Joshua Beckley is one of the younger members to make the Final Table of the 2015 World Series of Poker November Nine.
As with all the players who return to play in November, he is already guaranteed over $1 million in prize money—and he will be competing for a first place prize of over $7.5 million.
The new millionaire has caught headlines for something else: Beckley has also signed a sponsorship deal with offshore online poker room, Americas Cardroom.
Beckley has had a long history playing both live and online. He started playing online poker at a young age on partypoker before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed in 2006.
Since “Black Friday,” when major operators including PokerStars and Full Tilt withdrew from the US market, he’s played on both regulated and unregulated online poker sites.
Despite his extensive online poker experience, the 25 year old has had some of his biggest scores at the live game. He won a $1,500 + 100 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the Parx Casino in August 2014 for a payday of $98,348.
Just last week, he won his first WSOP Circuit ring at the $365 Monster Stack event in West Palm Beach. And, of course, he has already won at least $1,001,020 in the Main Event.
Offshore Sponsorship
Beckley had some contact with another unnamed online poker site but eventually agreed to promote Americas Cardroom on the Winning Poker Network (WPN), by playing in all four of the site’s Million Dollar Sundays tournaments taking place in October and live streaming his play on Twitch.
So why did Beckley choose to support Americas Cardroom?
“They’re running the biggest tournament right now, the Million Dollar Sundays with $1 million guaranteed,” Beckley told pokerfuse.
“I played with them before our deal and before I made the final table. I played for three years on their site, they’re giving the US a site to play on and I’ve cashed out and everything is going really smoothly, so I support them for sure.”
When asked about the legality of playing on offshore sites from the US, Beckley commented, “I don’t think it’s legal to play in states where it’s regulated. I’m playing from West Palm Beach, Florida.”
Patchless
However, when the Final Table commences on November 8, Beckley, who is currently in seventh place with a chip stack equivalent to 29 big blinds, will not be wearing a patch to promote his new sponsor. The World Series of Poker prohibits the promotion of online poker sites that are deemed “illegal.”
The official rules state that no player may wear a “logo, slogan or promotional language” that “[c]ontains any material constituting or relating to […] any enterprise, service or product that abets, assists or promotes illegal gambling.”
Hailing from New Jersey, Beckley has played on US regulated online poker sites as well, but his one thought on them: “There’s not enough traffic.”
Beckley is considering leaving the country to play more online poker after the World Series.
“I’m not sure where the best place to go is, maybe Costa Rica or Mexico. But yeah, I think it would be really cool to play on PokerStars again,” he said.
