Vicky Coren-Mitchell and Debbie Burkhead are to be inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHOF) in a special ceremony held at the Gold Coast Casino, Las Vegas.
There will be no donkeys. They won’t be in Dallas. Instead, Vicky Coren-Mitchell and Debbie ‘Does Poker’ Burkhead will head to Las Vegas, July 6, where they will be inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHOF).
A panel consisting of the WiPHOF Board of Director members Lupe Soto, Karina Jett, and Suzie Lederer; the existing WiPHOF members, and a select band of merry men and women from the poker media chose the pair. Burkhead is also a member of the WiPHOF Board. We’ll assume her point of view didn’t count on this one.
Burkhead has enjoyed a fruitful poker career as both a writer and a player. For a decade, she penned a column entitled “Debbie Does Poker’ for Poker Player newspaper. She has also worked for Ante Up Magazine, Poker Digest, and Pokerpages.com.
As a player Burkhead has won close to $200,000 in live tournament earnings. Her most impressive score came in 2007 when she won a ladies event at the Orleans Open for $22,890. She has cashed in four World Series of Poker (WSOP) events.
Coren-Mitchell was easily the most decorated player on the short list. She is the only player to have triumphed in two European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Events after victories in London (Season 3) and San Remo (Season 6). She was also an esteemed member of PokerStars Team Pro before stepping down in 2014 after a clash of values brought about due to their decision to implement online casino games into their poker product.
Off the felt, Coren-Mitchell is an author and broadcaster. She is the host of TV show Only Connect, occasional host of Have I Got News For You, the author of numerous books including For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair With Poker, and weekly column writer for The Observer.
Would The Public Vote Have Changed Things?
It was to be the first year that members of the public would have a say. The WiPHOF set up an online voting system but it was later scrapped after it became apparent that users could delete cookies on their machines to then vote more than once on a single IP address.
Moments before they pulled the new voting system down from the WiPHOF website Shirley Rosario was leading the charge with 33% of votes, with the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Mandy Glogow was second with 26%. Coren-Mitchell was last. We will never know how much the cookie issue affected the state of voting up to that point.
Also shortlisted were Karina Jett, Esther Rossi, and Jennifer Tilly. Coren-Mitchell’s induction makes her the first European player to be voted into a Poker Hall of Fame.
The pair are invited to receive their plaudits in a special ceremony held at the Gold Coast Casino, Las Vegas, on July 6 at 11 am. WiPHOF Hall of Famer Jan Fisher will take charge of proceedings. Future WiPHOF member Maria Ho will also make a special guest appearance.
