Voting wasn’t even close
Huck Seed has always loomed large in a poker room. At 6 feet, 7 inches tall, he is almost always the tallest person at the table. And now, at age 51, he has reached new heights, named the newest member of the Poker Hall of Fame.
Seed had been one of the ten Hall of Fame finalists before, but until Wednesday, had not been able to break through as the one or two people inducted each year. In years past, the living members of the Poker Hall of Fame and select members of the media (never me to my eternal dismay) cast their ballots for who would attain the honor, but this year, it was just the 31 living Hall of Fame members.
The Hall of Famers each had ten votes to cast in any way they wanted. All but one cast a ballot. As it turned out, Huck Seed was the overwhelming winner of the voting, claiming the lone spot in the 2020 Poker Hall of Fame class. The following is the vote breakdown:
Huckleberry Seed – 76 Votes
Matt Savage – 51 Votes
Isai Scheinberg – 45 Votes
Eli Elezra – 30 Votes
Antonio Esfandiari – 23 Votes
Lon McEachern and Norman Chad – 20 Votes
Ted Forrest – 20 Votes
Mike Matusow – 17 Votes
Patrik Antonius – 15 Votes
Chris Ferguson – 3 Votes
Seed always understated
As it turned out, my friend and colleague Earl Burton was pretty close when handicapping the field when it came to Seed. He had him as his third favorite, behind Eli Elezra and Ted Forrest. Where Earl royally screwed the pooch was on PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, to whom he gave the longest odds (tied with the Long McEachern/Norm Chad duo). It seems that Earl guessed that the Hall of Famers, who generally skew older, would not be as quick to vote for an online poker exec as might the media. Scheinberg obvious didn’t get elected, but third place – and in a tier clearly above the rest of the field – isn’t too shabby.
“Hearing the news that I am being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame this year brought back memories of my early poker days, walking into the Binions Horseshoe, about to start a poker session, admiring all the Poker Hall of Famers on the wall,” Huck Seed said on Wednesday. “It feels good to be included with all the poker legends that I once idolized and competed against over the years. Thank you everyone.”
Master of all
Seed’s poker career straddles the pre- and post-poker boom. He cashed in a tournament for the first time in 1990 and won the first of his four World Series of Poker bracelets in 1994. Seed really put his name in poker cement, though, when he won the 1996 WSOP Main Event and the $1 million first prize. He followed that up three years later with a sixth place finish.
Huck Seed has several other major poker pelts, including the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions, the 2009 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship, and two final tables at the WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Away from the easily-tracked tournament circuit, Huck Seed is absolutely legendary for his prop bets and has long been regarded as one of the best cash game players in the world. In fact, Hall of Famer Erik Seidel listed Seed’s cash game prowess as his number one reason for voting for him, tweeting that he was the “1st player to break Chip & Doyle’s 30 year hegemony in cash games.”
