Liv Boeree has announced that she is to quit professional poker and split from PokerStars. Britain’s poker queen is to shift her focus onto giving talks and creating science, as well as her continued commitment to effective altruism.
Goodbye to Liv Boeree
After nearly 15 years battling over the felt, Liv Boeree finally feels her future lies elsewhere. She, and her long-time partner Igor Kurganov, are both walking away from their deals with Pokerstars.
It’s been an amazing nine years but now it’s time for @PokerStars and I to part ways. I want to say thanks to the incredible staff and my fellow team mates for all the wonderful memories, will miss you all! pic.twitter.com/RfRIbMwQaf
— Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree) November 13, 2019
Kurganov, one would expect, will still be seen on the live circuit, taking on the game’s very best. It’s just that he might also be changing his direction somewhat. The loss of sponsorship money for such a player is meaningless.
Liv and I are splitting up…
It’s been some fun couple of years and I’m thankful for the experience, the great support to https://t.co/euvfWZIdSN and the people I’ve worked with.
Sorry, splitting up with Pokerstars, not Liv, but all the above is true for both!— Igor Kurganov (@kurganovigor) November 13, 2019
Boeree hints to her fans that they should follow her YouTube channel to keep up with her latest projects. She famously has a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and is guaranteed to post plenty of interesting content.
Exactly which areas of science she intends to work with in the future are still unknown.
End of an Era
Liv Boeree picked up the game in 2005 after being invited onto the reality TV show Ultimatepoker.com Showdown. There she was given intense coaching from the likes of Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot and Phil Hellmuth.
Five years later she was European Poker Tour champion after winning the Main Event in San Remo.
Now, with almost $4 million in live tournament winnings, she clearly has nothing left to prove.
Her fans shouldn’t be too despondent, however. She added,
“I still plan to jump in the odd tourney here and there!”
Effective Altruism
Both Boeree and Kurganov have long been involved with effective altruism. This is a term to describe the best use of resources to help those in need.
After enquiring, Boeree was presented with hard facts, arguments, and statistics for how this all works. It’s no secret that traditional charities are viewed as inefficient. For this reason, when presented with all the science behind the new method of giving, Boeree jumped straight onboard.
Along with other poker friends, Boeree set up Raising for Effective Giving (REG) to spread the word of effective altruism throughout the poker world. The hope is to raise as much money as possible with the maximum impact possible.
After news of Boeree’s and Kurganov’s departure from Pokerstars hit the headlines, talk naturally drifted towards the lack of love The Stars Group shows for the game.
Poker rooms such as partypoker are doing all they can to give the players what they want and need. Yet PokerStars are doing nothing.
With the last few years seeing an exodus of star names from PokerStars sponsorship deals, it is unlikely Boeree and Kurganov will feel they are missing out on much.
We wish them both the very best of luck for their future endeavours.
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