That seems like a strong possibility. If you are willing to sign a degenerate gambler in Blom, and not keep Raymer who is a solid player and ambassador of poker...Hellmuth would fit right in with the new image they may be trying to portray with their new/future signing(s).

thanks, DJ, great read.

it worries me that "stars sees no future in the us"

something has to give...

A nugget of real information on this that makes sense.

I wonder if Raymer is able to offer a comment on this. There does appear to be a bit of a conflict of interests.

I agree Former DJ's post makes sense and is interesting. Anyone have a link or something to read more about how the interests of B&M casinos and the poker sites differ on PPA? Pretty interesting following the politics and business side of this, esp. since the future of online poker in the US is still somewhat up in the air.

I don't know anything about it myself, but I have wondered why the big banks and their credit cards would have a problem with online poker. Are these financial institutions tied up with big casino business i.e. Harrah's and that is why? I assume we can rule out the theory the banks are opposed to online gambling for moral reasons.

I haven't had any problem with Echeck deposits at stars...

Aside from what may have gone on with PPA or whatever and all the young Internet pros and non-North American players, part of the problem is Raymer is old news.

The big value of a sponsership deal is if they can use the pro in ads and so on. Raymer and Moneymaker were huge for Stars a few years ago. Now the big value is big name TV pros with big reputations, like Ivey, Negreanu, and Brunson; Internet phenoms like durr and isuldur; and people who have won the ME event recently or won a lot on TV recently.

I don't really know why these sites have so many zillion pros, and I guess most of them just get some rakeback and free tournament entries or something. I mean unless they can feature them in ads and the web site when people go to download, I don't see how any of them can be worth that much to the site.

Apologies if some credible information has been shared, but it looks like this thread is a bunch of assumptions.

On that note, it could simply be that Raymer and his agent made unrealistic demands for a new contract or extension. Happens all the time in just about every business worth mentioning. Someone always feels they are worth more than they are. By no means am I knocking Raymer. I am just trying to state that we don't really no the situation. Claiming that the US market or recent business decisions, while logical guesses, is the reason for his departure just doesnt make sense if you arent going to preface by saying you have no idea.

What Raymer has done for the community is definitely under appreciated. But, this could possibly be a case of wanting Albert Pujols type money.

Please note: I claim no facts in my statements. The thread just has a feel of 429 people claiming they know exactly what happened when they don't.

I am quite certain Greg Raymer's support of the PPA and the Reid proposal had zero to do with his split from PokerStars.I am certain of this because PokerStars also supports the PPA and PokerStars also publicly supported the Reid proposal. These are verifiable facts. Former DJ's speculation is quite creative, but it ignores those facts.

He is right, of course, that the online sites and the casino corporations compete and have different interests. But I think these differences are actually not as big as many believe. Both sides ultimately want the same thing: an openly legal cross-border online poker market that they can profit from. Of course, they each also seek whatever they can get in terms of advantages over the others in the market. But businesses frequently compromise a lot easier than politicians. In business (and most of life), 20% of $100 is obviously better than 100% of $10. This is not nearly so easily recognized by politicians, however.

Skallagrim

You are posting on 2+2 where posting with facts is not a requirement and in fact is encouraged.

ever since Brian Hastings won 4.2 million in one session the WSOP ME has become irrelevant.

Couldn't agree more. Every time I think of McEvoy I remember that story about his peculiar men's room activity.

I thought being a losing player was a prerequisite for PS pros.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Beal#Poker_playing

He's one of the players that got me really interested in the game.

It's unfortunate. Good luck to him on whatever he does next.

I am not a regular reader of 2+2 anymore, so I happened upon this news as a matter of pure coincidence. I was watching a tournament last Sunday that ended up with Jonathan Duhamel and Veronica "Princesa" Dabul heads up. It seemed odd to me that Princesa did not have the red spade on her avatar to indicate a Pokerstars Pro, because I was pretty sure that she used to be one. Anyway, I did a quick internet search, and I came to find that Greg Raymer was no longer a Pokerstars Pro as well. My initial reaction can be characterized as, "Holy F'n S***, are you kidding me? WTF happened?" Of course, I came to this thread and read every post hoping for some kind of juicy insider scoop with real info about what happened. I quickly came to realize that this is 2+2, and at best, I would be lucky to get a nugget here and there mixed with an occassional educated guess. Alas, so much for getting any real info. Que sera sera.

One thing that has been brought up is the recent signing of Isildur vs the recent release of Fossilman, and it makes me wonder how intelligent that idea is from a marketing point of view. The reason is that Fossilman, if promoted correctly, has an everyman appeal that could easily bring in new money/players to the site. Isildur, is a screen name known pretty much only to people that are already heavily interested in online poker. Yeah, I get the fact that he is a big name, but if he is a big name known only to people that are already playing online, is he really going to be bringing in a bunch of new money/players to Pokerstars?

To me, it seems like Fossilman would be the better promotional tool for new players, whereas Isildur is just more preaching to the choir. Just my $0.02.

too bad u didn't remember to ban yourself

Saw Greg a few months ago in the student center at NCSU. I didn't want to bother him, but fwiw he was not wearing socks and sandals that day. I wish him nothing but good luck in his future endeavors.

he may be a better tool at bringing in the average player, although there have been several main event champions since him. we have no idea what happened between pokerstars and greg, however i doubt they got rid of raymer sepcifically to make room for isuldur. more likely the had been paying him a bigger amount of money than they thought he was worth and wanted to half it or whatver. he didn't feel like it was worth it doing all the promotion and travelling anymore and said no thanks. i don't necessarily think that what they offered isuldur was higher than they offered greg, it could just be they are at different stages in their lifes, both financial and family wise.
btw, you prob shouldn't underestimate the importance of recruiting online players from othr sites. just because you play online already doesn't mean you necessarily play at pokerstars. especially people in europe.

Greg does great even though he is getting interviewed by a ditz:

Greg Raymer Interviewed at CPAC by Fox Business Live (02/11/2011)

Please explain how you have more relevance in this world than Greg Raymer.

Nice job by Greg in the video. Gotta love those Fox bimbo beauties.

why would anyone wan to watch gry raymer 1 table some limit stud game

Saw some tv coverage the other night of the London EPT, he was shown only briefly a couple times, the first he definitely had Pokerstars patches on, the second time I'm sure he had a WSOP patch. He may well have had the stars one as well but I couldn't see it at that point-it was a different shirt each time, I think from different days. Whether this is a new thing or not I have no idea, I only looked because of his leaving (I'm aware the EPT was last year).

My hunch is that their parting of ways is more likely Greg's decision and not pokerstars'.

Well, if PS offered Mr. Raymer a peanuts contract, then it is quite obvious that PS wasn't interested in him anymore and wanted to get rid of him somehow. It is possible Raymer has been specifically targeted for a reason. He said he'll share the story eventually, so all we could do is wait.