Home / Poker News May 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Matchbook Gets in on the WSOP Action
The Poker Grapevine – Matchbook Gets in on the WSOP Action
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2012-05-31 04:46
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WSOP is apparently a world-wide stage no longer reserved for online and live poker interests. The advertising potential of the world’s largest yearly poker festival has drawn attention from other sources too: Matchbook.com, one of the leading online sports exchange operators, has decided to run a team of 10 sponsored pros this year to represent the interests of the company at the green felt. The Matchbook team is led by Sam Trickett, a well-known pro in poker circles and a player who does indeed have quite a few accomplishments to boast: among others, he has taken down the 2011 European Player of the Year title. Trickett has already made some of his plans public: he said he would play in the $1 million Big One for One Drop event, which kicks off on July 1. The event – featuring the largest buy-in in the history of the WSOP (and quite possibly in the history of poker), is expected to draw 48 players. The prize-pool will thus exceed $40 million, even as some of the money will go to charity.
Daniel Cates is also a member of the Matchbook.com 10-man team. One of the most prolific high stakes online poker professionals, and one of the most generous poker players out there (he is in fact sponsoring a WSOP Main Event seat out of his own pockets this year) Cates hasn’t yet managed to break through in live events. Although his career is rather brief in comparison to the careers of some of his peers, Cates has already managed to amass around $7 million in online cash game profits.
Roberto Romanello, James Akenhead and Martins Adeniya will also be part of the team.
While Matchobook does not have a poker product, the aim of the move is to promote WSOP prop betting, which the site hopes will draw many punters to its pages.
