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Nominations for 2020 Poker Hall of Fame Underway

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Poker Hall of Fame

Remember when we said that the fans would not be involved in the Poker Hall of Fame selection process. We were wrong. On Tuesday, WSOP officials announced that fans can now submit nominations for the 2020 Poker Hall of Fame.

Fans can submit their nominations until Friday, December 11. The fan vote will add one to two names to the list of finalists. All finalists from last year will become automatic finalists for this year’s vote.

Poker Hall of Fame Nomination Process Open

If you want to become part of the 2020 Poker Hall of Fame process, fan nominations are now being processed. Head over to wsop.com/phof/ and enter your nomination for the Poker Hall of Fame.

Remember, the primary criteria for the Hall of Fame are as follows:

  • A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
  • Played for high stakes
  • Be a minimum of 40 years old at the time of nomination
  • 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.

Fans have until December 11th to make their nominations. At that point, the votes will be tallied and one to two names will be added to the list of finalists.

2019 Finalist Automatically Rolled Over to 2020 Vote

One thing that is a bit different about this year’s process is that last year’s finalists will roll over to the 2020 finalists list. Here’s the current list of finalists:

  • Chris Bjorn
  • David Chiu
  • Eli Elezra
  • Antonio Esfandiari
  • Chris Ferguson
  • Ted Forrest
  • Mike Matusow
  • Huckleberry Seed

On the WSOP website, the HOF announcement states that the final list will be 8 to 10 individuals long. As such, we can expect up to two finalists to be added to this list.

If you remember, David Oppenheim and Chris Moneymaker were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2019. The Hall of Fame presently has 58 members with 32 of those members still living.

Living Members to Vote on Final List

The list of finalists will be announced on December 16th by Caesars Entertainment, Inc. At that point, the 32 living members of the Hall of Fame will vote on the 2020 inductee. This year, only one person will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Members will have 10 votes that they can allocate to as many people as they wish. For example, if Doyle Brunson wants to give his 10 votes to Ted Forrest, he can do so.

Once votes are tallied, the 2020 inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame will be announced prior to the WSOP Main Event finale on December 30th. This is similar to what has happened in previous years. In the past, there was a ceremony and dinner for the Hall of Fame inductees, but Caesars has largely downplayed induction in recent years.

A Single Inductee Still Makes No Sense

If WSOP officials are going through the process of fan voting and rolling over finalists from last year, there’s no reason why they cannot induct two people into the Hall of Fame in 2020. Just look at the list of finalists. If you inducted two of those players each year, you have enough people on that list alone to cover four years.

As stated before, the Poker Hall of Fame has a serious backlog of qualified candidates. There is no reason to only induct one person in 2020. We could blame the pandemic, but if that were the case, we wouldn’t have an induction at all.

Inducting just a single-player is unnecessary and just makes it more difficult for players to get in. It will cause more of a backlog. We could induct three players a year and still have plenty of candidates for years. While we could just smile and say that “at least we are getting an induction,” there’s no reason to make it a single-person induction.

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