Amaya Gaming, the new owner of Pokerstars, seems to be trimming the fat.

They already released Humberto Brenes and others, as I talked about in this thread.

However, that stuff occurred with minimal fanfare. Nobody seemed to care that a few B-and-C-level tourney pros were given their walking papers.

A more recent situation is raising eyebrows, however.

Joe Cada, WSOP Main Event Champion of 2009, recently tweeted that Pokerstars cut him loose after they refused his request for 100% rakeback and no other salary/benefits.

Keep in mind that Joe Cada wasn't just a 2009 one-hit-wonder, but rather has had some success after that, including a recent second bracelet win.

While Cada doesn't have a particularly exciting or memorable personality, he is young, semi-charismatic, and generally known as a nice guy. While I can understand Amaya believing he has minimal value (as opposed to a Negreanu type), I don't understand this decision. He was basically offering to work for free, trading his name and likeness in exchange for not being charged to play on their site. This is known as an exchange of professional services, and I think Stars would get great value out of having him on their roster and simply not raking his play.

However, I believe the now-Amaya-run Stars sees it differently. Cada plays fairly actively, and I think they translated what 100% rakeback would equate to at his current rate of play. And they probably don't think he's worth that. And they probably believed he would still play there regardless of whether or not they kept him on as a pro.

Need more proof that Amaya is cutting back on expenditures? How about the fact that they are terminating agreements with longtime affiliates?

I think Amaya is taking a long, hard look at Stars' business model, and has decided to cut in areas where they perceive poor value. They are shaking up the longtime model that a successful poker site needs a large roster of paid pros and aggressive affiliates with generous player recruitment deals.

Amaya is discovering what I have said for a long time:

1) The affiliate model is antiquated and no longer necessary for large sites.

2) Pros provide little value to a site unless they are huge, widely recognizable names.

With that said, maintaining Cada for simply 100% rakeback still would have been the right play.