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Timofey Kuznetsov Signs With Partypoker – Will Kassouf Axed by Grosvenor Over Theft

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It’s been an interesting week in the world of poker sponsorships. Partypoker announced earlier this week that they have signed Russian online prodigy ‘Trueteller,’ aka Timofey Kuznetsov. He is known as one of the most feared players in online high stakes poker and now joins the impressive rosters of partypoker pros.

Meanwhile, a polarizing figure in the game is no longer sponsored. On Tuesday, it was revealed the William Kassouf had lost his sponsorship with Grosvenor Poker after stealing chips off of a roulette table during the GUKPT Leeds.

Timofey Kuznetsov Now a partypoker Pro

Earlier this week, partypoker announced that Timofey Kuznetsov is joining Team partypoker, joining a roster that included Fedor Holz, Jason Koon, Ike Haxton, and Philipp Gruissem. Kuznetsov has been playing online poker for years and until 2015 was only known by the nickname Trueteller. He has been one of the most successful players over the last three years and has a reputation for being one of the best high stakes NL Hold’em and PLO players around.

Speaking about his new sponsorship deal, Kuznetsov told the partypoker blog, “I am excited to join the partypoker team. It’s a dark age in poker, good sides must unite. I’ve spent all of my career in social silence, it feels like it might be a time to change that.

I am looking forward to using my experience of online games to help shape the poker ecology at partypoker and get involved in the new software developments. I also have a keen interest in working with partypoker to develop better mixed games and I can’t wait to start working on this proposal.”

Partypoker Managing Director Tom Walters spoke on the signing, stating, “We are delighted to welcome Timofey to the team. At partypoker our main focus is improving the game for our players and Timofey’s vast experience will be instrumental in the direction we take. We are thrilled that Timofey has decided to pledge his allegiance to partypoker and can’t wait to start working with him.”

Kuznetsov has won over $3 million playing online poker along with close to $3 million in live poker earnings. Note that his online earnings may be a bit skewed because a lot of his earlier games went untracked. Of course, now all of his earnings will be well scrutinized as a partypoker pro, but at least he has the cushion of sponsorship.

Will Kassouf Loses Sponsorship Due to Theft

Will Kassouf is one of the most polarizing figures in live poker, due mostly to his antics at the poker table. He was featured extensively during the 2016 World Series of Poker coverage on ESPN and subsequently was signed by Grosvenor Poker to a sponsorship deal.

That deal is no more after revelations that Kassouf stole chips off of a roulette table during the GUKPT Leeds. The allegations first arose on Sunday when Shaun Deeb revealed that Kassouf had been 86’d from Grosvenor casinos and his sponsorship terminated. According to reports, Kassouf had palmed chips from a roulette table and pocketed them.

At first, some thought Deeb was either misinformed or outright lying, but Kassouf himself confirmed his termination via social media. He stated that “during the course of a drunken night playing roulette with friends, I made an error of judgment which I greatly regret; something I accept full responsibility for.” He then went on to reveal, “As a result of this embarrassing incident, my sponsor, Grosvenor Poker and I have mutually agreed to part ways.”

Whether Kassouf’s actions were indeed alcohol-induced or he is using that as an excuse, we will never know. Unfortunately, this puts a major black eye on the career or someone who was already extremely polarizing. Theft is a very serious matter and while there are incidents where players have stolen larger sums of cash in the past, for some this is a permanent black mark that will likely follow him for the rest of his career.

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