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The man synonymous with the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) has decided not to renew his contract as a Team PokerStars Pro according to a post he made on the 2+2 forum. The first hint of the split between PokerStars and EPT founder John Duthie came from 2+2 Moderator “KevMath” who posted, “I’ve heard from a source close to John Duthie, one of the main people behind the creation of the European Poker Tour, that he is no longer part of Team PokerStars.”

EPT founder John Duthie later posted in the thread to clear up any misconceptions after a number of people started guessing at the reason Duthie’s image no longer appeared on the Team PokerStars Pro page. With people believing a nuber of different “levels” being presented in the thread, Duthie made a short post explaining that he simply didn’t renew his contract with the site (a decision that seems to have been Duthie’s based on his post).

“Hey Guys….I’m afraid this decision had nothing to do with the VPP situation or the ‘Sit-Out’; it was quite simply that I didn’t want to renew my contract which expired 31st December. There was also no Tweet to this effect. All very self-centred to be honest,”

Duthie sold an undisclosed percentage of the EPT to PokerStars several years ago, and has remained the EPT CEO since. It’s unclear at this time if Duthie parting ways with Team PokerStars Pro will have any impact on his position with the PokerStars EPT.

In addition to his pre-poker career as an award-winning director and producer, Duthie has also earned $2.7 million at the poker tables according to thehendonmob.com’s tournament database, most notably winning the £1 million first-place-prize at the Poker Million in 2000.