PokerStars trims its roster of sponsored pros

With the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) heating up on PokerStars the poker community is highly tuned in to any changes taking place on the world’s largest online Poker Room. So, it didn’t take long for a thread to appear on the 2+2 poker forums regarding the disappearance of three well known Poker Pros from the sponsored players’ roster on PokerStars.

The three missing players are 2006 WSOP Main Event final table member Hevad Khan, 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, and poker’s first Triple Crown Winner Gavin Griffin.

Khan is perhaps best known for his loud, obnoxious, celebrations on his way to the 2006 final table, but the young poker pro has drastically toned down his behavior since, and is becoming better known for his skill than his antics. However, Khan isn’t really a major draw for casual fans -since most casual poker fans know him as the loudmouth kid at the 2006 WSOP-and the site parting ways with him isn’t really major headlines.

2008 WSOP Champion Peter Eastgate shocked the poker world when he announced he was quitting professional poker during the 2010 WSOP. Therefore it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him dropped by PokerStars, since he really isn’t helping the site’s brand by lying on the beach or travelling around the globe!

The big story has to be Gavin Griffin being dropped from the sponsored pro roster. While Griffin has remained pretty anonymous in the poker world, he is one of only two poker players (and was the first) to win an EPT title, a WPT title, and a WSOP bracelet -Poker’s Triple Crown. The other Triple Crown winner was Roland DeWolfe.

So, it came as a bit of a surprise to see Griffin and PokerStars part ways, surely he will land at another online Poker Room.  In addition to being a Triple Crown winner, Griffin has over $4.6 million in career tournament earnings, good enough for 58^th place on the all-time list: Although his last big cash was back in January of 2008, the 29 year-old still has a lot of gas left in the tank -look at the reemergence of David Williams and Mike Mizrachi this year for other players who have suffered dry spells.

There is no word yet as to why the three players were not resigned -or in the case of Eastgate, likely had their contract voided-whether it was the inability to come to terms, or if the site just decided to go in a different direction with new, or fresher faces -PokerStars has been trying to take its brand global, signing many International poker players in lieu of US players.

We’ll have to wait for the official statement from PokerStars which typically a few days after the story breaks.