button in SafariPoker Playing Soccer Coach to Face Off Against USA in World Cup
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When US Men's National Soccer Team coach Mauricio Pochettino takes his place in the dugout against Bosnia & Herzegovina on July 1 for the US' Round of 32 World Cup clash, his opposite number will be a poker player who has made not one, but two World Series of Poker final tables.
Sergej Barbarez, who took charge of Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2024 for his first managerial role, has guided his country to its first World Cup appearance in 12 years. Before stepping into coaching, however, he was a regular on the tournament poker circuit, recording dozens of live cashes worth hundreds of thousands.
How Good Was Bosnia & Herzegovina Manager at Poker?
Barbarez’s recorded tournament results span more than 13 years, according to his Card Player, Hendon Mob and WSOP profiles. His two WSOP final tables stand out as the headline results, both coming in Pot-Limit Omaha events in 2017.
The first came in Las Vegas during the 2017 WSOP, where Barbarez finished eighth in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $21,172, before making an even deeper run just a few months later at the 2017 World Series of Poker Europe in Rozvadov, finishing fifth in the €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-Max event for $24,385, where Allen Kessler joined him at the final table.
The Bosnian tactician's biggest recorded cash came in 2022 in a $600 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2022 ARIA Poker Classic, where he finished runner-up in a 301-entry field for $28,299.
A former striker with a very respectable scoring streak in Germany's Bundesliga, Barbarez also recorded big results elsewhere on the live circuit, including just over $20,000 from a PLO event at the 2019 World Poker Tour Barcelona, alongside further cashes at the WSOP, on the European Poker Tour and at the Wynn Summer Classic.
His most recent recorded result came just one year before he took charge of the Bosnia & Herzegovina national team, when, in 2023, he finished 13th of 182 entries in the WSOP Circuit Rozvadov €550 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty Hunter, earning €1,035.
A clear PLO specialist over his career, Barbarez's record suggests he was a highly competent, if not successful, poker player, with his two WSOP final tables and ARIA runner-up finish standing as results many would be proud of.
Will Poker Player Turned Coach Get the Better of Pochettino's USMNT?
Poker's our game, not soccer, so we'll just say Caesars Sportsbook makes the US team heavy favorites to win their knockout match against Bosnia, offering odds of -205 on the USMNT to Bosnia & Herzegovina's +550 in San Francisco next Wednesday.
That said, for Pochettino, one of the most respected managers in world soccer, there's no doubt that going toe-to-toe with a former poker pro will present a unique challenge. After all, Barbarez must be the only manager in world soccer with multiple WSOP final table appearances to his name.
And should Bosnia crash out, there's at least a silver lining for the coach: the 2026 WSOP Main Event gets underway at Horseshoe & Paris on July 2nd, the very next day!
