In an announcement over her Twitter account, poker professional
Evelyn Ng announced that her long-time sponsor
Bodog has re-upped her sponsorship deal and she will remain as the face of the site.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ng excitedly tweeted the news to her 10,000-plus followers. In a simple statement prior to the beginning of action at the European Poker Tour stop in San Remo, Italy, Evelyn chirped, “I am thrilled to announce that I’ve renewed my sponsorship agreement with Bodog!†Ng is in San Remo and is taking part in Day 1B along with her paramour, fellow poker pro Lex “RaSZi†Veldhuis.
With the signing of a new deal, Ng continues as the longest sponsored pro on
Team Bodog. Last year, Bodog dropped 2004
World Series of Poker (
WSOP) runner up
David Williams from their sponsored pro list – just after his championship run at the
World Poker Tour (
WPT) Championship last April – and signed online professional
Amanda Musumeci. Ng and Musumeci are the only two players on Team Bodog at this point.
Some have questioned the credentials that both Ng and Musumeci bring to the table to have earned their respective sponsorships. Between July 2008 and July 2010, Ng had no cashes in any tournament worldwide, according to the Hendon Mob database. Her 238th place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event was followed by two dry years before she came back to cash in the 2010 WSOP Ladies Event (29th place) and the Main Event (445th place). According to the Hendon Mob database, Musumeci has no live tournament cashes but does have approximately $172,000 in online winnings.
Both women have talent at the poker tables but Bodog, in deciding on its player sponsorships, seems to look beyond the felt when it comes to evaluating potential player sponsorships. Evelyn and Amanda are photogenic women with excellent personalities that represent the “
Bodog life†brand extremely well. They are under constant watch whenever participating in a live tournament and, as such, Bodog has two excellent representatives of their Team Bodog brand.
The announcement of the new deal between Ng and Bodog will not set off a firestorm of future signings, however. The activities of “
Black Friday†would seem to have squelched any future poker sponsorship deals from the major players in the online poker industry, especially for players from the United States. The indictments by the U. S. Department of Justice have already had an effect on sponsored players, as seen at the start of yesterday’s World Poker Tour (WPT) stop in Hollywood, FL.
The WPT’s Seminole Hard Rock Showdown began yesterday, drawing a surprisingly strong field of 426 players out for the $10,000 event. While there were several top pros in the field, most notably absent from the festivities were Team
Full Tilt members
Howard Lederer,
Phil Ivey,
Allen Cunningham and
Jennifer Harman, with Ivey and Cunningham normally staples at WPT tournaments. The leader of Team UB,
Joe Sebok, was also missing from the action and
PokerStars was represented by one lone member of the Team PokerStars Pro stable,
Jason Mercier (unpatched at the tournament).
The field at the WPT tournament did have some players sporting their allegiances, however. Full Tilt pros patched up during the event included
Gavin Smith,
Annette Obrestad,
Scott Montgomery and Andrew “LuckyChewy†Lichtenberger. Adam “
Roothlus†Levy carried the UB flag, although
Maria Ho was in attendance for the tournament without adornment by UB. Several sites that still accept American action, including Lock Poker (Matt Stout), Victory Poker (Jonathan Little) and
Doyle’s Room (Amit Makhija and Steve Gross), also displayed their logos in the field.
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Jennifer Lopez
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