Home / Poker News November 2011 / The Poker Grapvine – Staszko to Join Team PokerStars?
The Poker Grapvine – Staszko to Join Team PokerStars?
Posted by: Jo Martin - Wed, 2011-11-30 15:35
Czech poker player Martin Staszko wasn’t exactly what one would call a “name” player before the 2011 WSOP Main Event. Having taken down a $5.4 million prize for his second place finish instantly put him onto the map and apparently onto the list of prospective PokerStars-sponsored players too. Word now has it that the online poker giant is looking to add the 35 year old Czech to its roster. While there hasn’t been an official confirmation in the issue and Staszko’s profile hasn’t yet been added to PokerStars’ site, several sources seem to be positive that he’s about to become the second Czech ever to gain sponsorship at the site (his fellow countryman Martin Hruby was the first).
Pius Heinz, the winner of the 2011 Main Event, who bested Staszko heads-up for the title, is already a Team
PokerStars pro.
Staszko is already a PokerStars player: he plays under the moniker “filfedra” and he is by no means a rank-and-file player: he has taken down a Spring Championship of Online Poker event for a $91k+ reward, and he finished 4th in a WCOOP event in September, which landed him a $73k prize.
In other news: Macau has been the focal point of the poker world in recent days, and officials there seem to be upping the stakes: they now plan a $100 million
poker tournament, which – if ever materialized – will be the largest poker tournament ever held.
Apparently, no fewer than 5 Chinese companies have been working on getting together a poker tournament which would feature a prize-pool between $65 million and $100 million. The reward for the winner would be a $25 million chunk of dough, again a record-breaking amount.
The buy-in wouldn’t be small change either: since only around 500 players would be expected to take part, each of them would have to cough up around $200k to make ends meet.
