PokerStars, the largest online poker room on the web, hosts a unique feature called Team PokerStars. This is a team of professional poker players who travel around the world and participate in different poker tournaments by representing the site. Players are selected from different parts of the world and made members of Team PokerStars Pro to represent the site. Members of Team PokerStars include many of the world’s leading poker players, some of whom are mentioned here.
Chris Moneymaker
The story of Chris Moneymaker’s rise to stardom has been told quite often, but it still is worth mentioning here. Chris graduated with a degree in accounting from the Tennessee University, the state where he spent his early years.
A part-time player of poker, it all began when Chris entered a $39 PokerStars satellite tournament in 2003 and won, giving him a seat in a larger satellite. This one offered a seat in the World Series Event to be held in Las Vegas to the winner, which was also won by Chris. In his first experience of playing at a live poker table, Chris made history by winning the final match and claiming the golden bracelet along with a sum of $2.5 million. The victory caused such a sensation in the online poker world that it has been dubbed the “Moneymaker effect” ever since.
Vanessa Rousso
Hailing from New York, Vanessa was interested in gaming from the beginning. While a student at Duke University, she developed an interest in Game Theory, which dealt with making decisions in everyday life using complex math-based strategies. Very soon, she discovered poker, and her knowledge of poker and game theory saw her making big waves in the international poker circuit. She finished in seventh place at the 2006 World Poker Tournament and won a whopping $250,000.
A year later, she finished second in the PokerStars World Poker Championship, winning $700,000 in cash. Her biggest victory was at Monte Carlo, where she won €720,000. Although she could not win the tournament, she at least could manage to defeat almost 80 participants at the tournament, her first live event. Having won games both in the online as well as offline versions of the game, Rousso also writes articles regularly for poker magazines.
David Williams
One of the most successful players in online poker, David has amassed millions of dollars playing poker alone. His rapport with online poker began when he started playing Magic: The Gathering as a student. He came on the international poker circuit with a bang by finishing second at the 2004 World Series of Poker with a cash prize of $3,500,000. The victory sealed his reputation in the online poker circuit. A few months later, he signed up to Stars using the pokerstars marketing code and finished second at the WPT, raking in almost $600,000.
It has been a string of victories for David Williams since then, his recent biggest being a $1,530,537 win at the 2010 WPT Championship. One of the most successful players of online poker, he still plays Magic: the Gathering when not playing professionally.