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Party Loses Two Ambassadors, PokerStars Signs New Pros

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

There have been some significant changes in the sponsored pro arena. With the successes of most online poker during the pandemic, some operators have signed on a few new pros. Some have bucked the trend, though, with the loss of some big names. And King’s Casino in Europe seems to be building a small but significant group of representatives for its land-based casino.

Earlier this year, there were some roster changes. Americas Cardroom added Jon Van Fleet to its growing lineup. GGPoker started the OmahaSquad with Sasha Liu. And on the other side of the coin, Ana Marquez left 888poker after a several-year relationship.

Now, as 888poker lost another pro, partypoker cut ties with a sponsored pro, and PokerStars began growing its crew…

Moorman Leaves 888poker

There is no question that Chris Moorman is one of the most accomplished online poker players in the world. He got his start at the online tables almost two decades ago and accumulated more than $18M in online tournament cashes through the years. PocketFives ranked him as the top online player world wide multiple times, and he was the first player to win 30 Triple Crowns via the PocketFives rankings. In the live arena, he holds a World Poker Tour title and two World Series of Poker bracelets. Both of those are part of his $6M in live tournament earnings to date.

Moorman signed on as an 888poker ambassador in 2016. In early August of this year, he and 888poker parted ways.

While 888poker wished him well on social media, Moorman did not mention the split.

Koon and Bicknell Exit partypoker, theNERDguy Enters

One of partypoker’s biggest names departed the roster back in July. Jason Koon left the site after four years, which was only a sliver of the entirety of his poker career. High-stakes poker is where he seems to have thrived, having captured titles from the World Poker Tour to Aria High Roller events, from Poker Masters to the Triton Poker High Roller events around the world. As for Triton, he has represented that brand in the past as well.

To date, Koon shows nearly $32M in live tournament earnings.

Since his breakup with partypoker, he seems to remain in a good relationship with the company, especially Rob Yong.

One of the most recognizable female poker pros announced she was leaving partypoker, too.

The online poker site signed Canadian Kristen Bicknell a few years after she started playing more live poker and veering from crushing online poker. Most people first noticed Bicknell when she won the 2013 WSOP Ladies Championship in 2013, but she won an open event at the World Series in 2016 and never looked back. That was the same year she signed with partypoker. The last few years saw her adjust her focus to more high-stakes games, regularly playing $10K or higher buy-ins. To date she has accumulated more than $6M in recorded online earnings and nearly $5.3M for live tournaments.

Bicknell’s departure from partypoker came around the same time that she began posting more anti-vax messages on social media. And that came at the same time as the WSOP announced its vaccination requirement for the Las Vegas series. More than that, she and fiancée Alex Foxen began sharing messages from…ummm…controversial sources. This all may be a coincidence.

Since this breakup with partypoker, Bicknell has been tweeting much more freely and frequently.

Just this week, partypoker welcomed a new player to its roster. Yuri “theNERDguy” Dzivielevski has become an online poker star, climbing the ranks and winning more than $14M in online poker. The Brazilian also recently won two WSOP bracelets and continues to amass accomplishments and accolades.

He will be a regular contributor to partypokerTV on Twitch with daily shows and other streaming content. He will also host some exclusive streamed tournaments in the coming weeks.

PokerStars Adds Rolle and Moraes

Those last names might not ring a bell immediately. Both are non-US-based players and known primarily for their online poker prowess. And both are very well respected in their field.

Online poker fans may recognize Benjamin Rolle as BenCB or bencb789, and he became an ambassador for PokerStars in mid-August. The German pro has won numerous online poker tournaments and plays regularly at the high-stakes tables. Of course, he counts WCOOP and SCOOP titles among his major accomplishments.

As a coach and Twitch streamer, Rolle is one of the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro Online. He is also a part of PokerStars’ new partnership with Raise Your Edge poker coaching, an affiliation to be revealed in more detail in the coming weeks. Rolle is the founder of Raise Your Edge.

This week, PokerStars announced that Rafael Moraes is now on the team as well. The newest Team PokerStars Pro hails from Brazil and plays as GM_VALTER online. He has been playing poker for a decade, and many of his biggest accomplishments happened at the PokerStars tables. He won a SCOOP for more than $300K, collected Sunday 500 and Super Tuesday victories, and amassed more than $6M in his online poker career.

Moraes has ventured to the live tables through the years, mostly in Brazil but also to live tournament series like the WSOP in Las Vegas and the EPT Monte Carlo. He shows more than $1.6M earned in live tournaments to go with his online successes.

For PokerStars, he plans to livestream and create YouTube content, perhaps vlogs, and participate in PokerStars promotions. Moraes is passionate about poker in Brazil.

ACR Adds Next Moneymaker

Americas Cardroom hosted a promotion that started in April of this year and ran through July. It was called the “Next Moneymaker” and offered a series of poker tournaments that cost just one cent to enter. A total of 360 players qualified for a big final tournament.

Russian player Dmitry “psycho29rus” Diachkov won the finale, which came with a $105K sponsorship deal. Diachkov is the newest member of ACR Team Pro. He also has $25K in cash, $40K in live tournament buy-ins, and $40K in online tournament buy-ins. The entire process cost him $0.28.

In the time that followed the win, Diachkov revealed that he lives in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia. The 34-year-old man plays poker for a living but also added stock and securities investing and trading to his career path. His biggest poker score prior to this tournament was for $2,800, though he only started playing MTTs this year.

GGPoker Starts Content Creators

From a partnership with the World Series of Poker to controversial ambassador signings, GGPoker has been front and center in poker news in the last several years. The operator seems to have pinned more of a focus this year on creating a diversified and extensive list of poker pros. There is the standard GGTeam, headed up by Daniel Negreanu, but there are numerous other teams, such as the TwitchSquad, OmahaSquad, Team Brazil and Team China.

GG’s unique relationship with Daiva Byrne and her FLIP (Fantastic Ladies in Poker) organization is unique and in the category of Community Partners.

Another new category for GG is Content Creators, which recently emerged with its first name: Greg Goes All In. That is not so much a name but a brand of poker content created by Greg, starring his partner Courtney. The two have a popular YouTube channel featuring poker memes, skits, and vlogs. As a GGPoker Content Creator, he now has a budget to make more content, as well as his own home game on ClubGG.

Greg made a video announcement about the deal, clarifying that he did not sell out for money but…well…did something very similar.

Pescatori Among King’s Promoters

It is rare to see a casino entertain the idea of sponsored poker pros, especially in the post-boom era. King’s Casino is different, though. Leon Tsoukernik has run his property in a bit of a unique way. He personally promotes using everything from courting top pros to being his own publicist.

Tsoukernik started with Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier within the last several years. ElkY went from wearing a King’s Casino patch to actually moving to Prague and then actively promoting King’s Casino in his social media posts.

Last month, King’s announced on Twitter that Italian poker pro Max Pescatori was a new ambassador for the casino. It seems to indicate that he will play more live events at King’s and represent the casino in other events around the world.

 

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