Online poker training site DragTheBar.com announced Thursday that lead instructor Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt has been added to the PokerStars Team Online. Schmidt joins an elite 26-player roster that includes Thomas “Boku87” Boekhoff, Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc, Randy “nanonoko” Lew, and Steve “stevesbets” Jacobs.
“I feel like I’ve joined the Yankees,” said Schmidt, who plays as “Leatherass9” on PokerStars. “Getting the opportunity to represent the largest poker room in the world is definitely something that makes all of the hard work feel worthwhile. I couldn’t be more honored.”
On the felts, Schmidt has earned more than $3 million during his five-year career, logging more than eight million hands over 10,000 hours. He posted the world’s highest win rate in both $5/$10 No Limit and $10/$20 No Limit in 2007 and 2008. In a four-month period between November 2007 and February 2008, Schmidt won in excess of $600,000 playing high-stakes cash games. He’s never had a losing month in his career.
One of Schmidt’s most satisfying achievements in poker was attaining PokerStars’ Supernova Elite status in just eight months while playing high-stakes cash games in 2007. He said that being named to PokerStars Team Online means he’ll be going for Supernova Elite status again in 2010. “The chase for Supernova Elite is officially on,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt, 28, joined DragTheBar.com as a coach in January after spending three years as a lead instructor for StoxPoker. He makes poker videos and actively participates in the site’s member forums. “We’re very happy for Dusty,” said Drag The Bar CEO Hunter Bick, who founded the poker training site nine months ago. “It’s obviously exciting for us to have someone who’s achieved what he has on our team of coaches. He’s a good guy who works hard and he deserves this recognition.”
In addition to his roles with Drag The Bar, Schmidt is a columnist for CardPlayer Magazine and a published author. In December, he released Treat Your Poker Like A Business, which focuses on teaching players how to develop a professional approach to the game, both on and off the felts.
In joining Team PokerStars Online, Schmidt will play exclusively on PokerStars.com. Although he’s recognized as a successful cash game player, Schmidt has said he will play several tournaments on the site. He will also keep a blog at PokerStars.com.
PokerStars selected 23 founding members for its Team Online in December, sifting through 2,000 applications to form a team made up of 20 men and three women with 18 countries represented. Since then, the site has added three more to its roster and PokerStars says it plans to add further players to PokerStars Team Online throughout 2010. Here’s a look at the full team:
Andres Alisievicz — lobojiji
Jorge Arias — JorgeArias
Boumaaza Bachir — Chiren80
Anders Berg — Donald
Alvaro Blanco — VARICO
Thomas Boekhoff — Boku87
Diego Brunelli — vgreen22
André Coimbra — acoimbra
Mathew Didlick — chipstar1
Ta-Chih Geeng — socutiesf
Andrew Goetsch — Kid Nebraska
Martha Gonzalez — marene
Keiran Harris — K_Man2307
Steve Jacobs — stevesbets
Randy Lew — nanonoko
Karlo Lopez — elmagopr
Alexey Makarov — LuckyGump
Kristian Martin — CharismA3
Grzegorz Mikielewicz — DaWarsaw
Nichoel Peppe — NicP
Grayson Physioc — spacegravy
Sebastien Sabic — Seb86
Amanda Thomas — ROXY24
George Lind III — Jorj95
Denys Shcherbakov — diatty
Dustin Schmidt — Leatherass9
