The opinions in this editorial do not reflect the positions of the ownership or management of Poker News Daily.
Last week, officials for the World Series of Poker and the Poker Hall of Fame announced the ten nominees that will vie for the honor of induction into the Hall during this year’s “November Nine” showdown for poker’s mythical World Championship. While the list is filled with quality selections, there are some areas that WSOP officials should look at in improving the selection process.
The lists of nominees – Chris Bjorin, Humberto Brenes, David Chiu, Thor Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Tom McEvoy, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen and Huck Seed – are excellent choices for induction into the Hall of Fame. We have three European players (Bjorin, Hansen and Mortensen) who, if voted in by the 21 living Hall of Fame members and a media panel, would become the first from that continent to be enshrined in the Hall. We have former World Champions (McEvoy, Mortensen, Nguyen and Seed) who have proven their mettle over at least two decades of play (as has Chiu). We have Harman who, if elected, would become only the third woman to enter the Hall (following Barbara Enright and Linda Johnson). Even Matusow and Brenes are good choices, although I think both would be the first to say that they are not even close to being done yet.
What we are lacking in the Hall of Fame nominations, however, is a sense of the true history of the game. Most of the members of the nominee list have only been a part of poker’s consciousness for the past 20 years or so, although they are more than qualified for induction into the Hall. What about the history of the game, those that came before the “Internet Era” of poker began, who helped to contribute to this game’s grand past?
Part of the reason for this is in the nomination process. While it is a great idea to allow the general public to nominate players for induction into the Hall, the public’s general knowledge of the history of the game is often lacking. Sure, there are some of those past names that were probably nominated (off the top of my head, I can come up with Terry Rogers and Liam Flood, the originator (Rogers) and continuing director (Flood) of the second longest active Texas Hold’em tournament in the world, the Irish Poker Open, and authors Al Alvarez and Anthony Holden, who have contributed two of the best books on poker ever written), but they are often overlooked in favor of those who are fresher in the minds of the casual poker fan. These links to poker’s past should be recognized yearly, especially as some of those players who came through the “poker boom” begin to reach the age of induction (that’s 40 and we’re looking at you, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu).
To rectify the potential of poker’s fandom to forget about the history of the game, the Poker Hall of Fame should take a page from baseball. For the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is what is known as the “Veterans’ Committee” who usually select at least one member from the past of baseball who was overlooked for induction over the years. More often than not, the nominees from the Veterans’ Committee will select a player, manager, team owner or other influential figure from the late 1800s/early 1900s that, without them, the sport might not have ever gotten off the ground. This allows baseball, while they elect the “big stars” from the past 20 years or so, to honor its past in inducting a worthy member from the history of the game.
The Poker Hall of Fame needs to form their own “Veterans’ Committee,” preferably the ten longest tenured members of the Hall (that would currently be Doyle Brunson, Lyle Berman, Johnny Chan, Bobby Baldwin, Berry Johnson, Jack Binion, Crandell Addington, T. J. Cloutier, Billy Baxter and Enright or fellow 2007 inductee Phil Hellmuth) and two to three poker “historians” (either authors, journalists or casino industry members). This committee would discuss potential nominees that delve back into the history of the game and, along with the two nominees that they select from the fan nominations, induct a third member for their historical background in the game. This would solve the potential issue of poker’s history being overlooked.
As stated at the beginning, the 2013 Poker Hall of Fame nominees are an outstanding list (for the record, my 10 votes would go to McEvoy (four), Hansen and Harman (three each). There does need to be some consideration given to those who many in the poker community might have forgotten due to time, however. With the inclusion of a third member each year chosen by poker’s “Veterans’ Committee,” we can continue to honor the past of this grand game.
Now, about actually BUILDING a physical Poker Hall of Fame to visit…
