The "Professional Poker League" is here. A new concept created, funded, and brought to fruition by some very talented (and financed) businessmen, the PPL assembled 64 of the best players in the world for the inaugural draft. The 8 teams, led by captains and co-captains selected by the PPL player selection committee, had a tough job in front of them: Rank and pick a team that will, over the course of a year, dominate the tournaments and games. And, do it publicly.

As we assembled for the draft at the Venetian, the tension was palpable. The captains weren't giving much away in terms of strategy, but it was clear that they had done their homework. Daniel Negreanu said, "I've spent more than 100 hours on this thing in the last week. I was born for this. I've been playing fantasy leagues all my life." Chris Ferguson said, "we're looking for players that will fit together on a real team. We're looking for guys that are willing to learn, and guys that won't hold back when we share information with each other. We need team players."

As for me, I was just praying not to be the last player picked.

The draft would be a "snake" draft. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3 and the captains were as follows:

Legends: T.J. Cloutier, Dewey Tomko
The Razors: Eli Elezra, Chip Reese
River Dogs: John Juanda, Erik Seidel
The Corporation: Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey
The Truth: Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest
The Professionals: Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu
Card Sharks: Mike Sexton, Cyndy Violette
Legacy: Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson

To make things interesting, the tournament organizers divided the 48 remaining players into 6 "pools" of talent. Each team was required to draft exactly one player from each pool. Here were the pools:

Young Guns: Daniel Alaei, Joe Cassidy, John D'Agostino, Mike Gracz, Tuan Lee, Mike Mizrachi, Nick Schulman, David Williams

Personality: Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack, Tony G, Kenna James, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith

Pure Talent: Chad Brown, Paul Darden, Phil Gordon, Chip Jett, Gabe Thaler, Amir Vahedi, Lee Watkinson, Robert Williamson

The Ladies: Annie Duke, Clonie Gowen, Linda Johnson, Isabelle Mercier, Evelyn Ng, Esther Rossi, Vanessa Rousso, Jennifer Tilly

The Internationals: Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Humberto Brenes, David Chiu, Martin Deknjiff, Gus Hansen, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortenson

The Old Timers: Mike Caro, Hoyt Corkins, Freddy Deeb, Jack Fox, Chau Giang, Men Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Mimi Tran

So, there you have it. It is fair to say that if a player is picked ahead of another in a pool, the captains believe that player is "better" than the players they passed up. For the first time, we got a look at some of the best players in the world (the captains) ranking their peers. This could get ugly.

Notably absent from the draft:

Phil Hellmuth, Jr.: Rumors have it that Phil demanded a private jet to and from Palo Alto each week in order to participate. Private jets weren't in the budget.

Allen Cunningham: Too busy spending his fourth-place money from the WSOP main event, and waiting it out to see how things work the first year.

Erick Lindgren: Too many of the play dates conflict with important sporting events.

The "talent disparity" in some of the pools, most notably the "Old Timers" pool, made it clear that the pooling would have a significant impact on the draft and draft order. It doesn't make any sense, for instance, to burn your first pick on the "Young Guns" pool when you'd be more than happy to take any single person in the group. Many thought that Annie Duke would be the first player picked as a "stand out" among her pool peers. But, with the players assembled and seated, Matt Savage (PPL tournament director) announced:

"With the first pick of the Professional Poker League Draft, Cloutier and Tomko select..."

Chau Giang.

An obvious pick, if you ask me. If they didn't take a player from the Old Timers pool with their first pick, there might not be a player worth picking by the time they selected as the last pick in round 2. As Chau took the stage, I overhead a comment that made me choke…

Nick Shulman: "It should be totally clear that this draft does not depend on athletic talent."

Great observation.

Without further ado, here is the complete draft:

Perhaps more interesting, is the inter-pool draft order:

Young Guns: Alaei, Cassidy, Mizrachi, Gracz, Schulman, D'Agostino, Le, Williams
Personality: Laak, Esfandiari, James, Smith, Arieh, Flack, Matusow, Tony G.
Talent: Thaler, Williamson, Watkinson, Brown, Jett, Darden, Gordon, Vahedi
Ladies: Annie Duke, Mercier, Rousso, Johnson, Rossi, Gowen, Tilly, Ng.
The Internationals: Antonius, Benyamine, Hansen, Mortenson, Deknjiff, Chiu, Brenes, Lieu
The Old Timers: Giang, Scotty Nguyen, Corkins, Deeb, Fox, Men Nguyen, Tran, Caro

So, there you have it. The teams are set. In my mind, there are a few very strong teams, and I'm very happy to be on one of them. The favorites have to be Juanda/Seidel, The Corporation, the Truth, and The Professionals: teams Nos. 3 to 6 in the draft order.

It is unclear what format the 10-month long season will take and how important the "team" aspect will come into play. But, eight new "families" were hatched in Las Vegas at the Venetian, and things should be very interesting for poker in the coming year.

Play for the PPL starts on January 1, 2007 and can be seen on "iTV" (formerly known as PAX) on your cable box for more than 8 hours a week. Tournaments will be broadcast live. There is a new "poker dome" type set being built at the Venetian with 750 seats -- you'll be able to watch these matches with hole card information live as they unfold.

It is a watershed moment for poker, and one I was tremendously proud to be a part of. And, I'll note for the record, I wasn't picked last. Third to last overall, second to last in my pool, but not last. I have tremendous motivation to show the six team captains that picked guys in my pool ahead of me that they made a mistake.