Maybe I am wrong?

I was interested to see players such as Peter Eastgate, Ivan Demidov, Dennis Phillips, and Ylon Schwartz of all of whom made the final table at last years WSOP Me are now Pro's on PS. I was wondering is making 1 final table of a WSOP ME or WPT final table enough to get you a gig. I do know demidov made the FT at WSOP - Europe which gives him more credibility than the others in my opinion or these guys major players and because I see only WPT FT and WSOP i havent heard all this to know about these guys? I mean Jamie Gold won the WSOP ME and most people consider him a fish, what is different about these guys?

The Muppetteer

It happened all the time that the winners of WSOP or other big tournaments can't show high score in the future. Ivan Demidov and WSOP bracelet holder Vitaly Lunkin, I know both very well, didn't show any good results within the year at home tournaments, i.e. in Russia, and outside... I think the resins are quite personal... Someone doesn't care, other wants but doesn't have enough skill... The perсent of luck in the game is quite high...

Eastgate is very good, I heard he was playing high-stakes cash before the WSOP and has done very well in the last few months. Demidov I don't know anything about but I know he was very good. Phillips on the other hand...

There are probably a number of factors into why the sites sign certain players over others. If you go back to 2007's ME, Kravchenko was signed by PS, but the winner Jerry Yang while being listed as a "friend of Full Tilt" never really got super involved with them. (Of course he was a lackluster champion, not playing many events while champ anyway).

Gold wasn't signed by any of the big sites because he had a legal issue when he won the ME and was generally considered to be bad for poker.

Personality can also be a factor into sites signing some people. Location is also a big one for at least PokerStars. They signed Raymond Rahme (2007 ME 3rd Place) because he was South African.

I think in time you'll probably eventually see these sites begin to drop people. Depends on what their marketing department feels they bring to the company.

I agree with smd. To get signed on probably has more to do with imaging & marketing. If the player won't play much, he/she's bad for poker or if they have a poor image (unless that person is like Mike "the mouth" where people love to hate him, or Phil "poker brat" that entertains people by chewing everyone a new one everytime he loses a hand), the person needs to be good for poker and marketable.

*Edit - just thought of something. Perhaps some of the people who have made ft's in main events were approached and simply turned it down. I've heard a few people on interviews say if they win they will not make poker their career.

Exactly what Zach said.

Eastgate had been playing high stakes online before the WSOP. Demidov is russian (obv good) lolz. but seriously demidov is good.

Phillips is eh...uh.. yeah..