The WSOP Main Event interim period is a bit like a soccer transfer window, with a flurry of pro signatures. 21 year old, November Nine finalist Joe Cada is the latest player to sign a professional contract, with online network giant PokerStars.
He joins fellow ‘November Niners’ Eric Buchman and Kevin Schaffel (who recently final tabled the WPT Legends of Poker) as PokerStars representatives. Cada exclaimed, ‘I’m proud to have been chosen to represent PokerStars. Their reputation and prestige are second to none. I look forward to bringing even more accolades to their already decorated team’.
With players patched up like Formula One car drivers, the WSOP introduced a rule stating, ‘No more than three (3) players at the Final Table — and all other tables featured for television coverage — will be allowed to wear apparel with logos, patches or promotional language from the same entity’. It seems PokerStars has completed its WSOP 2009 Main Event sponsorship, and monster chip leader Darvin Moon is the only player without poker room affiliation. Last year, PokerStars sponsored eventual winner Peter Eastgate, shrewd Russian Ivan Demidov, Darus Suharto, Dennis Phillips, Ylon Schwartz and Chino Rheem.
James Akenhead, Phil Ivey and Steven Begleiter will all sport Full Tilt logos, Antoine Saout the Everest Poker logo, and Jeff Shulman the SpadeClub brand. Humble Maryland logger Darvin Moon will stay sporting his New Orleans Saints hat, as he admitted he had never played a hand of online poker before.