Another One Bites the Dust: Cada no Longer Member of Team Poker Stars Pro

16:25
25 Sep

Shortly after Joe Cada won the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event for more than $8.5 million, he was signed by Poker Stars as the member of the Team Pro. His most recent success was winning another bracelet at this year’s WSOP, breaking the Main Event’s winners’ curse by becoming the first Main Event winner since Carlos Mortensen’s victory in 2001 to capture another WSOP bracelet.

Despite all his successes, especially the most recent ones, Joe Cada has been dropped from the Poker Stars pro roster, becoming yet another victim of the serious cuts that’s been happening in the company since the Amaya takeover.

If everyone is wondering what happened with Poker Stars and myself it's pretty simple. I asked for 100percent rake back, they said no.
— Joe Cada (cada99) September 24, 2014

Shortly after the online poker giant parted ways with Latin American players Humberto Brenes, Angel Guillen and Jose “Nacho” Barbero, same thing happened with Joe Cada, Marcel Luske and Alex Kravchenko.

lex Kravchenko, winner of the gold WSOP 2007 bracelet, said: “About PokerStars can only say good, but everything good comes to an end”. Marcel Luske, popular ‘Flying Dutchman’, from Netherlands won five PokerStars sponsored tournaments, and his lifetime career winnings amount to $4,381,937.

What Do Sponsorship Deals Entail?

Poker sponsorships could be various but mostly include 100% rake back, tournament entries, bonuses, signup fees, monthly payments, travelling expenses, television and other media appearances in exchange for becoming a face and a voice of a site.

When you are a sponsored pro for any site, that generally means you are either a great player, you’ve won a major title or are just generally speaking good for the game (or some combination of the three). It is not really easy to become sponsored poker pro, because there are many factors that sites look into when trying to find a fitting pro to represent them.

Considering his status in the game and recent form, it is surprising that Poker Stars easily let Cada go and in light of this, more cuts could probably be expected in the near future. Cada has been present playing WCOOP from Canada but his name is no longer listed on the Poker Stars pros’ page.

Why are the WCOOPs smaller then the SCOOPS. Am I the only one that this doesn't make sense to?
— Joe Cada (@cada99) September 4, 2014

Working for Poker Stars obviously wasn't complete satisfaction for Cada, and he revealed some details about the decision to part ways:

They have no line I have never heard of a company charging someone to use their product when they are sponsored by that company.

Cada is young, skilled and successful player, with a lot of opportunities on the horizon and there are already rumors that World Series of Poker may want to snap him up to sit alongside Greg Merson, who was recently named as WSOP.com’s first sponsored pro.

Poker Stars, as the world's biggest online poker room and industry leader with a large number of sponsored players must have a threshold for keeping its sponsored players on board. This latest wave of cutting ties with some very famous and successful players is unorthodox at least. Biggest online poker forum, 2 + 2, has been buzzing on this topic and we bring couple of selected comments to conclude this article.

Cutting expenses that generate more revenue than their cost reduces profit. That’s why PokerStars pays online pros, because they believe it’s more profitable to have them than not have them. Cutting Cada likely says they don’t think he’s producing as much value as he costs. It is also probably part of a larger trend where they don’t perceive that their pros are as valuable as they used to given how much more dominant PokerStars has become. DesertCat;
Software updates are not cheap to produce, but considering the number of games they can run on a platform until they need to update, many times cheaper than hosting live tournaments or running live ring games. Bottom line is someone, somewhere, is getting very greedy, very rich, or a combination thereof. Maybe they are preparing for an IPO or buyout, cutting costs to prove maximum shareholder value…maybe they are in a monopoly position. Oh yes, they own Full Tilt, they are. That said, I am pretty sure Cada can find a comfortable home on wsop.com with Greg Merson, which is kind of where he belongs. Shulenberger;
With PokerStars recent ownership change one thing a new company does is cost benefit analysis. These cuts are a slam dunk, Business 101: only two ways to increase profit, increase revenue or cut expenses. PokerFan2008;
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Nela Rudovic
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Joined PokerTube September 2014
Nela is a young poker player from Bosnia and Herzegovina who's been playing professionally for about a year now. Her interest for poker brought her to PokerTube, where she further pursues here interest in this ever changing game.Read more
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