Long considered to be one of the top poker professionals without a major sponsorship deal, it was announced late Monday evening that Joe Sebok will be joining Ultimate Bet’s roster of poker pros. Sebok will also take a prominent position inside of the Ultimate Bet organization in a deal orchestrated by 11Management.
While he joins Team UB and will be wearing the site’s signature black and gold colors at tournaments around the world, Sebok will also undertake a major consulting role with the company. Because of his abilities in the world of internet radio and podcasting, Sebok will accept a position as the site’s Media and Operations Consultant. In this capacity, Sebok will help bridge the gap between the Ultimate Bet brand and poker players. His in-depth knowledge of the online poker world will likely raise the bar and make Ultimate Bet the only place players will want to visit.
Sebok had previously gained the industry’s respect for his founding of PokerRoad.com, an online media outlet that provides poker fans with fresh, innovative, and often irreverent content from an insider’s perspective. Online poker fans around the world continue to look to Sebok and PokerRoad.com, where he serves as the company’s CEO, for a unique perspective on everything related to land-based and online poker.
“We are ecstatic to bring Joe onto Team UB,” said Paul Leggett, the COO of Tokwiro Enterprises. “He will not only serve as a pro player representing the brand, but more importantly will be instrumental in helping us create a poker site for and by poker players. His commitment to the brand was invaluable, as he worked closely with me to help begin to bring closure on the details surrounding the cheating investigation from last year. I’ll continue to work with him to ensure that we always do everything possible to satisfy the poker community’s concerns and will continue to work together to make Ultimate Bet the premier poker site. I couldn’t be happier to welcome Joe to the team today.”
“UB and I first started talking about a possible relationship almost four months ago and I made it very clear that I couldn’t commit until that point in time when the names associated with the scandal began to be released,” Sebok stated during the announcement. “Paul Leggett has been instrumental in this process and I now feel comfortable and excited about joining the team as we are heading in such a positive direction. While this process isn’t entirely complete, I consider this to be one of my new responsibilities moving forward and intend to continue working very closely with Paul to ensure it happens. I am very happy to be joining Ultimate Bet today and look forward to our future.”
While he has not captured a major title as of yet, Sebok is one of the best young poker players in the game today. Learning from a master of the game in his father Barry Greenstein, Sebok has earned over $1.85 million from live tournament poker over the last five years. He can count preliminary tournament victories at the 2006 Mirage Poker Showdown for $150,165, the 2006 Heavenly Hold’em Championship for $209,060, a 2006 Festa Al Logo Classic event for $267,295, and a 2007 L.A. Poker Classic event for over $96,000 as some of his most notable cashes. More recently, Sebok made a deep run at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, where he eventually finished in 56th place for $108,000. In joining fellow poker professionals Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke as members of Team UB, Sebok will bring further credibility to Ultimate Bet’s championship lineup of poker talent.
