PokerStars Culls Pro Roster

It is no secret that the events on and following Black Friday put either an end to, or a major damper on, the careers of most online poker players in the United States.  But what about some of the players who have made their names playing live?  Aside from some changes in the activity at the brick and mortar tables, there are still live tournaments and cash games in which to play, after all.  Unfortunately, it appears that at least a few poker celebrities will need to start hitting the felt a bit more often, as a source of income may have disappeared.

From the looks of the PokerStars.com website, the world’s largest online poker room has parted ways with three members of Team PokerStars: USA.  While no official announcement has been made, Tom McEvoy, Bill Chen, and Dennis Phillips are no longer shown as members of the team.  It perhaps should not come as a total surprise that the roster would be paired down, since PokerStars does not have the traffic it did before Black Friday, as it had to shut out all players from the United States.  As such, it likely does not have the money to be paying for so many pros, especially those who would appeal the most to American customers.

A scan of the remaining Team PokerStars: USA roster would lead one to the conclusion that it was simply a business decision to eliminate those three based on marketing appeal.  Most of the players still on the team are either young and/or “hip” (Vanessa Rousso, David Williams, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier, Joe Cada) or have achieved fame that goes beyond age or recent success (Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein).  All of them should still have some appeal to the non-U.S. player.  McEvoy, Chen, and Phillips, on the other hand, while all highly respected and well liked, just don’t carry the same “sexiness” that the others do, and may simply not draw in the customers.  If three players had to be cut, it is not too hard to make a case for these three, though they are all very deserving of spots on the team.

Tom McEvoy won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 1983, defeating Rod Peate heads-up in what was the longest heads-up match in WSOP history until the unbelievable $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. battle between the late Chip Reese and Andy Bloch in 2006.  McEvoy was the first Main Event winner to earn his seat via a satellite.  He has won a total of four WSOP bracelets in his career, but has not been a very visible face to the casual poker player in years.  Despite not really being a poker “celebrity” at this point, McEvoy is thought of highly in poker circles and has contributed greatly to the poker community by writing some of the most highly respected poker books ever published.

Bill Chen is a “poker nerd’s” poker player.  He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Cal-Berkeley and triple majored in physics, math, and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis.  Needless to say, Chen plays poker by the numbers, rather than by feel or intuition.  To that end, he co-authored a book with Jerrod Ankenman, The Mathematics of Poker, which was published in 2006.  He had been very well known in the hard-core poker community for years going back to the days of the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup, but it wasn’t until 2006 when his name became known in wider circles, as he won two WSOP bracelets.

Unlike the other two, Dennis Phillips, wasn’t known at all in the poker community until his third place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event after starting the final table as the chip leader.  He became that amateur “every man” that Chris Moneymaker had become back in 2003.  Proving that he was no one-tournament wonder, Phillips followed up his 2008 success with a 45th place finish in the 2009 Main Event and then placed third in the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship.  Phillips also has a weekly radio show broadcast from Harrah’s St. Louis called “The Final Table.”