Poker Royalty, a management and marketing agency for professional poker players, announced last week that top poker pro Gavin Griffin has signed on as a client.

Griffin, 26, of Fullerton, California, USA, has finished in the money in 22 poker tournaments in his career, amassing a whopping $4.4 million, according to tournament records.

Included in those earnings is a first-place finish and corresponding gold bracelet for winning a pot-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament at the 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

He has also won a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament and a European Poker Tour (EPT) tourney, becoming the only person in history have wins in WSOP, WPT and EPT events.

Griffin was the No. 8 money-earner among all professional poker players for the calendar year 2007, tournament records show.

“I am delighted to move forward with Poker Royalty in my corner,” Griffin said.

“Their extensive resources, expertise, leadership and relationships in the gaming industry will help me achieve my long-term career goals,” he added.

“Gavin has been a consistently strong player during his short career, and it’s great that he is finally getting recognized for his accomplishments,” said Chris Porter, Poker Royalty’s director of sales and marketing.

“Any time somebody has a WPT title, EPT title, and WSOP bracelet by the age of 26, that player deserves some serious recognition,” Porter added. “We are delighted to work with Gavin and support his ambitions as he begins an exciting new phase of his professional career.”

Among other things, Poker Royalty will try to get paid gigs for Griffin to shill poker-related and other products and services.

The agency will also try to book paid speaking appearances for the pro.

In addition to Griffin,=A0Poker Royalty also handles clients such as Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr., Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Gus Hansen, Gavin Smith, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Bill Edler, Patrik Anonius, Bill Edler and Cyndy Violette.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)