Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 27 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

Matthew Pitt reported earlier in the week regarding the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame. By visiting the World Series of Poker website, one can still submit nominations for this year's class until next Tuesday, August 31. Once the nomination process ends, the results will be tallied and a ballot of finalists will be voted upon to determine who will join the 38 current members.

As Matthew pointed out, we heard not long ago that 181 different names had been submitted for consideration this time around -- quite a bit more than were nominated last year, the first time nominations were opened to the public. Next week we'll learn which individuals were the top 10 most-nominated, as well as who made the finalists' ballot.

Then will come a vote, to be conducted by the 16 living members of the Poker Hall of Fame and a group of poker media. Voters can select as many nominees as they wish, and the top two vote-getters will be inducted this year provided at least 50% of those voting chose them.

I've been particularly interested in the whole process this year, namely because I've been asked to participate in the voting this time around. It's a nice honor to have been asked, and I plan to give the matter careful consideration when it comes time to vote. Indeed, I am already anticipating having to make some tough decisions once I have that finalists' ballot before me.

The criteria by which potential Poker Hall of Famers are to be considered are as follows: (1) a player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; (2) played for high stakes; (3) played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; (4) stood the test of time; or (5) for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Note how that list of criteria doesn't mention anything about players excelling at cash games and/or tournaments. Nor is any distinction made between online or live play. All forms of poker are theoretically covered in those references to playing the game, although in truth, success in live tournaments is far and away the most conspicuous way to promote one's candidacy for the Poker Hall of Fame.

Thus is the Poker Hall of Fame necessarily quite different from similar institutions for other organized sports for which players' performances are comprehensively chronicled and recorded for posterity. We know who won every World Series of Poker bracelet. We also know a lot about who cashed in WSOP events, as well as the results for many other major poker tournaments over the last four decades. But when it comes to cash games, by their very nature there often isn't a lot of hard evidence available to cite when arguing for a particular player having "played consistently well."

Just to pick one example to illustrate the point, a player like Ed "Junior" Whited could perhaps be deserving of entry into the Poker Hall of Fame, although his chances of even making the finalists' ballot are probably minute while WSOP stars like Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Scotty Nyugen have yet to be voted in.

That's because like many of his generation, Whited's poker playing career began with cash games, and stayed that way until the WSOP and other tournament series first emerged. Whited was among that group of Texas gamblers who "faded the white line" with Doyle Brunson (inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988), "Amarillo Slim" Preston (inducted in 1992), and others back in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Whited certainly fulfills the first four criteria for entry into the Poker Hall of Fame, having enjoyed a long career playing for the highest stakes against top pros while gaining the respect of his competitors. A media guide produced for the 1978 World Series of Poker describes Whited as "a steady winner in top-level play." Crandell Addington (inducted in 2005) credited Whited with having "the very precise, analytical reasoning of the successful high roller." And in his autobiography The Godfather of Poker (reviewed here), Doyle Brunson lists Whited among the many talented players who formed the "nucleus of professional gamblers" who barnstormed Texas during those formative years for poker.

Whited's greatest tournament successes would come at Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker, which at the time of its creation in 1979 rivaled the WSOP in terms of its prestige. In that inaugural year of the Super Bowl of Poker, Whited finished fourth at the Main Event, which like the WSOP ME was a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, and then won the Super Bowl ME in 1981. But Whited only enjoyed a couple of cashes at the WSOP during the 1980s, and as a result isn't necessarily one to receive a lot of attention when it comes to consideration for the Poker Hall of Fame.

With the advent of online play, determining the best cash game players remains a bit of a puzzle, although with certain sites now tracking every move made in the high stakes games -- and even the middle and low stakes, too -- we do have some idea who the biggest winners and losers are at the virtual tables.

For example, the fact that Phil Ivey has reportedly earned over $19 million playing online since 2007 certainly doesn't hurt his already strong candidacy, bolstered by eight WSOP bracelets, a WSOP ME final table, a WPT title, an EPT title, and over $13 million in tourney winnings worldwide. Still just 34 years old -- and only on the professional poker scene for a little over a decade -- some maintain Ivey has yet to have "stood the test of time," though he's obviously already satisfied all of the other criteria and then some.

Thus do I eagerly look forward seeing the names of those individuals selected as finalists on this year's Poker Hall of Fame ballot, anticipating that most (if not all) will be players with impressive list of tournament successes. And once that finalists' ballot is announced, feel free to leave a comment here letting me know for whom you think I should be voting.

Meanwhile, if you know of someone whom you'd like to see considered, there's still time to head over to the WSOP website and nominate a player.

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comment: