Annie Duke Heading Up New Professional Poker League

Annie Duke has announced her intention to run a poker league that would cater to professional players, with the aim of creating a structure similar to professional golf’s PGA or the ATP in tennis.

The league doesn’t yet have a name, but it has already begun to outline a schedule of events for a potential first season in 2011. A report by the Associated Press says that the league would run four “regular season” events in addition to a $1 million championship in Las Vegas.

The growth of poker has been a boon to professional players and amateurs alike, but large tournament fields have made final table confrontations between top players rare. The poker league would attempt to remedy this by restricting entry to only players who have a proven track record of results in live tournaments. Duke reportedly put the number of tour invitations at around 200, with initial invitations going out based on a formula that would take into account players’ results in major events and recent high profile successes.

Accord to league co-founder Jeffrey Pollack, who will act as the league chairman, the league will provide yet another definition of what truly makes a poker pro.

"Membership in our league will signify standing as a true professional in poker," Pollack said. "We're going to apply a little more rigor to that definition."

Pollack’s association lends some weight to the seriousness of the project. Pollack has previously worked with NASCAR and the NBA, and currently serves as the chairman of Professional Bull Riders, Inc.

While the league would restrict the number of players who could participate, unknown players would certainly have their chance to break into the league as well. According to Duke, only a handful of players – fewer than ten in total – will have lifetime exemptions to participate in the league, while most other members will have two, three, or five year cards. Duke will not be participating in the league herself due to her administrative position.

Duke also told the AP that the league wouldn’t exist to compete with the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour, but rather to give fans more of what they want to see.

"Fans have shown over and over again that they love the stars of this game," Duke said. "It's the stars of this game that they really want to be watching on television.”