Ten Poker Hall of Fame Candidates Announced
After a public nomination process and the voting by the PHOF Governing Council, the WSOP announced ten candidates for the Poker Hall of Fame’s 2018 class.
Since its establishment in 1979, all poker players strive to be among the finalists. Two new names will be added to the current 54-member Hall of Famers on 13 July. The two most deserving poker players will be determined by the 28 living members of this prestigious list together with the 18-member panel consisting of media members.
They will all send their official ballots to the WSOP Governing Council until 8 July and the newest members to the Poker Hall of Fame will be announced as part of the WSOP Main Event final table festivities on 13 July.
Two new candidates, David Oppenheim and John Henningan, joined the eight players who have been finalists in previous years. Chris Bjorin, David Chiu, Mori Eskandani, Bruno Fitoussi, Mike Matusow, Chris Moneymaker, Matt Savage, and Huck Seed have already been nominated before and they all hope for better luck this year.
To get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, players must be at least 40-years-old, to have played high-stakes poker against acknowledged top competition and stood the test of time.
The other criteria they have to fulfil is they have played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers. Non-players can also find their way to the list of top ten but only if they are deemed to have contributed to the overall growth and success of the game like Matt Savage, WTP Executive Tournament Director.
Being one of the most recognizable faces in poker, Savage has done huge work in the promotion and standardization of the game. Savage has been lobbying very openly to convince voters he is a deserving candidate since he created tournament rules that casinos around the world implemented in the gameplay. Many doubt the voters will vote in the favor of an industry employee rather than in the favor of a player but we’ll have to wait and see.
No doubt the voters will have a very difficult job to elect only two out of ten really impressive candidates. We can’t wait for the results.
