Poker Hall of Fame Finalists Announced

The WSOP has announced the names of the 10 players in the short list to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. There is room for 2 players to enter, but it could be just the one, and that's down to the judges. The winner, or winners will be announced during the WSOP main event final table festivities in October. The final 10 list was voted for by the general public and then the relevant boxes checked by the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council to give us and awesome set of players. So it's now down to 18 existing Hall of Fame players and 18 members of the poker media world to decide the winner, which is not an easy job! There are a few rules regarding which players were eligible to be placed on the short list, such as, they must be at least 40 years old, must have played against top competition, played high stakes, played consistently well, stood the test of time and contributed to the growth and continued success of the game.

The Players

The players that made the grade are some of the best you will ever hear of including the time final table player Eric Drache who is well known for his 7 card stud play. David Chiu, born in China but resides in the states and holds 4 WSOP bracelets. Chris Bjorin the 64 year old Swedish player who has won over $5 million playing the game. The Norwegian Thor Hansen is also in the mix as well as George Hardie who contributed massively to the Californian poker explosion back in the 1980's. Jennifer Harman gets' her name on the list and is the only female to make it. Five time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda adds his name to the equations as does the flamboyant and flash Scotty Nguyen. The list is completed by Brian "sailor" Roberts who was part of the famous Texas Rounders along with Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim. It's a great list of players with all of them deserving the credit they get for both their playing skills and that they add so much to poker in general.