Poker entrepreneur extraordinary Alexander Dreyfus appears to be making good progress on his Global Poker League project, announcing this week that the legendary Chris Moneymaker will be the first franchise holder, and the launch of a new game titled HoldemX, which ‘connects the world of video games, social/casual poker and eSports’.
The Global Poker League is set to launch in Los Angeles on February 25 this year, and Dreyfus is clearly hoping that the Moneymaker magic will attract both publicity and more franchise applicants.
Our readers will recall that Moneymaker’s amateur internet player achievement in taking
down the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003 after winning a seat through an online poker operator is widely regarded as an event that triggered widespread awareness of the internet poker sector.
Moneymaker’s Las Vegas-based franchise will be billed as the ‘Las Vegas Moneymakers’, but details on its team members have yet to be released. Another 11 franchises have been taken up, Dreyfus claims, and their identities will be released next week.
The Global Poker League will see the franchise teams competing over the course of a playing season, with a Grand Final scheduled to be hosted at an as yet unidentified world class sports arena.
Dreyfus has previously said that his objective is to build stronger associations between poker and eSports.Part of that goal is the introduction of a new game, hence the imminent launch in alpha format of HoldemX, which will enable millions of poker and other players across the world to legally compete with one another.
Dreyfus says that the game has been exhaustively tested by some of the world’s top professional players and video gamers, and is on track for launch soon.