Randy Dorfman and Tom Marchese decided to leave the Team Pro of the first ever legal online poker room of the US after four and one month of membership, respectively.
On 30 April, the first ever legal online poker room launched in the United States; Ultimate Poker accepts real money players residing in the state of Nevada, where online poker is officially regulated. Like major .com rooms, UP established a professional team, called Team U, shortly after launch and with world class players like Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Little, William Reynolds and Jason Somerville as its first members.
Soon after, Gavin Griffin, Dan O’Brien, Lauren Kling, Phil Collins, Randy Dorfman, Jeremy Ausmus, Brent Hanks, Jeff Gross and Tom Marchese joined. According to the latest news, however, some of them have already become disappointed with the room and they are leaving the team. First, Dorfman announced his resignation:
“I have resigned from Ultimate Poker as their Team Pro. At this point in my life there are more important and creative things for me to be involved with. To have your ideas and experiences from the game I love fall on deaf ears while you bust your ass to build a game for a new Company just was extremely frustrating to me. I wish UP the best and I hope things do turn around for them. I met some great people there and hopefully the chemistry between all involved gets straighten out soon,” he wrote.
Dorfman added that another pro, Marchese, had also terminated his contract on similar grounds. The WPT champion signed to the team in September, which means he barely needed a month to figure out he is unwilling to represent the room after all.
UP has not yet officially announced the resignation of the two players but their photos have already been removed from the Team U website. In fact, another player, Griffin was also removed, giving way for speculations that he has also resigned in the meantime. No official confirmation from the room or the pro has been announced, though.
According to PokerScout, Ultimate Poker is currently ranking 37th on the list of online poker rooms and networks, with .it, .es and other regulated markets also considered. They have had an average of 132 cash game players in the past week; WSOP, which launched a couple of months later, is ranking slightly behind, 40th, with 101 cash game players a week on average.
