The public votes have been sorted, syphoned and stamped, and the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council have condensed the plethora of names into a short list consisting of 10 potential inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame.
The announcement of the short list has always been big poker news, and this year is no exception, as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) continues to create plans for the November Nine shenanigans.
The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979, and became the property of Harrah’s – now Caesars – after they purchased the rights to the WSOP back in 2004. There are currently 63 members with 19 of them still alive today, and one or two additions are added each year.
This year, the shortlist contains seven nominations from the 2012 short list (Chris Bjorin, David Chiu, Thor Hansen, Jennifer Harmen, Tom McEvoy and Scotty Nguyen) and four new candidates (Humberto Brenes, Mike Matusow, Carlos Mortensen and Huckleberry Seed).
The induction ceremony will take place on November 3rd and they will also be honored on stage during the November Nine festivities the following day. If you fancy a friendly flutter on whom you believe will make the cut, then 2+2 have a voting process on the site, and the current favorites are Carlos Mortensen and Huck Seed with 16.48% of the votes.
With three of the of the finalists coming from Europe, and one from South America, maybe this year will be the first to breach the 100% all American club?
The next stage of the voting process is contained within the current 19 living members of the hall of fame and a selection of 18 members of the media. The official ballot papers will be distributed next week and each member of the voting council will have until October 11th to have their say.
Matusow doing what Matusow does best
Poker Hall of Fame nominee Mike Matusow is more commonly known by his moniker ‘The Mouth’ and it was good to see that he had not lost his touch during a recent airing of the live cash game Poker Night in America (PNIA).
Matusow had just been stacked by Tom Schneider: QQ v AA when he picked up pocket jacks in a hand against Shaun Deeb, who was holding pocket fives.
The flop was [Tc] [5h] [5c] to give Deeb quads; Matusow made a 1k c-bet and Deeb took his time before making the call. The turn was the [4c] and Matusow moved all-in for 4,575 and Deeb asked him for a count before motioning to the other players that he ‘had him.’
“Everyone be quiet Mike has a tough decision.” Said Greg Mueller.
“Alright, I call,” said Deeb after Matusow finished counting.
Deeb showed quads and everyone bursts into laughter. Deeb is being high fived whilst Matusow gently steamed underneath his baseball cap.
“I have never slow rolled anyone in my life and never will, “ said Matusow, “It’s the most disgusting thing you could ever do…it’s bullshit…I don’t even know if I want to play anymore?”
Deeb apologized and told Matusow that he would never had done it if he thought he would have reacted so badly.
“If you ever f**king slow roll me, I’ll punch you in the fucking mouth.” Said Matusow.
I can’t wait for his acceptance speech.
