I really want Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack's new poker league venture to work out. The same was said for the World Poker Tour's short-lived Professional Poker Tour and for the similarly envisioned Chip Reese venture that got derailed by the UIGEA. The concepts then were as the concepts now: organization, continuous play and glorification of the best players in the world. It's a wonderful idea in concept until you dig into the the minutia. That's where I see problems.

When Pollack and Duke's new circuit made its press releases this week, a few alarms went off. To my mind, for the venture to work, they're going to need:

• Money
• TV deals
• Player cooperation en masse

The money, apparently provided by the newly founded Federation Sports and Gaming, seems to be in place. As of yet, no TV deal has been announced, but according to Pollack on ESPN's Poker Edge Podcast , there is something coming with his catchphrase "wait and see" being offered in regards to that question. Even with TV in place, though, you have to wonder about how plausible player cooperation will really be. The million dollar freeroll the WSOP Circuit offered has helped the cause but hasn't exactly gotten TV professionals flying out of their way to participate.

A few molehills the Pollack/Duke group will have to climb include:

• The league assumes that they'll have access to sponsored pros with their announced Switzerland status but as of now hasn't announced any kind of support from PokerStars or Full Tilt. More and more, those two companies are making it apparent they prefer to maintain control of their television destiny.

• The league is offering tournaments that won't allow for home game heroes with a buck and a dream to compete. That doesn't leave a lot of room for off-the-charts return on investment. There are a couple satellite seats available for their tournaments, but those opportunities at this point seem limited.

• As we saw with the PPT's example, after the initial enthusiasm wears off, many of the league's 200 card-holders may show a lack of willingness to travel to the tournaments. Yes, its Vegas home is as central as it gets for the poker world, but in a time when that town's poker has gotten bad enough that even Doyle Brunson has publicly blogged that it might be time to move on for the lack of action, keeping the roster consistent may be tough.

• That leads to a credibility question as the players go. Already, this league is dealing with the reality that we won't be watching the top 200 all-around players in the world, but the best live tournament players. If, as has been suggested, they'll use a formula that favors longevity, they may further sever their relationship with the online poker community they might hope to enlist as their dedicated fan base. Those folks would rather see Ashton Griffin and Tom Marchese than Sam Farha and T.J. Cloutier, and the appearance of players like the latter could be alienating. Leagues are interesting because of continuity -- cutting off the interest of the viewers who might actually pay attention to that continuity could be harmful.

• Along those same lines, Duke brings an image issue when dealing with that same group, not to mention difficult player relationships with some of the game's best-known pros.

Duke does bring celebrity that will appeal to the broader public, which will also be intrigued by the recognizable player-brands they'll see at the table. Balanced with Pollack's popularity with the core TV pros, if everything goes in their favor as online sites and player enthusiasm go, this could all work out and be a great thing. With Pollack not committed full-time and so many unanswered questions at this point, I'm going to be cynical until more favorable information comes to light. For the industry's benefit, it would be great if I were wrong about this one.