PokerStars Saying Farewell to Pros?

September 09, 2010
PokerStars is holding its annual WCOOP series, which is constantly being followed by most of the poker world, not to mention the amount of poker pros taking part in the series. The question is: why aren’t all the sponsored PokerStars Pros participating in the most important online event of the year?
In the center of speculations are Team PokerStars Pros Gavin Griffen, Hevad Khan and Peter Eastgate.

PokerStars

Twoplustwo forum members, along with many others, reckon these players  will not be sponsored by PokerStars in the future. With PokerStars’ global strategy moving from the US market to Europe, Australia and the Americas to recruit more world-wide members, the participation of all their pro  players would be a necessity.

Peter Eastgate
Peter Eastgate

Peter Eastgate, winner of the 2008 WSOP Main Event, has already issued a statement about retiring from poker because of lacking enthusiasm for the game. This might also mean the end of his sponsorship deal.

Rumors about Gavin Griffin say that he and PokerStars have been unable to come to terms concerning a new deal and his former contract has expired.

Hevad Khan, on the other hand, has not reached a cash finish at any major tournament recently, which might easily make him the one to be substituted for newly recruited pros David Williams and NAPT winner Vanessa Selbst. We were a bit sad about this, as Khan was always entertaining to watch while in a poker game (see video for an example).



With the poker becoming one of the most rapidly changing sports, these kinds of player exchanges might become more frequent than ever in the near future.