U.S. Poker Pros' Contracts With Cereus Network Terminated

Absolute Poker and UBPoker no longer represented by major players

The situation at the Cereus Network which suffered a big impact by Black Friday actions seems to be going only downhill. This time, the company announced the termination of sponsorship arrangements with eleven top international players.

This happened due to the legal developments in the States, explained Blanca Games, claiming that the company was forced to downsize, and in order to do that and provide undisturbed operations of the non-U.S. business it has had to terminate the sponsorship contracts of ten UB Poker pros and one Absolute Poker pro.

The announcement reads: “Regrettably, the negative effect of ‘Black Friday' has extended to the company's highest profile group of poker professionals, known as ‘Team UB'. Consequently, Blanca's executive management team today informed its roster of sponsored pros that, in accordance with the provisions of their agreements, their contracts have been terminated.”

"Each of the ten Team UB pros, plus one player representing Absolute Poker, has received personal notification that their sponsorship arrangement with Blanca's respective online poker room is now invalid."

"Over the years, the company has been successful in gathering a group of young, extraordinarily talented and brand-appropriate poker professionals who have proudly sported its logos. We are truly saddened that circumstances have dictated this course of action, and we regret that we are no longer in a position to partner with our sponsored pros, or to provide them with a source of income for playing the game that they love," it was concluded in the statement, which also gives the management's thanks to the pros.

The affected players include Joe Sebok, Prahlad Friedman, Eric Baldwin, Maria Ho, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle, Scott Ian, Dave Stann, Adam Levy, Bryan Devonshire and Trishelle Cannatella.

In the past period, Joe Sebok, was very active on blogs and message boards, trying to improve the relation between Cereus and players. This time he stated that he was “at all times assured by a management that he trusted, that there had been genuine changes at Cereus, and that there was a determination to act with integrity and professionalism.”

He also stressed that he hasn't been involved in corporate money movements and infrastructures, and that he was uninformed on those aspects of the company. He also pointed out that he was sure that Cereus has a genuine desire to go through with players' payouts, and that the company's legal representatives are actively negotiating with DoJ authorities.

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