POKER HALL OF FAME

Legendary casino owner Benny Binion was an immense fan of poker (especially high-stakes, No-Limit Texas Holdem that the road gamblers played in the 1940s and 1950s), and he wanted to share his favourite game with the rest of the world. In 1949, he set up a table at his casino for a high-stakes, head’s-up poker game between Johnny Moss and Nick ‘The Greek’ Dandalos that lasted five months. His goal was to market his casino, but more importantly, it was to introduce high-stakes, No-Limit poker to the world.

In 1970, he created and hosted the first World Series of Poker at his Binion’s Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. Again, his goal was to market his casino, but he was also hoping to improve upon poker’s reputation and make it a socially acceptable activity. Finally, in 1979, he started the Poker Hall of Fame as a way to preserve the memory and legacy of poker greats and as a way to market his casino.

The first inductees were Moss, who won an astonishing nine bracelets, and Dandalos, Felton McCorquodale, Red Winn, Syd Wyman, Wild Bill Hickok, and Edmond Hoyle. To date, only one woman has been inducted: Barbara Enright in 2007. However, in 2008 (and separate from the Poker Hall of Fame), the Women in Poker Hall of Fame began honouring female poker players.

There are requirements one must meet in order to be nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame. According to their website, these are:

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 nomination process underwent a modification before selection began for the 2009 inductee: for the first time ever, the Poker Hall of Fame accepted nomination suggestions from the public. PartyPoker.com immediately began a campaign to elect Mike Sexton, a World Poker Tour commentator and PartyPoker.com representative. 
Once all of the nominations are in, past Hall of Famers and an equal number of people from the media vote on whom they think should win that year, and the person with at least 75% of the vote is the winner.

The Poker Hall of Fame used to be located in Binion’s Horseshoe casino, and when Harrah’s Entertainment bought the Horseshoe in 2004, they also acquired the rights to the WSOP and the Poker Hall of Fame. It no longer has a physical location at the casino.

Want to get into the Poker Hall of Fame? Well start practicing right away because if there is one common theme with all of the inductees, it’s that the more you play Texas Holdem, the better player you become. Practice. Practice. Practice. And PokerStars.com is the place to do it. They have free card tables, free tournaments and when you’re ready, they have lots of low-stakes games with real money (and higher-stakes, real-money games, too, but don’t play on those tables until you’re really, really good!).

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