The rumors had been swirling for a few days and today they have finally been confirmed: Martin Staszko is the newest member of Team Pokerstars Pro. The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up will begin playing as a PokerStars sponsored player at Monday’s European Poker Tour (EPT) stop, which just so happens to be in Prague, the beautiful city in his home country of the Czech Republic.
It has been quite the rise to poker prominence for Staszko, who did not take up the game until 2007. His first live tournament cash came in January 2010 when he bubbled the final table of the EPT Deauville Main Event, placing 11th for almost $50,000. He followed that up with a 10th place finish in August at the Unibet Open ($10,813), but did not record another cash until this summer. He had four small cashes at the World Series of Poker, but of course he forced his way into the consciousness of the poker community with his final table run in the Main Event, where he won $5.4 million.
Staszko was the short stack to start the second day of the Main Event final table, behind eventual winner Pius Heinz and Ben Lamb, but he won the first four hands, including a knockout of Lamb, to take the chip lead going into heads-up play.
At 35-years old, Staszko is no geezer by any means, but compared to most of the young players at the final table, he looked ancient. That, combined with his less-than-polished personal sense of style and his stoicism at the table, made him initially feel like the “villain” to many watching. It became apparent as he got more television time, however, that not only was he very nice guy and far from a villain, but he was also one hell of a poker player.
Despite going into the second day of the final table as the short stack, he entered the first day as the chip leader. By the end of the day, his chip stack basically stayed in place, mainly because he was one of the tightest players at the table. Going into Day 2, many poker fans felt that the aggressive Heinz and the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year Lamb would run Staszko over, and while he did show his tightness throughout the night, he was able to take advantage of Heinz’s aggression to the point where the eventual champ looked visibly frustrated. Of course, Staszko wasn’t able to grab the bracelet, but on the whole, he arguably outplayed Heinz.
“I’m really happy to sign for PokerStars and join such a talented team of poker players,” Staszko told the PokerStars blog. “I’m playing in my home country at EPT Prague as a Team PokerStars Pro and looking forward to playing many big live and online tournaments in 2012 like the PCA and WCOOP.
“My main focus is to win a mixed game event at the next WSOP, becoming the first Czech player to win a bracelet.”