The Daily Rewind: Staszko Makes Team Pro, Estrellas Tour is On, Hotshot No. 1

Today we hear about the latest addition to Team PokerStars Pro. There's good news for Spanish poker with confirmation of the Estrellas Poker Tour in 2012, and we unveil Queen of the Hotshots....

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

Staszko joins Team PokerStars Pro

2011 WSOP Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko is to become the latest addition to PokerStars Team Pro, it was announced this week.

The 35 year old will become the second Czech member of PokerStars Team Pro after Martin Hruby, and follows in the footsteps of 2011 WSOP winner, Pius Heinz.

Staszko's first ambassadorial role sees him don the PokerStars red spade on home turf at EPT Prague, which runs from the 5th December.

Staszko spoke about the deal, admitting he is "really happy to sign for PokerStars and join such a talented team of poker players" and says his "main focus is to win a mixed game event at the next WSOP, becoming the first Czech player to win a bracelet."

Martin Staszko joins Team PokerStars Pro

Estrellas Poker Tour schedule released

The future of the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour had been in doubt thanks to impending gambling regulation throughout Spain, but those concerns have been quashed thanks to an announcement from PokerStars yesterday.

The 2012 five stop tour kicks off in Madrid this January and will reach its conclusion at the Casino Barcelona in August.

All events will have a €1,000 + €100 buy-in and all venues have a Main Event capacity of at least 300 players. Satellites for the first event in Madrid are running on PokerStars now. 

What a pigeon

Tony G looks forward to his Czech adventure in this week’s latest blog over at PartyPoker.

It seems that he won’t be taking on Daniel "junglemandan" Cates in his €100,000 heads-up challenge, but is looking forward to the cash games.

Amusingly, Mr G still finds the time to give self-styled poker badboy Luke Schwartz a rubdown, describing him as the "Tim Westwood of poker".

The following video begs the question from Tony, what the hell is a pigeon?

High stakes corner

The past 24 hours have been relatively quiet at high stakes corner. Top winner for this period is “HC_68” who booked a win good for $42,209 according to HSDB.

With just one month left to go it’s looking like a head-to-head race between Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies and Rafi "refaelamit" Amit for the biggest winner of the year.

As it stands Sahamies leads Amit by a shade over $300,000, sitting as he does with over $2.2 million in profits for the year.

At the other end of the table, Richard "nutsinho" Lyndaker has the ominous title of biggest loser, having dropped over $1 million since the beginning of the year.

Hotshot of the year

Well the time has finally arrived. Over the past 7 weeks we've paid tribute to 49 of the most attractive and talented women in poker.

Today we reach the promised land, and can unveil the PokerStrategy.com Hotshot of 2011 is Tatjana Pasalic!

Not only does "Tattytats" have grace and beauty in abundance, she's also a mean writer, presenter and chef. Tatjana, we salute you!

For even more Tatjana, check out our exclusive interview here!

Tatjana Pasalic is Hotshot #1