Legalized online poker is ready to launch any day now in Nevada, and one of the licensed online poker rooms, Ultimate Poker, has just made a bit of history, inking poker superstar Antonio Esfandiari to a sponsorship deal; making him the first poker player to represent a US poker room. Esfandiari’s official title will be Brand Ambassador for the yet to be launched online poker room.

Esfandiari has always been a fan favorite since he burst onto the poker scene at the beginning of the poker boom, but it’s his recent success, as well as his new role as a WSOP commentator that has propelled Esfandiari into the upper echelon of poker players alongside names like Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Sam Trickett, and Doyle Brunson. Antonio’s resume now includes three WSOP bracelets, two WPT titles, and $23 million in career tournament earnings.

Esfandiari’s stock has gone through the roof in the past two years thanks to a number of big wins, including his historic Big One for One Drop win that netted “The Magician” $18 million in prize-money and catapulted him into the #1 spot on the all-time money list. Esfandiari also won his third WSOP bracelet at the 2012 WSOP Europe series, and accomplished another historic feat by making the final table of the WPT Five Diamonds Poker Classic in 2010, 2011, and 2012, an amazing string of three consecutive final tables at the same tournament –Esfandiari won the event in 2010.

“We’re thrilled to have Antonio Esfandiari represent our company,” said Ultimate Poker chairman Tom Breitling. “Antonio is the ultimate champion and modern poker player. He brings the gaming lifestyle to the online arena with his work-hard, play-hard attitude.”

You can read the entire press release by Ultimate Poker here: http://www.newson6.com/story/21856869/poker-pro-antonio-esfandiari-signs-on-as-ultimate-pokers-brand-ambassador

Ultimate Poker is part of the Fertitta Empire, officially owned by Fertitta Interactive LLC. The Fertittas also own Station Casinos as well as the Ultimate Fighting Championship –hence the decision to use the name Ultimate Poker despite the potential for the company to be confused with the now-defunct scandal-plagued Ultimate Bet Poker.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.