PSPC winner Ramón Colillas joins Team PokerStars
After parting ways with Jaime Staples and Jeff Gross, a Platinum Pass winner and PSPC champion is the latest player to don a Stars patch.
The plot thickens with the ever-changing landscape of online poker sponsorship. After streamers Jaime Staples and Jeff Gross left Team PokerStars last week, Ramón Colillas is unveiled as a new Team Pro.
Colillas famously won a $30,000 Platinum Pass last year and parlayed that into the $5,100,000 first prize at the PSPC last month. Now that pass has also earned him another dream, poker sponsorship.
The 30-year-old student from Spain won his pass after taking down a Spanish poker leaderboard, which then earned him the title and now the patch:
"When you start in poker you always think about Team Pro, and wonder whether you could ever get there," Collilas told the PokerStars Blog. "I was still savouring the PSPC win and suddenly this opportunity came in. This is what you always dream of. The tournament was just the start. Now I'm more excited about this than the even winning in the Bahamas."
Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars Director of Poker Marketing, welcomed him to PokerStars. "Ramón's journey is the stuff of legends and his humility, spirit and personality perfectly reflect the aspirations we see among young poker players around the world," Hollreiser said. "Ramón is a great representative of the next generation of poker players and we're delighted to welcome him as an ambassador for PokerStars."
This appointment is curious for a few reasons. It seemed self-evident in recent years that the days of getting sponsorship based purely on results were long gone. Indeed, PokerStars had somewhat pioneered the Twitch sponsorship model where players like Jeff Gross and Jaime Staples brought a fanbase and content to their side of the negotiations. On face value this appointment really goes against the grain of the Team PokerStars model.
🤩♠ï¸ @PokerStarsSpain @PokerStars pic.twitter.com/i67yfD3U0G
— Ramon Colillas (@Mr__Boxes) February 11, 2019
If you'll allow this writer to speculate, this move might be an indicator that we will see a second PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship. What Collilas has experienced is already the stuff of poker dreams for most people, his PSPC journey ending with sponsorship would be the icing on the cake to promote PSPC 2.
What are your thoughts on this sponsorship? Let us know in the comments:
