Op-Ed: The Poker Hall of Fame is Heading For Disaster And Here's How We Fix It
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Will Shillibier is the Managing Editor of PokerNews and has worked in the industry for a decade, working at some of the world's biggest poker festivals including the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
The Poker Hall of Fame is sleepwalking into a crisis. And next year, that crisis will come to a head.
Too many players will become Hall-eligible in the coming years, with 2025 proving to be a bumper year. Unless the Hall's induction policy changes, many of them will miss out — if they haven't done so already.
Poker fans, players and media have been highlighting the problem for years now, and many have opined on how to solve this problem. Whatever the solution, everyone agrees that something has to be done.
The Class of 2025 and Beyond
Many believe that 2025 will be the tipping point, with a massive number of players, all children of the poker boom, becoming Hall-eligible.
If a player was 18 the year Chris Moneymaker (pictured) won the Main Event, they will turn 40 next year, the magic year when they are eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame.
Many of these players have enough poker achievements to get into the Hall many times over, and yet, barring any changes, changes that have been urged by the poker community for many years, only one of them will be inducted.
Vanessa Selbst, the winningest female player of all time, barely enters the conversation next to the likes of two-time Main Event final tablist Ben Lamb, or reigning WSOP Player of the Year Scott Seiver. Throw in the likes of Phil Galfond, Nick Schulman and anyone from the nine un-inducted nominees this year, and you can see the problem.
Did Scott Seiver Just Punch His Ticket to the Poker Hall of Fame?
A New Poker Hall of Fame Induction Process
When looking for a solution, I immediately looked to the four major US sports and their respective Halls of Fame. The processes for each of them are too long and varied to expound on here, but certain things remained consistent across all four, and I've used these to come up with an induction process that makes sense for poker while addressing some of the core problems I've mentioned.
Four new Poker Hall of Fame Nomination Committees will be created to screen and nominate candidates. The first three committees are made up of players, while the last is made up of operator, casino and poker tour staff members.
The four committees are as follows:
- American Nomination Committee
- International Nomination Committee
- Women's Nomination Committee
- Industry Nomination Committee
Each committee is made up of six members considered "of good standing" by the Hall of Fame who are invited to serve on the committee for a three-year term. The committees meet to nominate candidates for induction to the Hall of Fame.
The American Nomination Committee nominates five candidates, the International Nomination Committee nominates three candidates and the Women's and Industry Nomination Committees nominate one candidate each.
The list of 10 nominees — the same number as under the current system — is then presented to the Induction Committee.
The Induction Committee consists of eight living Hall of Fame members and two representatives from each of the nomination committees. The Hall again invites these representatives, who serve three-year terms and are not part of the initial nomination process.
Meanwhile, the eight Hall of Fame members rotate every three years and must have been in the Hall for a minimum of five years.
A secret ballot is then held among the 18 members of the Induction Committee, and any player who receives the support of 75% of the committee is inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
What Would This Achieve?
I believe this new process would remedy several issues facing the Hall. Essentially, this new process enables more people to be inducted each year. This allows the current backlog to be remedied, allowing certain "slam-dunk" candidates to be inducted, and it also sets the Hall on a new path for the future.
The inclusion of a women's and industry nomination committee ensures candidates from these under-represented areas of the industry are considered each year.
Here are the ten nominees the Nomination Committees could choose to pick under this new system:
American Nomination Committee: Scott Seiver, Phil Galfond, Nick Schulman, Josh Arieh, Michael Mizrachi
International Nomination Committee: Barny Boatman, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Max Pescatori
Women's Nomination Committee: Kathy Liebert
Industry Nomination Committee: Isai Scheinberg
Would all of these 10 players reach the 75% threshold within the Induction Committee? Who knows. Maybe they would. But is that a bad thing? At least under this new process, they'd all get a fair chance at induction.
What About Current Inductees?
Many worry that increasing the number of inductees would dilute the Hall's character. I believe the way to address this would be to create a new "tier" within the Hall of Fame.
Elevating some existing Hall members to a newly created 'Legend' status would help the Hall retain some of its prestige. This should be a distinct honor, almost separate from their initial induction.
Who's to say that Patrik Antonius (pictured), inducted at just 43, won't achieve more in the next 25-30 years? This two-tiered approach to the Hall allows current players to be inducted, including those inducted immediately upon reaching 40, while also retaining the ability to continue a legacy that enshrines them further into the poker history books.
There's no set timetable for the induction of 'Legends', just when the Hall of Fame feels it appropriate. As of 2024, I feel there are four current Hall of Fame members that would be eligible for 'Legend' status were it to be introduced:
- Johnny Moss: Inaugural and three-time WSOP Main Event champion
- Doyle Brunson: Godfather of Poker, two-time WSOP Main Event champion and ten-time bracelet winner
- Stu Ungar: Three-time WSOP Main Event champion
- Phil Hellmuth: 17-time WSOP bracelet winner
Final Thoughts
We don't do many op-eds on PokerNews. After all, we're a news website, not a gossip column. But I know this piece will spark debate among poker players, fans and industry people alike. It might even make its way in front of some members of the Hall of Fame.
My message to the Hall is clear: everyone agrees something needs to change. And now is the time, before the Hall becomes a shadow of what it is now, with countless uninducted and yet fully deserving players and industry personnel. It's already heading that way and with this solution — indeed, any solution — we can avoid losing a cherished part of the game we all know and love.
