On Thursday, PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, announced that 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate and runner up Ivan Demidov have become the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro. The move bolsters the non-U.S. presence of the site, as Eastgate hails from Denmark and Demidov makes his home in Russia.
A few weeks prior to the start of the 2008 WSOP festivities, Harrah’s officials announced that the final table of the Main Event would be pushed back until November. In essence, the move created a lull of 100 days and the first ever “November Nine,” the final players standing. The nine final table contestants would have ample time to pursue sponsorships, seek training, and even review hands as the WSOP played out on ESPN. Eastgate and Demidov join fellow November Nine members Dennis Phillips and Ylon Schwartz on Team PokerStars Pro. The group represents the top four finishers in the tournament.
The PokerStars blog revealed that the signings have been in the works for awhile: “Ever since you saw the two sit down face-to-face for the epic World Series battle, you somehow knew they would end up in the elite Team Pro stable. It was just a matter of when it would happen.” Eastgate banked $9.1 million from the 2008 WSOP Main Event, his lone World Series cash to date. He showed his performance at the Rio was no fluke by taking down a $4,800 buy-in preliminary tournament held during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $343,000, defeating German player Florian Langmann heads-up.
Demidov became the first player ever to reach the final tables of both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events, taking third in the latter tournament for £334,850. His runner up performance in the Main Event in Las Vegas was worth a healthy $5.8 million. He also finished 11th in a $1,000 rebuy tournament during the 2008 WSOP for $39,000. Demidov is a former StarCraft player and math whiz, which explains his success at the poker felts. You can catch the Russian playing on PokerStars under the name “Ivan Demidov.”
Team PokerStars Pro recently welcomed Norwegian player Johnny Lodden to its ranks. The squad, which represents PokerStars at major live events and is intricately involved in its online promotions, is headlined by a trio of recent WSOP Main Event Champions: Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), and Joe Hachem (2005). At the end of February, Team PokerStars Pro also welcomed J.C. Alvarado, who originally hails from Mexico and now lives in Las Vegas.
Other members of Team PokerStars Pro include Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, John Duthie, Steven Paul-Ambrose, Luca Pagano, Victor Ramdin, Lee Nelson, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Humberto Brenes. The site plays host to some of the top women in poker, headlined by Go Daddy Girl Vanessa Rousso, who took second to Huck Seed in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will unfold beginning on April 12th on NBC. Other top female players who are members of Team PokerStars Pro include Katja Thater, Victoria Coren, and Maridu Mayrinck.
PokerStars is in the midst of Day 2 of its inaugural Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). The tournament series features events with low-stakes, mid-stakes, and high-stakes buy-ins. The very first event was a No Limit Hold’em Six-Max with Rebuys tournament. The low-stakes contest featured a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and attracted over 27,000 players, making it one of the largest online poker tournaments ever held. The mid-stakes $55 buy-in version attracted 4,057 players and the $550 buy-in high-stakes edition saw a field of 672 players compete. In Event 2, a Pot Limit Omaha High-Low tournament, 7,622 players showed up for the low-stakes, 2,104 for the mid-stakes, and 327 for the high-stakes. SCOOP culminates with its Main Event on April 12th.
