In January, Australian poker pro Tyron Krost took down the AUD $10,000 buy-in Aussie Millions Main Event. The nearly USD $1.8 million bankroll boost put Krost on the map. Three months later, he’s the newest member of Team PartyPoker.
A total of 746 players entered the 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event. When the smoke cleared, the poker tournament featured a stacked final table that included Betfair pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Peter Jetten, and 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event winner Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad. Krost vaulted into the poker spotlight and told readers in his first PartyPoker blog, “I feel incredibly lucky to be a member of Team PartyPoker and offered the chance to help make PartyPoker one of the best places to play online.”
Appropriately, Krost won his seat to the Aussie Millions through a $640 satellite on PartyPoker and took his younger brother with him to the event in Melbourne. There, Krost busted Full Tilt Poker front man Gus Hansen, who had eliminated Krost from the 2008 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. Krost finished 249th in the 2008 running of the Las Vegas tournament, cashing for $35,000. Krost vividly recalled his experience down the stretch in the Aussie Millions Main Event: “I played against some of the best of the online world, won my fair share of coin-flips, and dealt with ice-cold room temperatures in the Crown Casino poker room and hellishly hot temperatures under the TV studio lights.”
One of the main faces of PartyPoker is industry veteran Tony G, who commented in a press release distributed by the site on Thursday, “Tyron crushed the field at the Aussie Millions and it is a pleasure to get him on the team. When I first saw him, I thought he may need a trike, but now I expect him to be a Tour de Force in the poker world! There is so much more to come from him.” On May 8th, Krost will debut in PartyPoker gear at the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris, a televised event emanating from the Aviation Club in Paris.
Also a member of Team PartyPoker is WPT host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton, whose insight into Texas Hold’em strategy turned many onto the game after the WPT debuted on the Travel Channel in 2003. Sexton, a Poker News Daily Guest Columnist, scored a WSOP bracelet in 1989 after coming out on top in a $1,500 Limit Seven Card Stud High-Low event. Sexton’s last WSOP final table appearance came in 2008, when he finished fourth in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em for $248,000 in an event televised by ESPN.
Joining Krost, Tony G, and Sexton on Team PartyPoker is Kara Scott, the floor reporter for the GSN cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker.” Season 6 of the popular cable series featured “High Stakes Poker” announcer A.J. Benza being given the boot in favor of Scott, who conducts interviews following key hands with players. Scott has also lent her face to broadcasts of the European Poker Tour (EPT), Sky Poker, and the World Series of Backgammon. She won the 2008 PartyPoker Sports Stars Challenge and was the runner-up in last year’s Irish Poker Open Main Event for over $400,000.
Other members of Team PartyPoker include Bodo Sbrzesny, Dragan Galic, Ian Frazer, and Felipe “Mojave” Ramos. According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the third largest site worldwide, boasting a seven-day running average of 4,500 real money ring game players. PartyPoker does not accept players from the United States, although its parent company, Party Gaming, has signed a Non-Prosecution Agreement with U.S. authorities that could pave the way for its return should internet gambling ever be legalized and regulated in the North American country.