The 2009 Poker Hall of Fame class will be inducted in a special presentation during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table in November. PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, is feverishly campaigning for Tom McEvoy to grace the stage at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio.
The general public can pitch their choices for the Poker Hall of Fame until July 2nd. A Poker Hall of Fame nomination form available on the WSOP’s official website allows voters to submit a nomination along with 250 words justifying why that player deserves the prestigious title of Hall of Famer. In the first week of open voting, the general public submitted over 1,000 nominations. McEvoy, a card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro, commented in a press release distributed by the online poker site, “Being voted to the Poker Hall of Fame this year would be the best moment in my career by far. It would be better than winning four WSOP bracelets, the Champions Invitational, and even the Main Event!”
The first of McEvoy’s four pieces of hardware came in 1983, when he won a $1,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em event for $117,000, besting a field of 234 players. Later in the 1983 WSOP, he took down the Main Event for $540,000, besting a final table that also included Doyle Brunson and WSOP bracelet winner Rod Peate. In 1986, McEvoy was back in the spotlight in a $1,000 buy-in Limit Razz tournament for his third WSOP bracelet. In 1992, he took down his fourth and final bracelet in a $1,500 buy-in Limit Omaha event for $79,000. All told, his bracelets have come in three different genres of poker.
Although it was not a bracelet event, the WSOP Champions Invitational, which will play out on ESPN as part of the network’s coverage of the 2009 festivities, attracted 20 former Main Event winners. In the end, McEvoy blasted through the talented field and took home a mint condition 1970 Corvette (marking the first year that the WSOP was held) and the Binion Cup. McEvoy battled through every Main Event winner since 2000 as well as National Heads-Up Poker Championship victor Huck Seed (1996), 2008 WSOP HORSE Championship winner Scotty Nguyen (1998), and Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth (1989). “The Poker Brat” was the youngest WSOP Main Event winner ever, a record that stood for 19 years until Danish pro Peter Eastgate took down the 2008 installment at the tender age of 22.
McEvoy has 37 in the money finishes over his WSOP career at the time of writing, tied for the 26th most ever with “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke, Nguyen, and Steve Zolotow. His four WSOP bracelets are good for the 19th most overall, putting him in a ten-way tie with Mickey Appleman, Bobby Baldwin, David Chiu, Arthur Cobb, John Juanda, Lakewood Louie, Daniel Negreanu, Amarillo Slim, and Seed. McEvoy owns $1.3 million in career WSOP earnings, in the Top 100 overall. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro member Greg Raymer pitched, “Tom has participated in every stage of poker’s evolution on the felt, online, from WSOP to EPT. He has chronicled it and taught us all how to play better poker and, most importantly, he’s still winning!”
McEvoy has authored a bevy of poker literature, including “How to Win No Limit Hold’em Tournaments,” “Championship Tournament Poker,” and “Championship Hold’em.” Co-authors on his various publications include T.J. Cloutier, Brad Daugherty, and Don Vines. He showed his prowess of the game by taking down the Professional Poker Tour’s Bay 101 event for $225,000.
PartyPoker has unleashed a campaign to send its ambassador and poker room consultant, World Poker Tour (WPT) Host Mike Sexton, to the Poker Hall of Fame. Sexton turned many of today’s rising superstars onto the game through his insightful analysis during WPT events. Sexton won a WSOP bracelet in 1989 in a $1,500 buy-in Limit Seven Card Stud High-Low event for $104,000, besting a final table that included Sid “The Kid” Herald and Men “The Master” Nguyen.
Poker News Daily’s very own Dan Cypra is one of 16 media members that will vote for the Poker Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009. In addition, living Hall of Fame members will cast their votes in September once the final list has been compiled.
