With poker babe Annie Duke and professional players Jeffery Pollack heading the League, the future of pro poker seems all set to capture global attention from fans like the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) have done so far.
Steadily being considered a regular sport as opposed to the hobby game it was a few decades ago, thanks to corporate sponsorships, huge amounts of tournament winnings and lots of benefits including all expense paid luxury vacations, luxury cars and endorsement deals for poker stars, it was only a matter of time that poker got its own league too. The Las Vegas Sun paper reported a short while back on this latest development in the world of pro poker – that of the new league associated with professional poker games being pitched as the “PGA Of Poker!!”
Poker babe, Annie Duke, heads the FullTilt Pro Poker League as its new Commissioner; it will comprise only pro players who will play according to a strict set of new guidelines if they want to retain their player’s card in the League. These cards will have a fixed membership period of 2, 3 or 5 years. Annie Duke also announced at the time the news report was made up that less than 10 lifetime membership cards would be given out for the poker tour and that these would be applicable for legendary players who have enjoyed unmatched success in the game, like Doyle Brunson.
The formation of the Pro Poker League was done by Federated Sports and Gambling Inc., a privately owned company and Jeffrey Pollack, the erstwhile WSOP Commissioner who is also one of the founders and chairman of this company. Pollack announced to the media that membership in the league formed by his company would mean a certain professional standing being acknowledged for the poker player it was bestowed on and that the league would also apply strict terms for selection.
There would be 200 invites sent out by the League to various professional players, based on a specific formula which would use account finishes for major live poker events as a criterion for judging qualifying players. Other criteria used for selecting qualifying players by the formula would be their money earnings and their recent tourney history.
Pollock also confirmed to the Associated Press representatives that results of cash games and various Full Tilt Poker internet poker game wins would not be used as a measure to judge eligibility of the players for the League.
A name for the new poker league was not declared but the organizers did go on record to say that they were planning to hold 4 regular season events that would be designed to help qualifying players participate in a Freeroll Championship totaling $1 million. This final event was slated to be held in Las Vegas later in 2011 at the famed Palms Casino Resort.
Annie Duke ended the press conference on a note of positive prediction for the League, voicing her feelings about fans having showed their love for the game over the years for the poker stars by really enjoying watching them on television and making it clear that she thought the players should get some payback for providing entertainment.