Station Casinos-owned Ultimate Poker, which has yet to launch its pay-to-play website in Nevada, has a brand ambassador.
The company, which has been licensed by state gaming regulators but is waiting for approval of its technology by testing laboratories, announced Tuesday that it has signed poker champion Antonio Esfandiari to promote the website.
Esfandiari has made a name for himself behind the microphone as a commentator for ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker and at the tables for his victories on the World Poker Tour.
He made his biggest splash last summer when he won a record poker jackpot of $18.3 million in capturing the World Series of Poker’s $1 million buy-in “Big One for One Drop” at the Rio.
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The death of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss was felt not only in the sports world, but within the poker community.
Buss, who died Monday at 80, was an active poker player in Las Vegas, especially at the World Series of Poker, where he was a participant for decades.
Buss had four career cashes at the World Series of Poker, including a third-place finish in 1991 in a seven-card stud limit event. His total earnings at the WSOP came to $45,926.
In 2011 Buss played in 22 events, World Series of Poker spokesman Seth Palansky said.
In a statement, he said players enjoyed interacting with Buss.
“Jerry epitomizes what makes the game of poker so great,” Palansky said. “Everyone is on equal footing when you enter a poker tournament. And Jerry Buss acted and carried himself as a dignified gentlemen throughout.”
According to PokerNews.com, Buss played in big-money cash games in California and appeared on the television show, “High Stakes Poker.” The website reposted a 2011 podcast interview with Buss.
Buss told ESPN in 2010 that he thought about playing poker professionally.
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This has been out for a few weeks now, but I’m reading it for the first time … found via Pauly, who also let us know about John Caldwell’s unexpected-at-this-moment-in-time-but-not-surprising departure as editor in chief of PokerNews. I know most of you don’t really care about “Shecky’s” business, but you should, because he has been instrumental in shaping how you get to follow tournaments on the internet … and though I’ve had my beefs with PN’s claims of being the “independent” source of poker news (they recently changed that to “#1”), overall, PokerNews, under Caldwell’s leadership, developed into something that arguably made the game far more enjoyable for players and their friends … and isn’t that what all of this is about — the pursuit of better poker?
Before he left, Caldwell assembled a panel of informed and influential peeps in the poker world to hear their thoughts on key poker issues. The panel included Bluff editor-in-chief Matt Parvis, big-name agent Brian Balsbaugh, WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack, Pauly, PokerDB founder and AP/UB scandal-solver Nat Arem, top-notch tourney director and Commerce Casino poker room honcho Matt Savage, and high-stakes pro and Team PokerStars guy Barry Greenstein and asked them all the following questions:
- You’ve been sent back in time to Jan 1, 2003. If you could, what one thing that could be attributed to poker’s “boom” would you prevent or change?
- Will we ever again see a regularly occurring, brick-and-mortar cash game that is bigger than the biggest games found online?
- Will 2009 bring a formal regulation of online poker at the United States federal level?
- What group within the poker world do you believe to be most affected by the global financial crisis?
- If you could enact one change to the 2009 WSOP – what would it be?
- Compared to the 2008 WSOP Main Event, will there be more or fewer participants in this year’s Main Event, and why?
- Will poker grow overall in 2009? If so, what area is likely to show the greatest growth?
- If there was one change that you would like to see specifically made to the online game or by major online sites in the coming year, what would it be?
- Could a brand new online poker room storm to life in 2009 and somehow capture a major share of that market?
- Can you think of something that doesn’t really exist in the poker world today that will be a given five years from now?
