US President Barack Obama is known for being competitive on the basketball court, but he surprised onlookers by beating the Governor of Colorado in two consecutive games of pool and clinching a USD 20 wager.
"You know I'll tell ya -- the man is a shark," Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper told reporters at the National Governors Association meeting after the president surprised him by beating him in two consecutive games.
To add insult to injury, the two were playing at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, a bar that Hickenlooper co-founded.
"I was up a few balls. I felt pretty good. I was actually wondering whether how hard should I -- you can't beat the president of the United States. And then literally before my eyes, he ran like four balls," Hickenlooper was quoted as saying by CBS News.
The two Democrats had USD 10 on the line but decided to play double-or-nothing.
"I was playing as hard as I could possibly play" in the second game, the governor said on Sunday. Still, Obama beat him, and he made sure all the press was present to snap pictures when the governor handed him his USD 20 in winnings.
"Which is, like, very diminishing," the governor said.
Obama was in Colorado last week to attend Democratic fundraisers and talk about the economy.
Along with playing pool and drinking beer at Wynkoop, Obama was offered some marijuana -- which is now legal for adults under Colorado law. The president, knowing the drug is still illegal under federal law, declined.
A day after their pool game, Obama was clearly basking in his victory. He gloated about it multiple times, both at public events and fundraisers.
"I walked down the block to shoot some pool with Governor Hickenlooper at his old bar, the Wynkoop Brewing Company -- you should not ask him who won," Obama said to laughs at a public event in a Denver park.
