Professional Poker League is Coming

I found an interesting bit of information today: the creation of a professional poker tour. This won't be like any of the World Series of Poker events where anyone with enough money is allowed to compete. This is going to be the best of the best. No amateurs. Just professionals...professionals who have been at the top level for more than just one tournament. Commissioner Annie Duke used live tournament results (thus eliminating online and cash game players) to come up with the list of players eligible for the season. The players are separated into four different categories based on lifetime earnings, major tournament wins and number of cashes. In the highest group was awarded a 5-year players card and is made up of household names such as Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Scotty Nguyen. The next three groups were awarded 4-, 3- and 2- year player cards.

I have heard this compared to the professional golfers and bowlers tours. At first it seemed like a ridiculous idea...I mean, are people still watching poker? Who would watch this? After thinking about it for a bit, the answer was crystal clear: I will watch it. Back when poker exploded on the scene in 2005 I was playing in weekly games and watching the World Series of Poker. I learned all of the big names and genuinely thought poker on tv was cool. Then something happened. Online players who none of us had heard of starting to take over. The number of entrants exploded from 839 in 2003 to 2576 in 2004 to 5619 in 2005 to the all-time high of 8773 in 2006. The professionals simply couldn't mow them all down. By the end of the tournament, we had people such as Jamie Hold, Jerry Yang and Peter Eastgate holding the title.

For me, it became less interesting because none of the professionals who I had come to know were still alive. The great thing about professional sports is that you get to feel connected to certain players and teams. They remain in your life for years. You can always count on them. College sports are a little different in that the faces change more often, but the institution doesn't. The Tar Heels are always Sky Blue. Syracuse is always orange. The Huskies will always be purple.

In poker, the names always changed. I just couldn't get invested. But now, I get to see Phil Hellmuth cry like a baby on a consistent basis. I get to see Phil Ivey stare people down. I get to see Daniel Negreanu be generally annoying. Best of all, I get to see them sitting at a table amongst themselves, not amongst total strangers. It's enough to get me to watch.


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In totally unrelated news, Fox Soccer Channel announced the creation of Soccer Night in America for it's Friday and Saturday night MLS telecasts. I love the idea. I mean, I LOVE Hockey Night in Canada. While Soccer night in America will never reach the heights of HNIC (it's simply blasphemous even thinking this), this is a step in a good direction. Telecasts will have higher quality production and graphics and the company will step up its promotion. Finally Fox is seeing the truth that soccer can succeed in this country if you simply treat it with the same respect as other sports. Stop mocking it. Make it seem important and people will watch.