he managed to finish in 2nd place in the event.
By now Erna had developed a skillset in the sport that was beginning to turn heads in the poker world. But in 2007 Erna got to show the music world his poker skills, too when he featured in the VH1 Charity Celebrity Rock and Roll Poker Tournament. However, it didn’t go all Erna’s way, as he was defeated in a heads-up battle with legendary Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. Proving that he wasn’t the best poker player in the world of metal, just yet at least.
However, after Erna’s hiatus from music he eventually returned to release the critically acclaimed ‘1000hp’ in 2014 with Godsmack. But after a world tour and the aforementioned record, Erna once again outlined his intentions to get back to the world of poker.
In an interview with ESPN, Erna enthused about how he had been missing the competitive world of poker. And like his peers before him, he was just part of a long list of musicians who had been drawn to the bright lights of the casinos over the years. Scott Ian, as aforementioned, was one of these musicians who first starting playing online before ‘Black Friday’ shut down many online sites.
InterCasino was the first of these portals to go live in 1996, and from that point many casino websites had been free to operate in the United States until Black Friday put a stop to this. Although some states in the country have started to legalize it once more the lines are still blurred in the country. Erna decided that because he couldn’t play online, the next best thing was to try his luck in live tournaments, and well, the rest is history.