After a relatively long public absence from the world of poker, 14 time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Michael Phelps couldn’t stay away one day longer and was seen playing in Atlantic City recently.

Phelps was attending the Borgata Winter Open as a competing player in the $2000 heads up championship and was one of 64 players who joined the event late last week.

Phelps’ love of poker has never been a big secret. He regularly partakes in friendly games with his friends, and grew close to big pros such as Doyle Brunson in the past. It is also a known fact that Phelps uses an anonymous avatar to enter online poker tournaments and win his fair share, thanks to a raw talent that comes hand in hand with a winning spirit that helps him take down his competitors in swimming.

However, Phelps has been laying low in the past year, following the dramatic photo of him using a bong that appeared throughout the world media. Phelps has been trying to have the public forget the ‘bad boy’ image and, unfortunately for him, that means cutting back on public poker games.

Nevertheless, Phelps was back on the green felt at the Borgato and made it through to the second day. The swimmer lost to Jeff Madsen in the third round and then beat pros such as Adam Gerber and Paul Wasicka in another bracket.

In 2008, Phelps made the final table of the Caesar’s Palace Classic poker event with a $1500 buy in. The player finished ninth at event 2, out of more than 150 players, taking home $5,000 for his efforts.

In May 2009, a stripper revealed in a kiss-and-tell article that Phelps longed to be a professional poker hustler more than anything in the world. It should be noted that Theresa White spelled out the sexual details of her play dates with the Olympic swimmer as well.

In an interview last year, poker pro Daniel Negreanu said that Phelps was feeling the pressure as he was under a lot of scrutiny for everything that he does, but he predicted that the ‘bong incident’ would blow over in time. “What’s the big deal, really?” said Negreanu. “I’d squash it.”