The Captain & the Greek Hop Aboard the Struggling WPA

A little more than two weeks ago, World Poker Association (WPA) founder Jesse Jones sent an e-mail to the organization\’s members asking for those with an interest to join the Board of Directors. Though Jones plans to continue as a board member, his declining health prevents him from performing as its leader.

Asked and sorta received. Tom Franklin and John Leontakianakos stepped up and claimed positions on the board. Both players have been in the game for a number of years and have experience in poker as well as business. Their bios are on the WPA website.

While Leontakianakos, nicknamed \”The Greek,\” claims to have been playing high-stakes poker for more than 31 years, he is a relative unknown in the tournament poker community. But that might be a plus as compared to Franklin (\”Captain\” Tom, that is), who has a proven track record at the poker tables through the years but also gained quite the reputation, deserved or not, through the trials and tribulations of the late Brandi Hawbaker. The much-discussed story was that there was a penis-on-the-back (POB) incident between Franklin and Hawbaker (I think you can put the pieces of that puzzle together), and his reputation has been somewhat scarred in the past two years with POB references.

For the sake of the WPA, Franklin will rise above reminder posts like this those references and do some good for the organization. And who knows…..maybe a few others will step up and fill in the rest of the vacancies on that board.