Ladbrokes signs Jonathan Kalmar

has a new pro. The poker site announced this week it has signed Jonathan Kalmar to represent Ladbrokes Poker at live tournaments.
The sponsorship deal had been on the table since the beginning of 2008, according to Ladbrokes Poker, and it was finally made official on Tuesday while Jonathan Kalmar was in Las Vegas playing in the World Poker Tour World Championship.
"I'm thrilled. I can't wait to take up my role of Ladbrokes Poker pro in an official capacity," said Kalmar, who plays online as skalie. "I'm raring to go. As part of Team Ladbrokes in 2006, I came 82nd in the Main Event and finished in fifth last year. Let's hope I continue to improve upon my performance."
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Kalmar is a 34-year-old professional poker marked cards player from England. He once had musical aspirations and was the lead singer of a punk band for many years, but poker turned out to be the better career choice for him.
He has more than $1.6 million in tournament cashes coming from WSOP events as well as a European Poker Tour event and many other events around the world.
Kalmar will be a part of a core group of four sponsored players at Ladbrokes Poker and help lead the 110 members of the Ladbrokes Poker Team going into the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.
"The signing is a formality really, Ladbrokespoker.com already considers skalie a member of the team and Laddies has been skalie's online home for the past few years," said Edward Ihre, Ladbrokes Poker infrared contactlenses MD.
"It was only a matter of time before he joined our poker pro stable. skalie's multi table expertise in tournaments will be a great asset to our team."
In addition to representing Ladbrokes Poker at live events, the deal includes having Kalmar contribute to the poker site by way of blogs and reports from the major poker events. Ladbrokes also plans to introduce a poker promotion named after him on the site.