Ultimate Poker, one of the online poker companies that has received a license to operate interactive online gaming in Nevada, announced Tuesday that is has signed Antonio Esfandiari as its Brand Ambassador. Esfandiari becomes the first poker pro to represent an internet poker room licensed in the United States.
Ultimate Poker is product of Ultimate Gaming, which is in turn owned by Fertitta Interactive. Continuing up the family tree, Feritta Interactive is owned by Station Casinos, which are owned by the Fertitta Brothers. Those brothers also own the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), hence the name for Ultimate Gaming and Ultimate Poker (no, it is not an un-cleverly named reincarnation of UltimateBet). Got all that? Review it if necessary.
Fertitta Interactive was granted an online poker license by the Nevada Gaming Commission back in October. Ultimate Poker is already around as a free-to-play poker game on Facebook, but has not launched its real money product yet, but anticipates a 2013 launch as it races to become the first intrastate online poker room to begin dealing cards in Nevada. Gaming software company CyberArts, which was purchased by Fertitta, has created the Ultimate Poker platform.
“We’re thrilled to have Antonio Esfandiari represent our company,” said Ultimate Poker Chairman Tom Breitling in a press release. “Antonio is the ultimate champion and modern poker player. He brings the gaming lifestyle to the online arena with his work-hard, play-hard attitude.”
This won’t be Esfandiari’s first rodeo as an online poker site sponsored pro. He was once one of the headliners for the now-defunct UltimateBet and most recently was part of the Victory Poker team.
Esfandiari has been on a roll on the live tournament circuit in the past year. He hit what must be the pinnacle of his career in July when he won the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop event at the 2012 World Series of Poker, cashing for an astounding $18,346,673. In September 2012, he won a €1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Series of Poker Europe, good for €126,207 ($164,656). He then turned around and placed fourth in the World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic Championship event, a $329,339 cash, and most recently took home $150,000 for a third place finish in the PartyPoker.com Premier League VI.
He has one other World Series of Poker bracelet, earned in the 2004 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event, as well as two additional World Poker Tour titles. The first came in 2004 at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, while the second wasn’t until the 2010 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Ultimate Poker will be strictly an intrastate online poker room, meaning that only people within Nevada’s state borders will be allowed to play on its tables. There is a chance that its player base could expand, though, as Nevada’s gaming law now allows for interstate poker compacts. Should other states agree, Nevada poker sites could at some point accept players from outside the Silver State.
