Sponsored Poker Pro

Over the past five years the poker world has seen ever increasing numbers of players being sponsored by big name poker rooms. It is almost as if the top sites are competing with each other to sign up the most players whenever the WSOP main event nears it’s conclusion.

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This does make you wonder what the criteria is for players to be sponsored. It seems that for some players, one very lucky tournament and a little knowledge of poker is all you need to be seen as the right candidate to fly the flag for a poker room. Meanwhile, players such as Jeff Lisandro who won three bracelets at this years WSOP and has been an established and successful pro for many years, seem to be overlooked. In the modern era, promoting poker, and indeed poker brand names, appears to require either a youthful person showing great promise, or an already highly recognisable star within the poker world.

It would be good to see some of the established poker pros that have proved themselves over the years being taken on for sponsorship, but for the moment it seems the new generation are the players of choice. This brings up an interesting point however, as Tom Dwan is one of the most exciting new talents to appear in the poker world, and he doesn’t appear to have been sponsored by any poker room. It could of course be that he has no need for such sponsors and does not wish to be signed up by anyone, and I’m sure many of us could understand if that was the case.

Full Tilt Poker has an extensive list of sponsored poker players, including some of the brightest stars ever to play the game. These pros earn their living at poker and represent Full Tilt at every live event in which they participate. After some very good performances recently, a new player has been added to the list of sponsored pros.

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Michael Tureniec is a 23 year old Swedish player, who has been very impressive in recent tournaments, including a 19th place in the Aussie Millions main event this year. Making the top 20 in such a prestigious event is quite an achievement, but Tureniec has not only managed this one good finish. He has also shown great skill in reaching the latter stages of other European events too, and looks like becoming Swedens best known player.

Poker rooms such as Full Tilt are always on the lookout for upcoming talent at the highest levels, having already sponsored several players who made this years WSOP final table. Those players, along with Full Tilts Phil Ivey, will be flying the flag for Full Tilt when the final table reconvenes in November. Many of these sponsored pros can be found at Full Tilts tables, and although Tom Dwan is not a member of the Full Tilt poker team, he is fast becoming a major star of the poker world.  He made profits of over $2 million in May alone at Full Tilt, and continues to be feared at the tables online.

For the most part, the world of poker has been a little more quiet of late, as the WSOP has come to and end, although there will be more EPT and WPT events coming up.

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One issue that has been in discussion in recent weeks though, has been the issue of which player will be the next to be inducted in pokers hall of fame. There has been a list of candidates compiled, featuring a number of sponsored pros, both old and young. This list of ten players was voted by the general public, but the two new hall of famers will be voted for by both the existing 15 hall of fame players, and 15 knowledgable people chosen from within media.

One of the surprises on the list of nominees is Tom Dwan. At just 22 years old, it is exceptional that he has even been nominated, but it looks unlikely that he will be voted in yet. Pokerstars pro Daniel Negreanu is a nominee, but again, he is perhaps still a little young to become a hall of fame member. The same applies to Phil Ivey, despite his excellent year and WSOP main event final table coming up in November.

The most likely new inductees will be either Eric Seidel, Mike Sexton, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Men Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, or Dan Harrington. There would certainly be a strong argument for each of these players, but Barry Greenstein’s longevity and good work both within poker and outside of it would give him my vote. The many bracelets of a quiet and unassuming Eric Seidel also put him in a good position. Mike Sexton has done a great deal for poker and been around a long time too, and so it will be interesting to see who is chosen.

Sponsorship by a big name poker room is not an easy thing to achieve, but there are eight players who will sit down to the main event final table in November who have such sponsorship.

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The final table has a star attraction in Phil Ivey, who has had a long running sponsorship deal with Full Tilt poker and is fairly short stacked with 9.7 million in chips. Last year saw most of the final nine players sign up to Pokrstars for the final table, including the eventual 1st and 2nd place finishers. This year however, there is only one Pokerstars player in the form of Kevin Schaffel who is sitting on a little over 12 million chips.

Others who will be flying the Full Tilt flag include James Akenhead as the shortest stack on 6.8 million. It would be difficult to see him winning, but with the blind structures not putting huge pressure on compared to chip stacks, there is still a chance. Steven Begleiter has also taken a Full Tilt sponsorship and sits with a daunting 29.8 million at the final table.

Eric Buchman is the final Full Tilt player there with almost 35 million in chips. Jeff Schulman with 19.5 million has gone with little known poker room Spade Club, Joe Cada will be sponsored by Ultimate Bet and has 13.2 million poker chips for the final table. Antoine Saout holds 9.5 million chips and is sponsored by Everest poker. Strangely, the only player who refused all sponsorships from everyone is Darvin Moon, the man with the mammoth chip stack of 58.9 million.

Poker sponsorship is usually reserved for those that either consistently make their name in the biggest tournaments in the world, or do exceptionally well in one very big event.

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The WSOP main event is one example of unknown players becoming sponsored on the strength of one epic victory or deep run. Last year saw many of the final 9 players in the main event being sponsored by Pokerstars, with Ivan Demidov, and Peter Eastgate as first and second place finishers, being among those players.

Other players at Pokerstars include Daniel Negreanu, who is very well known and liked within the poker world. He is joined by main event champion Joe Hachem, Humberto Buenes, Barry Greenstein, and many other famous names.

Full Tilt sponsor many other famous names that most poker players have heard of. You can find Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, and other great players there too. Poker rooms often look to run promotions that involve the chance to play one or their pros, which will often draw in players, as everyone would love to have a story about beating a legend of the game.

Phil Hellmuth is the holder of the most ever WSOP bracelets, but has not been sponsored by one of the big name poker rooms. He is sponsored by Ultimate Bet, along with one or two other pro players. Another legend of the game in Doyle Brunson, is not sponsored by any poker room at all, as he has his very own poker room at Doyles Room.

Advertising has become bigger than ever during sponsored poker tournaments in recent years, with the expanding popularity of the game playing a part in this obviously. All the major events on the calendar do not have many problems being sponsored, but it would be difficult to get a smaller tournament sponsored I would think.

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As a company looking to sponsor an event, it would make sense to stick to sponsoring poker tournaments that are televised, due to the potentially huge numbers of people that will then see your logo on television. In this case, the advertisers will win big. During this years, and last years WSOP, poker rooms such as Pokerstars were very keen to sponsor most of the players that reached the final table. I suppose this was partly to ensure that whichever of the players happened to make it to the last two, there was a good chance they would have a sponsored player in the mix.

So it is not always a case of the tournaments themselves being the only place sponsors can place advertising through sponsorship, as they can also ask players who make it far into the tournament to wear their colours too. It is difficult to say just how much of an effect this has in terms of bringing new players into poker rooms, but you would have to say that those players that are very succesful are often followed by regular players. These players might not all choose the online poker room that is written across their favourite players chest, but you can be sure that some of them will.

I read a quote once that said ‘Poker is a hard way to make an easy living’. I feel there is a lot of truth in this, and never has this been more the case than in the past few years. Professional poker players have always relied on small edges and margins to turn a profit at the game. There is not some secret that only professional players know that causes them to make a profit year on year. Maintaining a more stringent dedication to the small factors that give you an edge over the man next to you, is crucial.

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I have often been asked by those that do not play poker how the game is not a simple case of luck. My reply is always that when a very skilled player has the second best hand at the table, they lose less money than the man next to them would have. Experience and a good sense of judgement ensure you lose the minimum when the going gets rough, but also, when you have the best hand at the table, if you are skilled, you will make the maximum profit. These are the variables of poker that professional players can alter. Keeping a firm hold of your emotions no matter what befalls you will help earn a living at the game much more than you might think too.

One piece of bad luck followed up by two hands of frustrated reckless play, just once a week even, can make a considerable dent in your profit over a year. Professional poker players dedicate years of their life to understanding the situations a deck of cards will bring, and this wisdom, judgement, and nurtured skill will always bring a slight edge eventually. There will be days when luck is good and days when it is bad, but the certainty in poker is that luck will even out over time, and differences in talent will not.

Poker staking is something which has come to the fore in recent years, although the idea itself is not entirely new. Mike Sexton famously staked the winner of the main event in 1996, Stu Ungar, and the reasons why he would choose to stake such a player are obvious. Stu Ungar was perhaps the most naturally gifted player poker has ever seen, and so it would make sense to stake such a player.

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That brings us to the issue of poker staking in the modern game. There could be a general sentiment I feel, that those who are talented enough to be worthy of staking would surely be able to win enough money at the game to stake themselves, but not everyone feels this way. There are still people out there who will stake a poker player, but with so many talented poker players on the scene nowadays, you would normally have to be lucky to get staked in such events.

There is currently a scheme running called ‘Black Belt Poker’ which involves poker staking and training for talented players. Joining this poker site would increase your chances of getting staked, and some poker sites can even offer a similar deal to players who prove their worth online. Keep an eye out with online poker rooms for offers which involve being staked to a tournament and play excellent poker. I think that in terms of poker staking, this is all you can really do to increase your chances in my opinion.

Antonio Esfandiari has become a well known name on the professional poker players scene, as much for his outgoing personality and crazy prop bets as anything else.

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He was born Amir Esfandiari, in Iran, 1978. He later moved to California with his family, and decied to become a professional magician after developing his skill with different tricks. It is easy to see how card tricks might bring a young Antonio (having changed his name at the age of 19) into contact with card players, and subsequently, Texas Holdem.

Antonio became a successful poker player very quickly, but it was not until 2004 that he picked up his first WSOP bracelet in a $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem Event. This was followed by a WPT title in the following years, along with several appearances on television. Many popular poker shows invite players such as Antonio, because they create a very watchable show as well as being astute cash players. You may say that Antonio does not have a very long list of titles to his name, but he has made profits well into seven figures at tournaments alone, throughout his career.

Antonio is known for his part in the television show ‘I Bet You’ with Phil Laak also co starring, and makes many strange bets whilst at the tables with fellow pros. Antonio would be an asset to any game of poker, but do not be fooled by his limited amount of titles, as there will surely be more won by him in the years to come.

Phil Hellmuth was born in Wisconsin, July 1964, and is certainly one of the most colourful poker professionals on the circuit. He has made a name for himself in several ways, and certainly realises his own talents.

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The first significant point to make about Phil Hellmuth jr, is that he is the current bracelet record holder, with 11 WSOP bracelets to his name. Every one of these bracelets has been won at Texas Holdem, which shows his strength in this game, as much as it perhaps demonstrates weakness at others.

Hellmuths first ever bracelet came in 1989 when at the age of 24, he prevented Johnny Chan from picking up an unprecedented three straight main event titles. He became the youngest player ever to win this title, an accolade which he held until last year. Phil Hellmuth is certainly well respected for his excellent achievements within the game, but he is not necessarily well liked by all. He has always been an explosive character, and a perfectionist, often chastising his oppnents for what he sees as poor play.

Many regular poker players have perhaps taken a dislike to him, but you have to respect the amount of World Series bracelets he has won. Perhaps the most noticeable thing missing from Hellmuths achievements, other than the lack of bracelets in different game varieties, is his lack of a WPT title. He has had some success in this area with three final tables, but has yet to convert this into a win. Whether you like his personality at the tables or not, Phil Hellmuth is the most successful Holdem player there has ever been, and continues to be a factor in any tournament he plays.