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The Epic Poker League of Federated Sports + Gaming and spearheaded by Annie Duke, formerly brand ambassador of UB.com, has finally arrived. The Tournament Series One of Season One kicked off at the Palms Casino Resort on August 5. The Series consists of three events – Pro/Am Event, Charity Tournament and League Main Event.

The Pro/Am Event is down to the final table of six. The starting field of 190 exceeded expectations. With a buy-in of $1,500 the prize pool is $259,350. The six are Micah Raskin, Cliff Waite, Steve O’Dwyer, Brandon Meyers, Jeremiah DeGreef and Andy Bloch. O’Dwyer is chip leader with a count of 590,000. Raskin is bringing up the rear with 150,000.

The beneficiary of the charity event is Operation USA and the amount collected will go to the residents of tornado torn Joplin in Missouri. Emmy award winning Brad Garrett of “Everybody Loves Raymond” was to host the event. The cash prizes were sponsored by Zappos. The winner would also get a Champion’s Bracelet custom made by Good Art Hollywood.

Ultimately the success or failure of the first tournament of Epic Poker league will be judged by the participation in the Main Event, both in terms of numbers and stature of participants. The expectation is that between 120 to 150 players will participate, most of them being the younger players on the circuit. Daniel Negreanu has confirmed that he will not be playing, and it has nothing to do with the ugly spat he had with Annie Duke a few months ago. Negreanu is a member of the league and is currently ranked 11th. Phil Ivey also will not be participating because he is presumably busy with the Full Tilt problem. Phil Hellmuth should make a last minute appearance because he has been with Annie at UB.com. The Main Event, with a buy-in of $20,000 will start on August 9 under the veteran tournament director Matt Savage.

Epic Poker has its own system of ranking poker professionals. It is called Global Poker Index or GPI. It ranks the top 300 live tournament players based on their performances over the previous 36 months. Bertrand Grospellier heads the list and the top ranked female player is Vanessa Selbst at #13. Phil Hellmuth is 37th.

WSOP is the grandest annual poker event. There had been questions raised about the success of 2011 WSOP because it was preceded by the crash of the three biggest online poker sites in America. As 2011 WSOP unfolded it became apparent that the cause for concern was unfounded. But now the official statistics are out and there can be no denying the success of 2011 WSOP.

The official release from WSOP states, “The 42nd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) presented by Jack Links Beef Jerky at the Rio-All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas established a host of new records as poker enthusiasts from more than 100 nations traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the game’s grandest spectacle.” The total number of entries was a record highest at 75,672, which was 3.7% more than the previous record set last year. Similarly the 2011 WSOP prize pool of $191,999,010 was the largest in WSOP history, surpassing last year’s prize pool by 2.6%. It is true that the flagship Main Event did take a bit of a hit. The starting field was only the third highest. This was understandable because Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars sponsor their online players mostly in April and May, and that was the time they were out of action.

There has been some criticism about the final table of the Main Event. There is a lack of big names and this will have a negative impact on the following when the final table resumes in November. The only big name to stay away was Phil Ivey. The others were eliminated and this cannot be helped. The poker industry should concentrate on the positives. The chip counts are among the closest ever and this will lead to more intense competition. It should make up for the lack of fan following. Also the final table has only three American players, probably the lowest ever. This means that the global participation is growing, which is good for the game.

One of the endearing moments of 2011 WSOP was the participation of 91-year-old Ellen Deeb in the Main Event. She got eliminated on Day 1C and immediately pulled out $10,000 cash from her purse to try and re-enter the tournament. As per the rules she was not allowed and will have to wait till 2012 WSOP to play again.

The mathematics has finally been completed after Day 1D ended. The total field was 6,865, the third largest field ever for the WSOP Main Event. Though this represents a modest decline from last year’s starting field of 7,319, the administrators of WSOP and the poker world in general will be more than satisfied. The fears of poor participation in the Main Event following Black Friday were belied. PokerStars and Full Tilt badges and paraphernalia were conspicuous by their absence. Daniel Negreanu was there in his PokerStars outfit though. WSOP announced a total prize pool of $64,531,000 of which the winner will take home $8,711,956. 693 players will cash in, the lowest amount being $19,359.

Phil Ivey had promised not to participate in WSOP 2011 and stayed away from the Main Event. Long before Ivey made the announcement the betting sites had tipped Ivey as a favorite to win. Punters who bet on him lost out even before the event began. Another person who had promised not to play the Main Event was Doyle Brunson, the Grand Old Man of Poker. His reason was loss of passion. However Doyle changed his mind and entered after declaring the event open with his customary “Shuffle up and deal”. But he was out of the event six hours later. His best friend Jenny Woo jokingly, not uncharitably, remarked, “Doyle Brunson went all in, lasted barely two minutes.”

Phil Hellmuth retained his class, though he did not make his expected grand entrance with a bevy of underdressed girls. He came alone in a Versace shirt looking very dapper (see picture). May be this was because he already has three second places to his credit this WSOP and is the leader in the POY standings and does not want the flow of good luck to change. But a leopard cannot lose his spots. Hellmuth arrived five hours late and had to start with a depleted chip balance. Then he assumed that he would not be playing on Day 2A. He had to be roused from his beauty sleep and arrived late again.

Notables who are out of WSOP 2011 Main Event include Clonie Gowen, Joe Sebock, Jennifer Harman, Ivan Demidov, Antonio Esfandiari and Jennifer Tilly. The top ranking poker babe is Amanda Musumeci currently on the 15th spot.

The WSOP Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship has always been popular and controversial. Till a few years back the controversy was about whether this event was demeaning for women. One group was women found a Ladies Only event discriminatory and an insult to their poker playing abilities. The other group used it as an opportunity to try for the coveted bracelet, which was beyond their reach in an open event.

Now the controversy is about the increasing number of male players shamelessly participating in this event, some of them in drag. The WSOP authorities are either unable or unwilling to prevent this. This year Jonathan Epstein final tabled the Ladies Event, but was fortunately eliminated in 9th place. When Epstein moved all in against Marsha Wolak the rails chanted “Beat the dude! Beat the dude!” And when Epstein was out, tournament director Robbie Thompson announced, “Finally, welcome to the Ladies Event!” As to why a person like Epstein would want to participate in a ladies only event, it was pointed out that he is single and unemployed and that says it all.

As of now the field is down to three. Carol Tomlinson has a clear lead with a chip count of 1.3 million. Marsha Wolak is in second place with a chip count of 900,000. And the pregnant Karina Jett (in picture) is third with 690,000 chips. Karina is no newcomer to the Ladies Event final table. She had placed fourth in 2003 and 2004 and has a total of nine cashes until this point. However, this is her best performance. Carol is a registered nurse from Florida and Marsha Wolak is a real estate investor who runs an all-female motorcycle club on the side.

The WSOP Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship boasted over 1,000 entries and has a prize pool of $949,500. The winner will take home $192,344. The bevy of poker babes participated in full strength. Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree, Melanie Weisner, Leo Margetts, Jennifer Tilly, Lauren Kling and Maria Ho were some of the bigger names. Among the old brigade were Linda Johnson, Barbara Enright (winner of two WSOP Ladies Event bracelets), Cyndy Violette and Susie Isaacs.

Annie Duke leaving Absolute Poker was timed to perfection. It was just sufficiently before Black Friday for people not to link her with what followed. After leaving Absolute Poker, Annie has been playing a lead role in the newly formed Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G). She is the Executive Vice President and League Commissioner.

FS+G was founded by Jeffery Pollack of WSOP fame. It is modeled along the lines of the Association of Tennis Professionals that takes care of the interests of the professional tennis players. FS+G aims to get for the professional poker players the respect they deserve. What is happening in the current scenario is that by and large the best poker players become just one in a crowd. FS+G will put in place systems that ensure that the best poker professionals compete against each other and these events are shown to the fans with adequate media highlighting.

In May 2011 FS+G had announced membership for 218 poker professionals based on criteria like lifetime earnings, single largest win, major titles won and cashes since January 1, 2008. They were ranked into four groups. These groups in decreasing order of merit are 5 Year Card, 3 Year Card, 2 Year Card Category A and 2 Year Card Category B. As would be expected, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and Vanessa Selbst have a 5 Year Card. 3 Year Card holders include Gavin Smith, Annette Obrestad and Jason Mercier. Some prominent 2 Year Card Category A players are Patrik Antonius, Doyle Brunson and Gus Hachem. Sorel Mizzi, Tom Dwan and Ivan Demidov find themselves in 2 Year Card Category B. Notable absentees are Chris Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips, Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree. The Season 1 tournament schedule has also been announced. There will be four events from August 2011 to February 2012, with the Championship Event on February 13 and February 14.

Allegations of cheating and misbehavior at the poker tables have often taken center stage in major tournaments. League Commissioner Annie Duke said, “We realized really early on that we wanted to take standards and conduct very seriously. … Our first step was to find an outside ethics advisor. The next thing was to make sure we have player input.” While WSOP 2011 plays out the Standards and Conduct Committee of FS+G will be putting its norms and procedures in place.