Daniel Negreanu provides his views on Poker Hall of Fame tweaks including separating the non-poker players from the players, improving the criteria, and abolishing the 10 point voting system.
As the mayhem surrounding the Poker Hall of Fame (PHOF) quietens to a hush, at least one prominent member of our little bubble has a few things to say about next year and beyond.
Carlos Mortensen and Todd Brunson are the lucky legends in waiting. As per usual, nobody is batting an eyelid over their inclusion. It’s as rare as an AK47 £5 note to find someone complaining about who got in; all the noise comes from the process that led up to that point.
Does it work?
Does it need changing?
Learn From The Dogmatic And Stubborn Alcoholics Anonymous
The way I see it, there is a need for change. Our little bubble demands it. Reading through all of the 140-character points of view, nobody says, “the system works fine, leave it as it is.”
If the men and women (I doubt there is a woman) who pull the PHOF strings don’t decide to change the process for 2017, there can be only two reasons.
Reason #1
They aren’t listening to feedback because they don’t care about the PHOF, and never wanted the bloody job in the first place.
Reason #2
They are listening to the feedback, but think it’s all a load of bollocks. They believe the system works perfectly and always will.
In 1935, two drunks called Bill Wilson, and Bob Smith founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in a bid to help fellow alcoholics achieve sobriety.
81-years later and not much has changed despite advancements in psychology, technology, and everything else ending with an ology. The AA philosophy remains resolute and unchanged despite compelling evidence that it doesn’t work as well as some people may think.
There is a danger that the PHOF could end up like AA if they don’t sit up and take notice of the voices of reason and they don’t come more reasoned than Daniel Negreanu.
The Daniel Negreanu PHOF Strategy
Writing on his personal blog, Negreanu shares his view on the ‘tweaks’ he believes are needed to satisfy the members of our bubble who are voicing their concerns over the ineffectiveness of the current process.
Kid Poker would like to see the ‘non-players’ separated from the ‘players’. He calls them ‘builders’ and believes that it’s ‘difficult to vote for someone’ in this category when ‘it takes up a spot that a player may have gotten.’ With this in mind, Negreanu would like to see the likes of Matt Savage, Steve Lipscomb and John Duthie inducted once every four years alongside the standard two from the player pool. I can’t understand why they can’t induct one per year, or choose not to if there isn’t a suitable candidate.
Taking a peek under the hood of the criteria for selection, Negreanu thinks the criteria for ‘a player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition’ as a ‘silly’ one, and would get rid of it. He would also like to see a definitive cash amount that defines ‘played for high stakes’ with $400/$800 for Limit games and $25/$50 for No-Limit cash games his criteria. He would also like to see the $10,000 buy-in events being the mainstay for selections based on tournament play.
Further changes would be the wording of ‘Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers,’ to be changed to ‘Their poker skills are well respected by their peers’ – which in my opinion still leaves the criteria too vague – and the ‘stood the test of time’ criteria would have a period of 15-years or more slapped on the tin.
Negreanu would also like to add criteria that states, ‘they were exceptional in at least one of these areas,’ cash games, tournaments, or online poker.’ I fail to see the point of this one, as all players would qualify.
The Voting Process
Negreanu would also like to see the voting process changed.
In his view, the 10-point scoring system is open to corruption and would prefer to see a two-vote system where someone puts forward their #1 candidate and a #2 candidate. He would also like to see fan voting reduced to four spots on the shortlist, leaving the other six to the panel and living members of the PHOF.
That’s the view of Daniel Negreanu.
What’s yours?
