Just earlier this year, UB.com was adding some pretty high profile pros into their roster. Now, they’re just laying them off, terminating contracts, and possibly burning bridges. News just came out that the entire Team UB had their contracts terminated. Nobody expected that they would be part of the “downsizing” of the CEREUS Network, and this new development caused quite a stir in poker community, with more and more people asking, “Is UB.com really going bankrupt?”
Downsizing or Denying the Inevitable
It’s true that poker pros are not necessarily the most important component of a poker site, but they do serve an important role in representing the site. Without pros, a poker site is pretty much naked, stripped of all its former glory. That UB would lay off all its pros is very telling of how deep the CEREUS network’s troubles really run. It’s hard to imagine how UB.com will recover after this big blow, especially since it seems quite impossible for some of these pros to remain loyal after being laid off like that, especially right before the WSOP. Of course, it’s not like UB wanted things to end things like this with the pros. They wouldn’t do it if they had any other choice. A statement from Blanca, UB’s parent company said that doing so was a “difficult task for Blanca’s management” and that they are “very disappointed that [they] have been compelled to sever ties with [their] sponsored pros”. The statement ended with a note of gratitude and admiration for these pros that have remained loyal to the site.
Disbanding Team UB
Everyone, including UB frontman Joe Sebok, was terminated. Among thosse who had to go were Prahlad Friedman, Trishelle Cannatella, Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Dave Stann, Bryand Devonshire, and Brandon Cantu. Perhaps the most unlucky of all the pros who were sacked was Prahlad Friedman, whose reputation took quite a beating just by joining the team in the first place. Luckiest were Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, both of whom left the team earlier this year before all the mayhem took place. Sebok, for one, was expecting this. In an interview with Associated Press, Sebok said “It was obvious that, regardless of what direction things went, that sponsored players in the USA were going to be unnecessary, or certainly far less necessary. It was pretty obvious, at least in my mind, that we would be let go.”
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