TEN FINALISTS FOR THE 2016 POKER HALL OF FAME
UNVEILED
UP TO TWO OF THESE INDIVIDUALS WILL BE INDUCTED ON OCTOBER
26 IN LAS VEGAS AT BINION’S GAMBLING HALL
LAS VEGAS (September
9, 2016) – After a public
nomination process, and a vetting of nominations by the PHOF Governing Council,
the finalists list eligible for induction into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2016 has
been determined.
It will now be up to the current Hall of Famers and
a blue ribbon panel of media members to determine who actually does join this
exclusive club. The following represents
the finalists:
*Listed alphabetically
Three new candidates have been
nominated, and seven previous finalists make up the 2016 list.
The new candidates are: Todd Brunson, Eli Elezra and Chris
Moneymaker.
Six of last year’s finalists return
-- Chris Bjorin, Bruno Fitoussi, Carlos Mortensen, Max
Pescatori, Matt Savage and David Ulliott -- and one previous
nominee – Humberto Brenes, once
again find themselves in the Top 10.
The above list of names will be
submitted to the 25 living Hall of Fame members and a 20-person media panel
later this month for voting. Only these 45
individuals cast votes for induction.
The criteria they
will consider in their vote are as follows:
- A
player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
- Be
a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination
- 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 2016 Class of the Poker Hall of Fame will be
inducted as part of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table
festivities in Las Vegas during a special dinner and induction to be held at
the famed Binion’s Gambling Hall. The
induction ceremony and dinner are set for Wednesday, October 26 in the
famed Longhorn Room at Binion’s in downtown Las Vegas.
Nine of the ten finalists are living, and it is
expected the inductee(s) or representative of the inductee will be able to
attend the induction. Inductee(s) will
be acknowledged on stage during November Nine festivities in the Penn &
Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino as well.
Later this month, official ballots will be sent to
the voters, who will have until October
7 to fill them out and return them to the WSOP Governing Council. The inductee(s) are expected to be announced after
all votes have been officially tallied.
Please read below for a brief about each of this
year’s finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2016, listed in
alphabetical order.
CHRIS
BJORIN
Bjorin, a 68-year-old Swedish-born poker player who
now resides in London, England, has earned more than $5.5 million playing poker
in his distinguished career. The
two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner sits sixth on the all-time WSOP cash list
with 80 and ranks fifth all-time in WSOP Main Event cashes with seven. A model of consistency, Bjorin has cashed for
six-figures in 19 different calendar years.
He hold’s Sweden’s all-time money and cash records and is WSOP Europe’s
all-time cash leader as well. He cashed
six times during the 2016 WSOP.
HUMBERTO BRENES (https://twitter.com/humbertoshark)
The man
known as “The Shark” may be best known for his gregarious and outgoing
personality, but Humberto Brenes has a lot of poker bite to back up all his
barking. Fourth on the all-time WSOP
cashes list with 86 in-the-money finishes, Brenes has been one of the most
consistent WSOP performers for the better part of 25 years. What stands out among those cashes is his
track record in the WSOP Main Event, a tournament he has made the money in on
nine separate occasions, including a fourth place showing in 1988. That puts the
65-year-old second on the list of most Main Event cashes behind only Berry
Johnston. In addition to his $6 million
in tournament earnings, the winningest Costa Rican player in poker history has
also played a crucial role in helping to develop the poker scene in Latin
America.
TODD BRUNSON (https://twitter.com/toddbrunson)
As the
son of Poker Hall of Famer Doyle Brunson, Todd has followed in his father’s
footsteps in making poker his profession, and there is no doubt the apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree. Despite
picking up the game for the first time while he was studying law at Texas Tech
University, Todd eventually dropped out of school to turn professional. With
nearly $4.3 million in tournament winnings, including 52 WSOP cashes and a gold
bracelet, the younger Brunson has carved out his own successful career. The 47-year-old Las Vegan is best known for
his mixed games acumen, choosing to spend most of his time playing cash games
in Las Vegas and typically only playing tournaments that offer a variety of non-Hold’em
variants. And as told in the 2005 book, The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide
King, Brunson once won $13.5 million over a two-day span in a heads-up,
$50,000-$100,00 Limit Hold’em cash game.
ELI ELEZRA
Eliahu
“Eli” Elezra, is a 55-year-old Israeli poker professional now residing in Las
Vegas. The former lieutenant in the
Israeli army picked up the game after suffering a leg injury during the Lebanon
War in 1982. While bedridden, the
boredom led to cards and it now leads to a finalist list for the Poker Hall of
Fame. But not before several jobs and
business ventures, including gutting fish in Alaska and opening 30-minute photo
processing shops in Las Vegas. Elezra is mostly known in poker circles for high
stakes cash game action, but with a poker career spanning 20 years, the affable
Elezra has also won three WSOP gold bracelets, a WPT title, amassed 52 WSOP
cashes (including 10 in 2016) and more than $3 million in tournament winnings. The married father of five is now a long-time
Las Vegas resident and has been a regular in the poker scene here for two
decades.
BRUNO FITOUSSI
Perhaps
no one is more influential in French poker circles than Fitoussi, 57, who
turned his passion for poker into a successful playing career and several other
poker-related business interests. He
introduced Texas Hold’em into France in 1995 at the Aviation Club de France,
Paris’ most famous gaming club. He has
more than $2.8 million in career poker winnings, ranking 8th
all-time on France’s list. “The King”
won the inaugural World Heads Up Poker Championship in 2001, defeating Amarillo
Slim. His first recorded cash was in
1991. He was the runner-up in the WSOP
$50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2007, securing his largest cash, for
$1,278,720 and showing he was capable of playing all poker’s major variants
well. But Fitoussi’s mark on the game in
large part comes from getting poker on television in France and his
participation and commentary in several poker shows over the years. France
truly became a poker market in part due to Fitoussi’s activities to develop the
game in his home country.
CHRIS MONEYMAKER (https://twitter.com/CMONEYMAKER)
“This is beyond fairy tale,” said Norman Chad.
“It’s inconceivable!” That was in 2003
and he was talking about an accountant from Tennessee who was playing in his
first live poker tournament after winning his entry into the event in an online
satellite for $39. But it wasn’t just
any event. It was the world championship
of poker, the 2003 WSOP Main Event, where first place was $2.5 million and ESPN
cameras were everywhere. It’s often said
that poker is divided into two eras, pre-Moneymaker, and post-Moneymaker. And
that’s all because 40-year-old Chris Moneymaker was able to capture the crown
in 2003 at age 27. With hole cards being
shown on ESPN for the first time, viewers at home were enamored by the “Aww
shucks Accountant” who bluffed and bullied back at the pros on that fateful
2003 run. What followed Chris’ victory
was a Tonight Show appearance, wide media coverage and a boom poker had never
seen before, aptly now called the “Moneymaker effect.” It’s inconceivable to find someone’s first
live cash in poker come with a victory and world championship, but that is the
case with Chris. He’s been juggling
family and poker ever since, cashing in tournaments every year since 2003, and
has now amassed $3.6 million in earnings, cashing 71 different times on four
different continents. Suffice to say,
Chris’ victory that day changed the course of poker history.
CARLOS MORTENSEN (https://twitter.com/CarlosMortensen)
When it comes to tournament poker and ROI, no one besides
Dan Colman can compare to Carlos “The Matador” Mortensen. The 2001 WSOP Main Event Champion has won
more money on the World Poker Tour than any other player in history despite
playing significantly fewer events. His almost $6.8 million in WPT earnings
combined with over $3.1 million in WSOP earnings and assorted other cashes put
his career earnings at almost $12 million.
The 44-year-old is also the only player to have won both the WSOP Main
Event and the WPT Championship event.
Hailing from Alicante, Spain but now residing in Vegas, Mortensen is
still one of the top players in the game, already cashing 12 times in 2016.
MASSIMILIANO “MAX”
PESCATORI (https://twitter.com/maxpescatori)
Italy’s all-time money earner is the “Italian
Pirate” Massimiliano “Max” Pescatori, with lifetime earnings up over the $4.2
million mark to go along with four career WSOP gold bracelets. Pescatori, 44, began his poker tournament
career in 2002, and has been a steady and consistent performer ever since, with
a well-rounded game that includes success in multiple disciplines. The Milan resident, Pescatori is also a noted
poker author, having written two books in Italian on poker, to help strengthen
and grow the game in his home country.
MATT SAVAGE (https://twitter.com/SavagePoker)
When you think of non-players in poker, perhaps
there is no more well-known figure than tournament director Matt Savage. Known for his player-friendly, feet on the
floor style, Savage, 47, has directed tournaments all over the globe and for
all different tournament series and casino companies and handled his duties
with aplomb and style. One of the
inaugural founders of the Tournament Directors Association, Savage has
tirelessly advocated for standardizing poker tournament rules and has been one
of the foremost innovators in terms of tournament offerings and formats. The
San Jose, California native is the current tournament director at the Bay 101
Casino in San Jose as well as the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, in addition
to being the Executive Tour Director of the World Poker Tour. Savage has had a front row seat to the
incredible growth poker has undergone this century and has been one of the most
influential men in helping the game grow and evolve to what it is today.
DAVID “DEVILFISH”
ULLIOTT
Sadly the poker world lost the physical presence of
David “Devilfish” Ulliott in 2015, but his legacy and influence on the game of
poker is sure to live on. Ulliott is one
of Britain’s most famous poker faces. A
colorful character, Ulliott has a WSOP gold bracelet, a WPT title and more than
$6.2 million in lifetime earnings to his name.
He currently sits second on the England all-time money list and has
cashes dating back all the way to 1993.
You couldn’t help but notice “Devilfish” when you were seated at a poker
table with him, and it was his personality that shone through on television,
particularly in Europe, that made him one of poker’s biggest stars. David Ulliott was a beloved figure in poker
whom was taken too soon, but not before he left an indelible impact on the game
and all those he came in contact with.
ABOUT THE POKER HALL OF FAME
The Poker Hall of Fame, established in 1979, was
acquired by Harrah’s Entertainment along with the World Series of Poker in
2004. Though the Hall of Fame is virtual
in nature, its membership includes poker's most influential players and other
important contributors to the game. There are 25 living members, and 50 members
have been bestowed the honor of Poker Hall of Famer. The Poker Hall of Fame traditionally elects
one or two members annually. The
enshrinement ceremony is now held in concert with the final table of the Main
Event of the WSOP, held each Fall in Las Vegas.
www.WSOP.com/PHOF