The idea of creating a team of sponsored players to do the bidding of a particular website is an idea that was started by PokerStars and really taken to the max by Full Tilt Poker. Both of these sites to a large degree owe their successes to having teams of sponsored professionals. This has not been true of PartyPoker however, as the sponsorship route was not one the site had chosen to take with the notable exception of Mike Sexton. Aside from that one exception however, Party Poker has been a stalwart of the old school of online poker thought.

At least, they were.

Now Party Poker has decided to throw that way of thinking out the window and advance a new way of thinking that involves partnerships in a big way. Team Party Poker has expanded as a result of this new philosophy, growing from one player to four players. It is expected that the team will continue to grow as time passes, but right now it looks as though Party Poker’s team of sponsored pros will stay at four people.

In addition to Sexton, Party Poker has tapped British poker player Ian Frazer, French player Remy Biechel and Brazilian Felipe Ramos. While these names might not be huge names yet in the American popularized poker community, they are certainly huge names within their respective poker circles. With an American, Brit, Francophone and Brazilian, Party Poker has started their team off in blazing international style. Considering their appeal to the international crowd as opposed to the American one, this is hardly a surprise.

Additionally, Party Poker’s methodology for picking these players has shown that they have a different philosophy when it comes to talent. Party Poker looks as though they want some home grown talent, picking players that have played a lot of their online poker at PartyPoker. As opposed to Full Tilt Poker and to a lesser extent Poker Stars, Party Poker is looking within for talent rather than without. The other two big sites have a number of players that did not play there before becoming famous.