Everest Poker Adds Four Team Players

On Thursday, Everest Poker announced that four players from its Live the Dream promotion have been added to its pro team.

Last year, Everest Poker’s Live the Dream promotion found 200 qualified candidates from a field of 8,000 players and offered them the opportunity to represent the site in global live tournaments through the 2010 calendar year. From that field of 200, ten players were selected for a one-year sponsorship. Now, four have officially joined Team Everest, which already includes French poker legend Fabrice Soulier, the Netherlands’ Steven van Zadeloff, and Spain’s Maria Maceiras.

Leading the four new members of Team Everest is French poker player Leonard “leoledingo” Truche. In 2010, Truche earned nearly $50,000 by cashing in events ranging from the European Poker Tour (EPT) to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe, where he finished 14th in a £1,000 No Limit Hold’em event won by Scott Shelley. “I cannot believe I am this lucky,” an understandably elated Truche stated during the announcement.”

Spanish poker pro Javier “elflacokanu” Martinez will join Truche on Team Everest. A 2008 champion on the Spanish Poker Tour, Martinez continues to demonstrate excellent skills on the felt in tournaments around the world. He earned another Main Event victory on the Spanish Poker Tour in 2010 and drove deep in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, finishing in 90th place. In 2010, Martinez racked up over $191,000 in winnings and should be a strong addition to Team Everest.

Tobias “tobestar11” Wagner of Germany has already started off 2011 with a bang. Although he only cashed in one major live event in 2010, a second place finish on the Spanish Poker Tour, he has started off 2011 with three cashes in the first two months. He cashed at EPT Deauville in January for slightly over $10,000 and then earned cashes in February at the German Championship of Poker and at the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) regional stop in Paris. For his short career, Wagner has racked up over $115,000 in winnings while he looks for his breakthrough championship.

The Netherlands’ Koen “koendb” de Bakker, the final new member of Team Everest, could be the next big Scandinavian poker star. He made over $125,000 in tournament poker in 2010, making large scores on both sides of the Atlantic. At the 2010 WSOP No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance event, he bubbled the final table in tenth place for $33,026. In Europe, de Bakker had three final tables spanning the continent, with a third place finish at the Spanish Poker Tour’s Grand Finale in November (for $48,875) as his biggest payday.

The foursome, along with their compatriots on Team Everest, will make their first official live tournament the Everest Poker ONE event, which will be held from April 21st to 24th in Monte Carlo. It is also expected that Team Everest will be out in full force for this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas and Cannes.