After half a day of humorous internet rumors and misunderstanding, European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie confirmed Monday morning that his time as a PokerStars pro has come to an end.
Word of the Duthie/Stars split came out on the Two Plus Two poker forums Sunday afternoon, but people wanted to know why the respected Brit was no longer with the world’s largest online poker room. Of course, since this was the internet, it was all but guaranteed that the jokes would fly. Problem was, some didn’t catch the web humor. It all started with the post referencing the recent rake and VIP program changes by PokerStars, “Is this because he’s unhappy with the new way Stars is now distributing its VPPS?”
Amidst the chuckles and sarcastic remarks in reply to that obvious joke were serious comments such as, “wow, stars is really taking this protest stuff seriously, they seriously revoked his team pokerstar [sic] sponsorship for protesting vpp changes? so sick”
They continued:
“Wow is this a joke, John Duthie I salute you, takes a lot to speak out when you know there’s a good chance it will cause you personal loss.
“The EPT has no doubt had a maybe huge part in PS becoming so big in Europe, and is this for real, he protests (didn’t realise there had been one, any link please?) and gets dumped, are PS having a bad day, not thinking straight?
“If I was Barnard Tapie i’d be on the phone to him now!”
Monday morning (EST), Duthie himself made an appearance in the thread, confirming the initial rumor, but quashing any other sinister rumors. “Hey Guys….I’m afraid this decision had nothing to do with the VPP situation or the ‘Sit-Out’; it was quite simply that I didn’t want to renew my contract which expired 31st December. There was also no Tweet to this effect. All very self-centred to be honest.”
“Love the idea of being ‘Tribune of the people’ but sadly this is not the case,” he added.
John Duthie has been popular in the UK poker community for a long time, but it was in 2000 that he became known to a wider audience, as he won the inaugural Poker Million televised tournament for £1,000,000 ($1,426,330). He has 13 total World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes and two final tables, including a runner-up finish in the 2009 $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship. In his live tournament career, he has earned $2,774,963.
In 2004, John Duthie made his biggest mark on the poker world when he founded the European Poker Tour. Now in its eighth season, the EPT has grown to be one of the most popular live tournament series in the world, featuring a dozen stops in ten different countries. Once a tour that many thought had no chance to compete with the monster that was the World Poker Tour (WPT), the EPT has capitalized on both its partnership with PokerStars and the continued worldwide growth of poker to now be respected as much as the WPT and WSOP. Duthie still serves as the CEO of the Tour.
UPDATE: Duthie announced that he is also resigning as CEO of the European Poker Tour after this article was posted.