Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006

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Newly-formed Professional Poker League holds draft

By Sarah Polson

Sixty-four professional poker players met at the Venetian Resort Hotel Saturday for the "inaugural draft" to choose teams for the Professional Poker League (PPL). The PPL will be an invitation-only, made-for-TV poker series with players facing off against each other in eight teams.

The 64 players chosen for the PPL are some of the best tournament and cash game poker players in the world. For example, according to Daniel Negreanu's blog, the co-captains chosen for the eight teams are T.J. Cloutier and Dewey Tomko; Chip Reese and Eli Elezra; John Juanda and Erik Seidel; Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey; Chris Ferguson and Ted Forrest; Negreanu and Jennifer Harman; Mike Sexton and Cyndy Violette; and Doyle and Todd Brunson.

The draft was set up so that there were six pools of eight players for each team to choose from. During each round they were allowed to pick one player, and they could only pick one player from each pool of players.

According to Negreanu's blog, the draft resulted in the following teams:

Team One
Co-captains T.J. Cloutier and Dewey Tomko
Chau Giang
Daniel Alaei
Carlos Mortensen
Linda Johnson
Layne Flack
Amir Vahedi

Team Two
Co-captains Chip Reese and Eli Elezra
Patrik Antonius
Kenna James
Lee Watkinson
Men "The Master" Nguyen
Esther Rossi
David Williams

Team Three
Co-captains John Juanda and Erik Seidel
Annie Duke
Antonio Esfandiari
Martin de Knijff
John D'Agostino
Mimi Tran
Phil Gordon

Team Four
Co-captains Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey
David Benyamine
Vanessa Rousso
Chad Brown
Josh Arieh
Tuan Le
Mike Caro

Team Five
Co-captains Chris Ferguson and Ted Forrest
Gus Hansen
Phil Laak
Joe Cassidy
Jack Fox
Clonie Gowen
Paul Darden

Team Six ("The Professionals")
Co-captains Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Harman
Gabe Thaler
Freddy Deeb
David Chiu
Nick Schulman
Mike Matusow
Evelyn Ng

Team Seven
Co-captains Mike Sexton and Cyndy Violette
Scotty Nguyen
Robert Williamson
Michael Mizrachi
Gavin Smith
Jennifer Tilly
Liz Lieu

Team Eight
Co-captains Doyle Brunson and Todd Brunson
Hoyt Corkins
Isabelle Mercier
Humberto Brenes
Michael Gracz
Chip Jett
Tony Guoga

The tournament is scheduled to begin taping in January on a set with a 700 seat theater at the Venetian.

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