Prior to the start of this year’s World Series of Poker, www.UB.com announced an expansion to its sponsored players roster, signing adult entertainer Samantha Ryan to a limited contract for the duration of the WSOP.
While Samantha has no cashes in the tournament poker world, she has been involved with the game for the past couple of years.
During the 2008 WSOP, Ryan joined poker professional Maria Ho in cheering on Tiffany Michelle to her 17th place finish in the $10,000 Championship Event. Most recently, Samantha has played in many charity events, including current National Heads Up Poker champion and Poker News Daily guest columnist Annie Duke’s recent charity poker tournament to benefit the After School All Stars at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.
Ryan now joins Michelle and Duke on Team UB, which features some of the best players in the game today.
Led by 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Team UB also features Duke, recent EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Brandon Cantu and Bryan Devonshire, among others. UB.com has demonstrated that they look outside the “poker” box with its sponsorships, with Anthrax’s Scott Ian a member of Team UB who frequently participates in tournaments on the site.
Ryan is one of the most decorated adult entertainers in the business. She has won at least one AVN Award – the adult film industries version of the Academy Awards – in each of the last four years and has appeared in approximately 140 films. Some of Samantha’s more innocently titled features include “War of the Girls,” “All By Myself” and “French Confessions.”
Apparently the UB.com deal has been in the works for at least the last couple of weeks. Ryan, Ho and Michelle are close friends who tweet continuously, and the possibility of a sponsorship deal was first discussed by Ryan. Back on May 25th, Samantha responded to a fan’s question of whether she would be in attendance at the WSOP by tweeting, “I’ll be around 4 sure! Not sure about WSOP events.”
Three days later, Samantha excitedly announced over her Twitter feed, “So it’s official! I WILL be playing in 5-6 WSOP Events sponsored by @ultimate_bet! A million thanks @RealAnnieDuke! C my fans there!” According to Samantha, her first event will be Friday’s $1500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, Event #11 on the 2010 WSOP schedule.
So far, UB.com sponsored players have joined in every event played at the WSOP. Phil Hellmuth ran deep in the $50,000 Players’ Championship, albeit missing the money phase. “I’m out,” Phil commented on Twitter after his departure, “I deserved so so so much better. Stunning, & scary how bad I ran! I wanted it so bad & I played so hard. Feeling srry 4 myself.” Tiffany Michelle has also been in action in Event #3, the $1000 NLHE tournament, but was dismissed early on Day 1B.
Joining Tiffany in action for Event #3 was UB.com’s Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, the reigning CardPlayer Player of the Year. He has had better success than Tiffany, driving deep into the tournament, which will restart at 3PM PT this afternoon with the final 41 players. Baldwin currently sits in eighth place with a chip stack of 479,000 and is looking to earn his second WSOP bracelet in as many years.
