Poker News Daily has learned that the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 will be announced on Tuesday. Two players will be enshrined during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine festivities in three weeks after garnering a majority vote.
Last year, World Poker Tour (WPT) host Mike Sexton was the Poker Hall of Fame’s lone inductee. In 2009, Sexton’s enshrinement ceremony took place as part of a private dinner during the November Nine’s play down day. This year, the schedule will change slightly, as the two individuals who make up the Class of 2010 will be officially inducted during Monday night’s conclusion of the Main Event. After the ceremonies are held, heads-up play will commence inside the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Who the two inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame are remains to be seen. The 16 living members of the Hall along with a 17-member media panel, which includes this author, cast 10 votes each and could select up to three finalists. Each voter’s ballot had to add up to 10 votes; otherwise, our opinions were discarded. Ballots from the 33 voters were due on October 1st and the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council tabulated the results. The top two individuals who received the majority of the votes will make up the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010.
There are five criteria for a player to be considered for the Poker Hall of Fame. According to WSOP.com, “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”
The 10 candidates appeared in alphabetical order on the ballot as follows: Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, and Erik Seidel. This author cast four votes apiece for Harrington and Johnson and allocated the remaining two to McEvoy.
Harrington quite literally wrote the book on poker, as his “Harrington on Hold’em” series is one of the top strategy guides of all-time. Harrington won the WSOP Main Event in 1995 and amazingly turned in back-to-back final tables in 2003 and 2004 in field sizes topping 800 and 2,500, respectively. McEvoy is a former Main Event winner who took down the Champions Invitational during the 2009 WSOP. The PokerStars pro has four bracelets and owns over $1.3 million in career WSOP earnings.
Johnson owns an open WSOP bracelet by virtue of taking down a $1,500 buy-in Limit Razz tournament in 1997. Her involvement with CardPlayer Magazine, Card Player Cruises, the WPT, and the Tournament Directors Association has led to Johnson having an indelible impact on the felts. Away from the live scene, she serves as a co-founder of PokerGives.org, which provides an outlet for players to give back to charity.
We’ll have the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 inductees for you on Tuesday right here on Poker News Daily.
