2010 Poker Hall of Fame

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 23 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee - Mike Sexton

Regardless of your chosen field, being recognised by your peers is one of the greatest achievements and accolades a person can have bestowed upon them. Football has the PFA awards, English sportsmen and women have the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards and poker has the Poker Hall of Fame.

Established in 1979, the Poker Hall of Fame has sine inducted 37 people into it, with 16 of those still being with us today. In order to be allocated a place along side poker's elite a player needs to have played poker against acknowledged top competition, have played for high stakes, played consistently well and gained the respect of their peers and have stood the test of time. That last stipulation is what is thought to have prevented Tom "durrrr" Dwan earning a place in the Poker Hall of Fame last year.

According to Harrah's, owner of the World Series of Poker brand, there are currently 181 different individuals who have received votes from the general public and each will be judged in their own merit. Poker fans can easily submit their votes from via the WSOP website by leaving their name, address, email, date of birth, name of nominee and up to 250 words, if they wish, to support their vote.

Votes are still being accepted and will be up to midnight on August 31 at which point all votes will be counted and the top ten nominees will be released by Harrah's and put before a panel of the the current living 16 Hall of Famers and a select counsel of media representatives who will then cast their votes in mid-September. The top two vote getters from this process will be inducted into the 2010 Hall of Fame, but only if they receive at least 50% of the votes between them. This figures is down from the 75% required for 2009 when only Mike Sexton was introduced.

Initial reports suggest that voting has followed a similar trend to last year so expect the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and Erik Seidel to be in the top ten names to be released on September 1, though whether Tom Dwan will be allowed to be listed remains to be seen.