In a letter sent to the membership of the World Poker Association (WPA), its founder, Jesse Jones, sought out new members for the organization’s Board of Directors. Health issues were partly responsible for Jones not being able to continue in his current leadership role and he told Poker News Daily that he has found two new participants for the Board, Tom Franklin and John Leontakianakos.
On the newest members of the WPA governing body, Jones commented, “Tom Franklin has been playing and working in the poker industry for many years. John Leontakianakos has held a leadership role in several corporations and been a long-time tournament player. Both men bring knowledge and skills that are well-suited to the goals of the World Poker Association to establish unity and growth worldwide.”
Tom Franklin is known as “Captain” in the poker world and won his first (and so far only) World Series of Poker bracelet in 1999 by taking down a $2,500 buy-in Limit Omaha tournament, besting Erik Alps heads-up. Also at that final table were “Minneapolis” Jim Meehan and Eli Elezra. He also made the final table and finished eighth in the 2000 WSOP Main Event, which was ultimately won by Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson. Franklin made his first World Poker Tour final table during the Season VI Gulf Coast Poker Championship, finishing sixth and banking $116,000. He has over $1.6 million in career earnings.
Joining Franklin on the WPA Board of Directors is John “The Greek” Leontakianakos. Holding over 30 years’ worth of experience in high stakes poker, Leontakianakos now serves as the Senior Vice President for security firm GateKeeper USA. His biography on the WPA’s website states that he has “enjoyed a very lucrative investment banking career and has created and implemented several innovative investment structures and has amassed a transactional history in excess of $6 billion.” A former member of the United States Marine Corps, he also founded a non-profit organization, The Cancer Research Institute for Personalized Medicine.
Jones told Poker News Daily that worldwide interest in the game of poker is ballooning: “I received inquiries last week from individuals in Pakistan and Mongolia wanting to start poker associations in their countries. Clearly, poker interest continues to grow worldwide.” Jones offered free WPA memberships to several overseas poker organizations provided that they are non-profits. Their members are also eligible to join the WPA for free.
The WPA is an organization that strives to bring standards to the poker world in a similar fashion to what the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) has done for golf. Standardized tournament rules, structures, and codes of conduct are among the chief goals of the new WPA Board. Its stated rules include guidelines on breaking and balancing tables, racing off chips, string raises, and penalties. A complete Code of Ethics is also available, which governs proper relationships among players, dealers, and casino management.
Jones weighed in on the recently-completed World Series of Poker Main Event, which saw Peter Eastgate become the youngest Main Event winner ever at age 22: “The recent WSOP final table, televised within two days of play, showed so few hands that you couldn’t really see how it played out. If I were Kelly Kim, I’d be very upset after waiting four months to play and my final hand not even shown on the broadcast. And two hands from the heads-up play are unacceptable for $9 million first place.” Jones predicts an expansion of live poker programming in the future.
