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When the Epic Poker League (EPL) took members it issued a card to each. The members of the poker community with the highest stature were given a 5 Year Card. The cards in decreasing order of ranking were 3 Year Card, 2 Year Card Category A and 2 Year Card Category B. Now the EPL has created the highest card, the lifetime player card, and conferred it to Doyle Brunson. This will make him automatically eligible to play all future EPL tournaments. Doyle has $6.1 million in lifetime tournament earnings and 10 WSOP gold bracelets, but the honor was not really meant just for that. EPL Commissioner Annie Duke said that this was an acknowledgement of the efforts pit in by Doyle over several decades to make poker popular and accessible.

In his inimitable style Doyle responded, “It’s unnecessary but I guess it’s nice to be remembered for what we went through to get poker to this point.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Doyle reminisced that at one time poker was looked down upon in Las Vegas. Then he and a group of card sharks known as the Texas Rounders came to Sin City and popularized Texas Hold‘em games at the Golden Nugget.

Earlier Doyle had been given one of the two year cards under league eligibility rules, which are weighed to emphasize recent success. Jeffery Pollack, executive chairman of FS+G that owns the EPL, said that Brunson’s contributions to poker are timeless, making him the game’s statesman. “The modern history of poker is Doyle’s life,” he added.

Doyle did not play in the EPL’s first two main events. Reading between the lines it is evident that the EPL goofed up in giving Doyle a low rated card and he was not amused. Now they have made good their error in the most suitable way. However, Doyle is not likely to play significantly more tournaments because of the lifetime card. He said, “As I’m getting older, these tournaments are getting too hard to come through. It’s probably not worth it to me anymore to really go on the tournament grind, so I don’t plan on playing a whole lot of tournaments the rest of my life. I much prefer to play cash games.”

WSOP 2012 will have a new event with an unprecedented $1 million buy-in. Titled “The Big One for One Drop”, this event is the creation of One Drop Chair and Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte. Laliberte had worked on this concept with Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber. The idea was to combine poker players’ charitable nature with WSOP’s global reach to create an unparalleled poker event for raising the awareness to the acute shortage of water in many parts of the world.

The Big One for One Drop will take place from July 1 to July 3, 2012. Already 22 poker professionals have committed their participation. 22 is the minimum requirement for a WSOP official bracelet event. From each $1 million buy-in, $111,111 will be donated to One Drop towards raising funds for a legacy project of providing clean water access in a needy country. The balance amount will go to the prize pool. With 22 participants the expected prize pool will be nearly $20 million. The event will be capped at 48 players. The expected first place prize would very likely be $10 million or more and the winner will also receive a specially-designed WSOP platinum bracelet. A record 20% of the field will be in the cash. The event will be played as No-Limit Hold’em. WSOP is planning for ESPN to televise this event.

The players who have confirmed and have allowed their names to be made public are Guy Laliberte, Bobby Baldwin – four times bracelet winner and CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts, Phil Ruffin – owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas, Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Daniel Shak. Some others players have confirmed their participation but wish to remain anonymous for the present. Seats will also be offered through the following satellite events: The Montreal Group seat, Loto-Quebec seat, Caesars seat and European satellite seat.

Duhamel (in picture), who is a spokesperson for One Drop said that he was thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized. One million dollars is a lot of money but the cause is a great one. “Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution a person dies every 20 seconds.” He further committed to give 5% of his winnings from this tournament to One Drop.

Earlier this month the short list based on public voting was announced. Now the jury has done its job. It is official that Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson will become the 41st and 42nd individuals to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Neither has a flamboyant media profile, but both are deserving inductees. Annie Duke has missed out. Daniel Negreanu will be more pleased than Annie will be disappointed.

Linda Johnson (in picture) said, “I am extremely proud and humbled to be voted into the Poker Hall of Fame. I feel lucky to have been involved in many facets of poker over the past 35 years.” Linda is known as the First Lady of Poker and is the second female inductee in the Hall of Fame after Barbara Enright. Linda teaches at WPT Boot Camp and is a partner in Card Player Cruises, which conducts poker cruises. In 1993, Linda purchased Card Player magazine and turned it into the best journal of its genre. Her other projects include the World Poker Industry Conference, the World Poker Players Conference, and the Tournament Directors Association. Linda is currently on the Board of Directors for the PPA and the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS). She is a co-founder of Poker Gives. Linda was inducted into the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame in 2008.

Barry Greenstein said, “I’m happy to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside my friend Linda Johnson …” Greenstein has amassed more than $7.5 million in worldwide poker tournament winnings and possesses three World Series of Poker bracelets and two WPT titles. Greenstein is the author of the widely-acclaimed poker book Ace on the River. He has a practice of autographing a copy of the book for players in tournaments that eliminate him. Greenstein has donated more than $3 million from his poker winnings, earning him his nickname “The Robin Hood of Poker”.

Greenstein and Johnson will be officially inducted on Tuesday, November 8 in the Penn & Teller Theater of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas just prior to the start of the final table of the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

Maria Ho has never been placed on the same pedestal for her poker abilities at the top women poker professionals like Vanessa Selbst or Annette Obrestad. She is looked upon more as a poker babe who adds glamour to the game. However, every now and then Maria comes up with a performance that leaves the best of her gender behind. In WSOP 2011 Maria reached the heads up in the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event. Though she lost to Allen Bari, she took home $540,020, which was the largest prize won by a woman in any WSOP event ever. The beach party she threw to celebrate that win is still talked about.

Now, in the currently concluded WSOPE Main Event in Cannes, Maria once again found herself in familiar territory. In the WSOP 2007 Main Event Maria gained fame and prestige as the last woman standing. She repeated the feat in the WSOPE 2011 Main Event. In 2007 Maria had finished 38th and had won $237,865. This time she finished higher up at the 27th spot but won only €32,000. This is because of the smaller field in the European Event.

The next poker babe in the WSOPE Main Event was a relatively unknown Melanie Weisner. Melanie hails from Texas and holds a bachelors degree in music from NYU. She hit the WSOP circuit only last year and has eight cashes to her name. Her 33rd place in the WSOPE Main Event earned her €27,500, her largest win till date. Following these two poker babes was Liv Boeree in the 36th place with a prize of €27,500. Many would say that Liv has the perfect blend of glamour and poker playing abilities. However Liv has never been able to repeat her €1.25 million San Remo EPT win of April 2010.

For the sake of completeness, the WSOPE 2011 Main Event was won by Elio Fox of the United States. His share of the prize pool was €1.4 million. In the heads up Fox beat Chris Moorman of Great Britain. Moorman took home €800,000. Now all eyes in the poker world are on the November Nine. Will Martin Staszko be able to defend his chip lead?

There is something about Annie Duke that ignites the ogre in Daniel Negreanu. Last week Annie was one of the poker babes nominated to the short list from which inductees to the Poker Hall of Fame will be chosen. In an interview given to Poker Listings during the current 2011 World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, Negreanu questioned the credentials for which Annie was included in that list.

He said, “For what? Robbing people at UB? Owing Russ Hamilton money and never paying him back? For stealing money from people at the poker table? For representing poker in the worst light imaginable when she was on Celebrity Apprentice?” Negreanu added that if one took out the “F” and added a “Sh” in the word fame then he though Annie should be inducted. The clear implication was that Annie Duke, according to him, has been a disgrace to poker and should be listed in a Poker Hall of Shame.

Not content at clawing Annie, Negreanu went after her brother Howard Lederer as well. Lederer has been one of the prime movers of the Full Tilt online poker room, which has remained closed since Black Friday. The US Justice Department has claimed that Lederer was running an elaborate ponzi scheme at Full Tilt. Negreanu said, “Along with her brother, the Lederer family would be the king and queen of the poker Hall of Shame.”

The feud between Negreanu and Annie is said to go back over ten years. It hit an all time low about a year ago when Negreanu called Annie a f****** c*** in a live interview.

Annie is now playing a major role in the Federated Sports + Gaming, which has 218 poker professionals as members. They are grouped into four categories and Negreanu falls in the most prestigious 5 Year Card category. FS+G also aims to enforce a rigid code of ethics on its poker professional members. It cannot be said whether Negreanu’s outburst violates the code and calls for any action against him.

Negreanu was nominated for Poker’s Hall of Fame in both 2009 and 2010 but was not inducted. This year a new rule sets the minimum age for induction at 40 and Negreanu has now to wait for at least three years before he gets a look in. Maybe it is this that has provoked him into that vituperative tirade.