From Football Tragedy to Poker Triumph: Ruben Correia’s Inspiring Journey

Whether you are raised in North America with baseball and hockey, Europe and South America with football and basketball, or in Asia, where cricket and table tennis reign supreme, there is one thing that unites us all: the thrill of competition. Some people excel at sports, and to them the physical competition is their driving force, while others it’s the mental aspect in which they battle, and regardless of which it is, competition is at the heart of it all. But what happens when you lose the ability to compete in your chosen domain?

PLAY AT THE WSOP

When Football Dreams Shattered

That is what happened to Ruben Correia. Born in Portugal, he was bred for football. He lived and breathed the lifestyle as many Portuguese children do. To see him now, the tree-trunk thick legs and an upper body to match, you would think, ‘yes, here is a football player.’ Sadly for Ruben, that was not to be. While he did excel on the pitch, it was an unfortunate accident that landed him in the hospital with a torn ACL. The injury put him on bed rest for months while it healed and completely derailed his budding football career. “The worst part about the injury, other than the pain, was that I could not compete. The thrill of competition has always been something I loved and to have it taken away was horrible.”

Finding Competition in Cards

Something good did come out of the injury: Ruben found poker. He found a way to compete without affecting his recovery, and he could do it whenever he wanted. “I made my first deposit online and, like happens to most people, I lost. I don’t like losing.”

That loss led to Ruben studying the game, which led him to PokerStrategy, a website that offered players rewards for completing poker courses. Ruben would take the course, study the material and then take the rewards and play. He would use what he learned from the course on the tables and slowly his game improved.

Ruben joined GGPoker pre-COVID, and it is now his preferred site. “I really like the software, it’s really nice. There is always a PLO cash game going so I know I can always find a game. Plus the Omaholics Series, it’s good when I can play them.” Ruben does prefer PLO Cash games over Hold’em and tournaments, citing the ease of finding a game combined with the thrill of the variance in the game. “When you can consistently win at PLO, you know you’re good.”

Six Years of Vegas Dreams

2025 marks Rubens’ sixth time playing at the WSOP, and this is definitely his deepest run; his previous deepest run was in 2023, when he finished 224th. “It has been great this year with the WSOP+ app. It makes everything so easy, a total game changer. In previous years, the line ups were insane. It made it nearly impossible to rebuy in any tournament – bust out, wait 2 hours to rebuy, then wait another hour until your seat was called. It’s so easy now and everything is instantly ready to go. I love it.”

Ruben is one of the few players who have survived through eight days of the WSOP Main Event. And while he has outlasted over 9,700 competitors, he did not spend a lot of time with any big-name old school pros (as most players don’t in fields this large). “I did spend day 1 with ‘The Grinder’ on my left. We didn’t get into many hands together, but we ended the day as chip leaders. I also spent day 6 with Isaac Haxton at my table. He was a tough player.”

29 Million Chips and Feature Table Fear

Rubens comes into Day 8 with 29M in chips, sitting 7th on the leaderboard. He knows there is a lot of play left and is aware that he will likely have to face off against Mizrachi, who is down to under 12M chips, again. “He’s on a shorter stack, but I don’t think you can ever really count him out.” Ruben knows that on Day 8, he will be at a feature table, which for him is not ideal, “I prefer not to be there. Being on the feature table means the other players can see how I’m playing. I’ll stay off the feature table as long as possible.”

Aggressive Strategy for the Final Push

Going into the day, Ruben gave some insight on his strategy. “I’m going to play very aggressively from position. Lots of 3-bets, especially against the smaller stacks and people out of position. But against the bigger stacks and out of position, I’ll slow it down. I play much better post-flop. For me, post-flop is easier to play. You have so much more information.”

As Ruben leaves to prepare for the next level, he leaves us with one final thought, “If you want to play poker seriously, you need to take it seriously. Sure, it’s fun, but poker is a very tough game, especially now with so much more information available. If you want to get good at poker, like anything you are going to compete in, you have to work at it.”

Updates

Ruben entered Day 8 with 29M, sitting 7th of 24 players. As of the 2nd break of the day, he is holding somewhat comfortably at 27.5M, having dropped back to 10th with just 17 players remaining. Play will continue today until the final nine are decided.

Article written by: Shawn Altbaum
Photographs by Tim Ash and are owned and are the exclusive property of GGPoker.