Someone also brought up the fact that Pokerstars has been firing/non-renewing a lot of pros since Amaya took over, and often it seems to come in clumps, perhaps when contract renewal time comes up.

I fully agree that this is likely what happened here, and the reason that Jason and Vanessa "left" Pokerstars at roughly the same time -- and both right around the new year.

I'm sure that none of that is a coincidence.

However, there's still a stark contrast between the way the two departures are being handled.

Pokerstars published Jason Mercier's sweet statement on their blog (and tweeted it out), and then wrote some very nice things about him at the end.

They were silent on Vanessa's departure, and Vanessa's own "retirement" statement did not thank Pokerstars, and in fact included a backdoor slam against them for marketing to amateurs who actually have no chance to win.

So clearly Mercier left on good terms, while Vanessa left with some bitterness.

But what actually happened? If they were both non-renewed for 2018, why was one so gracious and the other petty/bitter?

I'm guessing it was due to the difference in personalities.

Jason probably took it as a reality of the current industry. Pokerstars can't serve Americans, so his marketing value to them is minimal. He probably realized that, was gracious for their generosity in sponsorship through the end of 2017, and asked them if he could publish a farewell making it appear as if he left to spend time with his wife and new child. Obviously they agreed.

Vanessa probably took it as a slight, and perhaps some nasty e-mails were exchanged. While she didn't openly bash them in her own "retirement" statement, she managed to slip in a passive-aggressive jab at them without directly saying anything disparaging.

Mind you, these are just theories of mine. I have no idea what truly happened.

Also, it's possible that both were not outright terminated, but rather given lowball offers to stay on, which were refused.

I personally have experience with refusing lowball offers from poker sites.

Some of you may have noticed that I wore Interpoker gear during two successful tournaments I had in 2005 -- one being my bracelet win, the other being my 4th place finish in St. Kitts at their Main Event. In both tournaments, they paid my buyin. Interpoker got a pretty good bang for their buck with me. They put me in three tournaments -- the $3k Limit Holdem, which I won, a $1500 NL WSOP event that same year where I came within 3 spots of cashing, and the $6k NL St. Kitts Main where I finished 4th.

After the St. Kitts finish, which was in November 2005, they claimed they would sponsor me for 2006. However, they dragged their feet with this, and when I finally was sent an offer, it was laughable. The offer had me agreeing to always wear their gear and to show up to mandatory events of theirs (though they'd pay for my travel), and my entire compensation would be "rakeback". How much rakeback? Exactly the same rakeback available to anyone signing up with an affiliate. L O fucking L. They actually drew up a whole contract and thought I would go for it. Obviously I declined it, and that was that.

I wasn't bitter about it, and in fact I was grateful that they had contributed about $10k worth of buyins for me in 2005. So I didn't bash them, nor was I angry. I just thought the offer was laughable. How did they possibly think I would want such a thing?

My only other sponsorship was a very brief (lasted a few hours) stint with Pokerstars in 2010 when I made the top 100 in the WSOP Main. I got paid $7500 and busted 88th, so that was that. I could have been paid as much as $1,000,000 if had won it, and also something like $150k if I made the final table.