Lock Poker, a site on the popular Cake Poker Network, has inked 12 non-U.S. online poker pros to grow its player base worldwide. Poker Players International’s Randy Kasper orchestrated the signings.
The new fleet of Lock Poker pros includes Stephen “allinstevie” Devlin (Ireland, United Kingdom), Bjorn Andre “bjolla” Hovden (Norway), Dan “danloulou” Smyth (Ireland, United Kingdom), Vincent “Diamond8” Gabel (Belgium), Elmar “EmmiV” Masson (Iceland), Joe “Conno!!y” Connolly (United Kingdom), Francisco Costa (Portugal), Robert Jan Hoogendoorn (Netherlands), Brendon “brendoor” Rubie (Australia), Maximilian Bassil (Norway), Bolivar Palacios (Latin America), and Jose Raul Severino (Latin America). Last month, Lock Poker signed Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Eric “Rizen” Lynch to be its Director of Product Development. Lynch hails from the United States.
On the impetus behind growing the Lock Poker brand around the globe, Kasper told Poker News Daily, “Ever since Lock Poker and I started talking about signing Eric, they’ve picked my brain about what I thought would be our next move. They said that international signings were the next step and I agreed. You see a good cross-section here. Most of those players are pretty good online. There are also a couple of guys who have more business-related contacts.” Lock Poker burst onto the online poker scene in March, when the USA-friendly site hosted the Bluff Online Poker Challenge, a one month-long promotion won by Brian “SNo0oWMAN” Hawkins.
Lock Poker is now charged with utilizing its one-dozen non-U.S. pros to the most profitable extent possible. On what the online poker site has planned, Kasper speculated, “Lock is going to come up with something creative. They have different ideas with what will work in each area. Lock is focused on making sure they can cater to each player’s experience, which means different things in each region. They’re not afraid to strike out boldly and create workable relationships with these fantastic players.”
In addition to its non-U.S. signings, Lock Poker has also brought onboard three more American players, headlined by Brett “gank” Jungblut, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner. Jungblut was in the winner’s circle in the $5,000 buy-in World Championship of Omaha High-Low Eight or Better during the 2004 WSOP for $187,000, besting a competitive final table that also included “Miami” John Cernuto, Huck Seed, and Erick Lindgren.
Also new to Lock Poker is Vinny Pahuja, who finished as the runner-up in a $2,000 buy-in tournament held during a WSOP Circuit stop in Las Vegas in April. Pahuja banked $41,000 for his efforts in that event, about the same amount as he earned for recording a fifth place finish during last July’s Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. Pahuja took 28th in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open last September for $21,000.
The third and final American to hop onboard the Lock Poker bandwagon is David Zeitlin, who won a deep stack event at Mohegan Sun for $136,000 in July. He also made a deep run in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, earning $32,000 for his 262nd place finish out of 6,494 entrants. In 2007, he was the runner-up to Jason Warner in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event during the WSOP for $269,000. On the trio of Americans, Kasper commented in a press release distributed by Lock Poker, “Lock is fortunate to add such great players of great character to their ranks. These three are truly top-notch, both on and off the felt. These players are also fortunate to find a truly innovative room to partner with.”
The Cake Poker Network is the 10th largest worldwide according to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, boasting a seven-day running average of 1,820 real money ring game players. Joining Lock Poker on the Network are sites such as Cake Poker, Doyle’s Room, Players Only, and PokerHost.
