The Hall Picks Up Another Pair

Results from this year’s Poker Hall of Fame voting were announced today, with John Juanda and Jennifer Harman the newest two members named.

I’ve written here before about how I had the privilege of being involved with the PHOF voting for a few years. I was one of the “poker media” picked to vote alongside the living Hall of Famers (always tend to want scare quotes around those two words, for a variety of reasons). We were all given 10 names (finalists) from which we could pick up to three to whom we doled out our allotment of 10 total points, then the top two points-getters would make it through.

I’ll point out again that having a PHOF vote only meant being able to pick from the 10 names the panel was given. I never could suggest nominees myself, although I believe the living PHOF members were able to do just that (which is how Brian “Sailor” Roberts got on the ballot, I believe).

That said, during the years I voted (2010-2013), I was essentially okay with the individuals who made it through to be named PHOFers. While I sometimes gave points to players who didn’t ultimately get inducted, I didn’t disagree too greatly with what the final results were.

Back in early September when this year’s finalists were announced, I guessed Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott would get picked with either Carlos Mortensen or Juanda getting the other spot. Was mainly just trying to predict what the current voters would do, and not suggesting who I thought should get in out of the 10 nominees.

I don’t disagree with either Juanda or Harman getting in, although Mortensen is certainly one that seems like he should get the nod sooner than later. In fact if I were to predict again I’d say next year it will probably be Mortensen and Phil Ivey, as Ivey turns 40 in February and so cannot be denied one of the two spots, unless they manage to change the process around somehow between now and then.

Which I suppose could happen, given some of the clamor that appears to have resulted from this year’s vote. It’s necessarily always going to be a flawed process, ultimately unsatisfactory to some if not the majority of those who care a lick about it.

For more on the topic, including some discussion of the lack of non-Americans in the PHOF, see Chris Tessaro's piece over at All In titled “Did the Poker Hall of Fame Pick the Right Inductees?”

(EDIT [added 10/29/15]: Yesterday European Poker Tour founder John Duthie added another op-ed regarding problems with the current nomination/voting process and the glaring lack of non-Americans in the Hall over at PokerNews -- check it out.)

2015 Poker Hall of Fame Nominees Announced

The 10 finalists for this year’s Poker Hall of Fame have been announced, prompting a few in the poker world to spend a little effort once again thinking about what the PHOF represents and perhaps to debate once more about the challenge of trying to measure the worthiness of an individual to be recognized as a PHOFer.

There are currently 48 inductees, with Daniel Negreanu and Jack McClelland being the most recent to be awarded the honor last year. I believe something like 23 or so of those in the PHOF are still living. That group gets to vote on the 10 nominees along with an appointed group of poker media, with two nominees at most able to get the nod.

For several years I had the opportunity to vote for the Poker Hall of Fame and so have a bit of familiarity with the process. The 10 names are given to the voters, chosen by a group of folks at the WSOP from those submitted online. They aren’t the 10 most-nominated by the public, but rather the ones whom those doing the selecting think deserve to be finalists.

From there the “Blue Ribbon” committee of PHOFers and media have 10 points they are allowed to distributed among one, two, or three nominees. The points are then tallied, and the two getting the most are elected.

As I say, I had the privilege of voting for a few years there, and in fact if I hadn’t missed an email sent to an old, dormant account, I might still be part of the group voting. I didn’t mind losing my spot, however, for a couple of reasons. For one, I think any committee is benefited by changing members occasionally, if only to assure bringing in different views and perspectives. Secondly, people come and go a lot when it comes to the so-called “poker media,” which would also be a reason to revisit who is being included in that half of the group of voters.

I was also told at the time the WSOP was interested in getting more European media represented as voters, which I also thought was a good thing. In any case, it’s clear from the 10 names presented to voters this year that the WSOP is pushing to try to get some non-Americans voted in to the PHOF.

This year’s nominees are Chris Bjorin, David Chiu, Bruno Fitoussi, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Carlos Mortensen, Max Pescatori, Terry Rogers, Matt Savage, and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott.

Bjorin’s a Swede, Fitoussi is French, Pescatori is Italian, and Mortensen was born in Ecuador and grew up in Spain. The two deceased nominees Rogers (Ireland) and Ulliott (England) are also non-U.S. Chiu was born in China and Juanda in Indonesia, though both are American. Meanwhile Harman and first-time nominee Matt Savage are both U.S. natives.

The idea of inviting the public to nominate 10 individuals for the PHOF and then have a committee vote to select inductees from that list began in 2009. Just for fun, here’s a rundown of who the finalists were for the six years prior to this one. The asterisks denote those inducted, and clicking the year gets you to a post written here about the PHOF class/winners from each:

2009: Tom Dwan, Barry Greenstein, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Men Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Mike Sexton*

2010: Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington*, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel*

2011: Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein*, Jennifer Harman, Linda Johnson*, John Juanda, Marcel Luske, Jack McClelland, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Huckleberry Seed

2012: Chris Bjorin, David Chiu, Eric Drache*, Thor Hansen, George Hardie, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Brian “Sailor” Roberts*

2013: Chris Bjorin, Humberto Brenes, David Chiu, Thor Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Tom McEvoy*, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen*, Huckleberry Seed

2014: Chris Bjorin, Humberto Brenes, Bruno Fitoussi, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, Bob Hooks, Mike Matusow, Jack McClelland*, Daniel Negreanu*, Huckleberry Seed

In 2009, Sexton was the only inductee. The voting process was different then, but a stipulation requiring a nominee to get at least 75% “yes” votes (like the MLB Hall of Fame) made it hard for more than one to get in that year (and in fact almost made it so no one could get in).

Also noteworthy from 2009 was how Tom Dwan -- then just 23 years old -- got picked by the public, and then was removed from the ballot by the WSOP.

In 2011 the so-called “Chip Reese Rule” was added, meaning no one under 40 years old could be nominated. That’s why Ivey and Negreanu were on the ballots before that date, and Negreanu only showed up again last year after turning 40. Ivey turns 40 next February, will be on the ballot next year, and will be inducted, no doubt.

Also, in 2012 Brian “Sailor” Roberts was not picked by the public to go on the ballot, but was a “write-in” nominee submitted by a PHOFer (I believe).

Gonna guess Ulliott, who passed away in April, gets in this year, with either Mortensen or Juanda nabbing the other spot. Who would you vote for, and who do you think gets in?

EPT12 Barcelona, Day 13: The Stand-In

A few quick thoughts about the final day yesterday at the European Poker Tour Barcelona festival where John Juanda ended up winning the Main Event, Mustapha Kanit won the High Roller (after an unusual deal was made), and five other side events wrapped up.

The media room was full of apprehension both Saturday night and early Sunday about how long things would go on the last day. Most felt the Main Event would end at a decent hour, with tourney staff also predicting a pre-midnight finish. But the High Roller was a wild card, with 30 players returning and a potential to go much longer.

As it happened, the €10K High Roller finished up first thanks both to the fact that things moved more quickly than anticipated and to an unique finish. With three left, Kanit, Kuljinder Sidhu, and Nick Petrangelo decided on a deal to chop the remaining prize money and end things right then and there, with chip leader Kanit getting the trophy and designation as winner.

Have to say Kanit is becoming kind of a favorite to watch for me, having seen him win a couple of huge ones -- this and the €50K One-Day Super High Roller in Monaco in May -- as well as take down the SCOOP High Main Event where the Italian plays as “lasagnaaammm” (a way-better-than-average screen name).

Kanit is fun to watch, both for his play and the entertainment he provides. In Monaco, Nick Wright wrote a piece highlighting Kanit’s jovial demeanor at the tables. In Barcelona, Kanit’s multi-colored sport jacket was a highlight of a piece by Howard Swains about some of the fashion on display.

Kanit also had a perfect comeback versus Phil Hellmuth during the summer after the pair tangled in a hand in the One Drop High Roller at the WSOP.

After losing a pot to Kanit, Hellmuth trotted out his customary petulance. “Why do we try and bluff the amateurs?” said Hellmuth after the hand (from the WSOP update), betraying his ignorance about who he was playing against. “They are going to give you 500K with a king and no kicker.”

Kanit’s response -- not even hinting at the fact that he is anything but an amateur -- was golden: “I traveled a long way to play the tournament,” he said. “I just want to enjoy myself and play some hands.”

How can you not pull for a guy whose instinct versus Hellmuth’s applesauce is to respond like that?

Juanda winning the Main was kind of remarkable to watch play out, in part because about a week before he’d tweeted that he hadn’t played any live poker at all since the last EPT Barcelona festival a year ago. He made a couple of fortunate hands as a short stack on the final day, and apparently was super short earlier in the event, too. Quite something to see him there at the finish. (There was also a deal in that one, although they left some on the table to play for.)

Finally, I got a huge laugh out of seeing the “Challenge Stapes” segment during the stream yesterday in which I took part. The segment featured Joe Stapleton recreating a hand between Dan Shak and Kamal Choraria from last year’s EPT Barcelona, with Stapes playing both roles and me serving as a silent stand-in for both.

That just above is a photo taken during the shoot (click to embiggen). Here’s the whole segment:

By the way, you can see the original hand from last year’s EPT Barcelona here (which lasts a couple of minutes), and then the table talk afterwards starts here.

Working that 13th-straight day and reporting on the last side events, I kind of felt like a silent stand-in there, too, a sore throat keeping me from talking much and other symptoms reducing me to a kind of dummy version of my usual self. Still, it was great being there and seeing it through to the finish, especially while working alongside so many friends and great colleagues.

Talk to you again soon from the other side of the Atlantic.

2013 WSOP, Day 34: Motoring Through

Have to admit I’m running just a sliver above empty at the moment in terms of mental fuel, having just completed another sequence of several days of work in a row and finally landed on what I think might be my last day off this summer today. So I’m afraid I’ll again have to keep today’s update short as I’m not sure the engine in my head can motor all of the way through something longer and of greater depth.

Yesterday I was back on Event No. 55, the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, which ultimately ended up drawing a bigger than expected field of 132. I sincerely thought the turnout might be down from last year’s 108 given the fact that both the $111,111 buy-in One Drop High Rollers event and the $25K NLHE 6-max. had just completed in the days leading up to the PPC. But such was not the case.

They played down to 78 players last night in this deep-structured tourney. I was working with Donnie and Chad yesterday, and at one point Donnie noted how the tournament is especially fun to cover given the fact that there isn’t this rush toward the final table that marks even the large-field, lower buy-in events. There’s a lot of play early, but there’s a lot on the line, too, as only the top 16 make the cash.

It’s almost as if the “bubble” in the event begins relatively soon after the tournament starts. There are several levels early on where one could reasonably say the tourney plays like a deep-stacked cash game. They start with 150,000 chips and tiny blinds and limits, so the threat of elimination on Day 1 isn’t really that great and there were very few instances of players being all in and at risk. Indeed, only a handful of players failed to survive Day 1.

But once we got about halfway through Day 2, there were numerous players who had gotten short enough that even the limit games presented situations where they could find themselves all in by the end of a hand. That said, since the game isn’t strictly no-limit even those with the super short stacks had legitimate opportunities to work their way back into the mix and avoid elimination -- i.e., they could find spots in which their risk was less and not necessarily have to rely on winning a few flips in a row to double up multiple times and get back to a workable stack.

So like I say, it’s a little like they’re on the bubble from about 100 players all of the way down to 16, if that makes sense. If it doesn’t, then let me refer back to the fact that I’m running on fumes at the moment, intellect-wise.

John Juanda provides the most ready example of what I’m referring to from yesterday, having slipped all of the way down to less than 4,000 (not even a single big bet) at one point after dinner, yet somehow worked himself back up over 120,000 with less than an hour to go, then doubled that before night’s end to be sitting with an average stack.

The highlight of Day 2, though, was Doyle Brunson’s survival in a late-night situation that saw him all in a NLHE hand with pocket jacks on a 10-3-9 board versus Cole South’s set of treys, then the turn and river bringing two more tens to enable Tex Dolly to survive. Kind of reminded me a little of Brunson’s “miracle” stories with regard to his health and survival from over the years such as are included in his autobiography. He returns today to a stack of 265,000, which is just a little above the average as well.

Like I say, I’m off today and in fact won’t be rejoining the $50K coverage when I return, as I’ll be moving over to a couple more non-hold’em tourneys (2-7 Triple Draw and more PLO) before the Main Event event arrives. But I will be checking in over at PokerNews to see how things continue to play out in the PPC, including keeping an eye on how Brunson fares.

Okay, need to sign off and get a little rest so as to refuel for this final push. In fact, this talk of running low on fuel reminds me that the rental car is also in need of a fill-up. That’ll have to be a first order of business today, as the consequences of being stranded on the side of the road with an empty tank amid these 115-plus degree days could be especially dire.

2010 WSOP, Day 15: No Time

The rumors were true. Yesterday was, in fact, my birthday. Third straight year I’ve spent the day here in Las Vegas, helping cover the World Series of Poker.

Funny, in a way. A birthday comes around and reminds one of the passage of time. Another year has passed. Perhaps the occasion encourages some sort of self-assessment. One of my colleagues here also just had a birthday this week and was telling me about having wanted to accomplish more than he had by the age he had reached. (He was half-joking, but I laughed and kidded him a bit, anyway, having crossed his milestone myself some time back.)

However, when live blogging an event such as I was doing yesterday for Event No. 19 -- the final day of the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw Championship (No-Limit) -- one tends to lose track of time completely. Was so engrossed in the task yesterday that when it was over I had no idea we’d actually crossed midnight and the birthday was over.

By spending the birthday working in the Rio, then, I guess I’ve found a way to combat any potential fretting about time passing. Too damn busy for it. Got no time.

Took a little more than two weeks -- thanks largely to that excursion to the southern hemisphere last week -- but I finally made it to a WSOP final table to cover the end of Event No. 19. Andy Bloch bubbled the eight-handed not-really-the-final-table-final-table. And Daniel Negreanu then went out in eighth, leaving John Juanda and Erik Seidel as the biggest names among the final seven.

Seidel was short and went out in sixth. Juanda was also low in chips, but fought back and had the chip lead briefly with four to go before suffering an especially rough half-hour of play to depart in fourth.

I am definitely a Juanda fan, both for his play and his sense of humor, of which one gets to see flashes when up close. But generally most never get to witness his wit because of his generally soft-spoken, reserved-seeming demeanor.

There were a couple such moments last night, but probably the funniest in the tourney came on Day 2 in hand in which Juanda had Negreanu all in before the draw with 15 players left. This was the cash bubble (14 paid). Juanda had raised, Negreanu pushed all in, and Juanda called. He was standing pat, and when he saw Negreanu’s hand (Kid Poker had a wheel draw and was drawing one), Juanda quipped, “Well, we’re in the money now!”

Pretty funny (I thought), but in a subtle way. As it happened Negreanu caught perfect and made his wheel, and the bubble remained intact. (Here’s that hand.) And it took Negreanu until halfway through the next hand to respond to Juanda’s wryly-delievered trash talk, at which he laughed loudly.

(By the way, I am aware of and following the whole Pokerati-Negreanu thing, but as is becoming kind of a theme here I just don’t have time to address it all. I will say that Negreanu gave those of us covering Event No. 19 late on Day 2 a sort of preview of that follow-up blog post of his, explaining to us that he never meant to criticize those of us doing the legwork, but to lodge a broader complaint about the “system.”)

Of course, the big story last night was David Baker -- a.k.a. “Bakes” or “WhooooKidd” -- taking the sucker down to win his first bracelet. Played brilliantly, it seemed to me, both on Day 2 and last night, and it was certainly exciting to see his girlfriend, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck there to cheer him on.

If you remember, last week Baker made the final table of the $50K Player’s Championship (Event No. 2), at which he finished sixth, and Maridu was in Lima, Peru for PokerStars playing the LAPT event I was covering. She really wished she could’ve been at the Rio to sweat David then, so obviously it was fun to see her there and witness all of the excitement and joy the two of them got to experience last night.

Prior to the end there, Maridu had been playing in another tourney, the $1,000 buy-in Event No. 22, the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, though I believe she is out now. That is the one I will be covering that one this weekend (Days 2 and 3).

A ton of buzz yesterday regarding that one, as I’m sure you heard, in particular regarding the fact that about a dozen men played in the event. While this sort of thing has previously happened several times at other ladies-only tourneys elsewhere, this was -- as far as I am aware -- the first time it has happened at the WSOP.

And man oh man did everybody have an opinion about it.

As I say above, I’ve been up to my eyeballs of late and so really didn’t have a lot of time yesterday either to think about the significance of the men playing or to read some of what others have been writing about the subject. I still haven’t, though I plan to take a look at some of the posts and articles I’ve seen have popped up over the last 24 hours or so.

My first reaction to the news was instinctive. I didn’t think men should play in the ladies event. I ended up enjoying a nice dinner with Jen Newell last night during my break -- my colleague for those “He Said/She Said” articles we’ve done over at Woman Poker Player -- and our conversation helped me examine a little further some of the reasons why my initial reaction to the news was negative.

I still have to think it through some more, though. It is an especially complicated situation, fraught with a number of issues, and I have friends whose opinions I respect coming at it from all angles. Don’t want to try to engage this one, then, without having a little more time to consider it all.

Actually getting to report on the event today and tomorrow will certainly give me more to consider. Plus I have some friends still in the sucker -- including Michele Lewis, Jessica Welman, and Bellatrix -- which’ll add a little extra excitement for me personally. They are among the 136 players returning today (from a total field of 1,054).

If you want to see how the ladies-and-a-few-men event continues to play out, head over to PokerNews’ live reporting of Event No. 22 later today to see how I’m spending my time.

2008 WSOP, Day 17: Brasilia

Covering one of these three-day WSOP events from start to finish is unlike just about any other experience I’ve ever had.

I’ve done some traveling abroad, and I suppose I might liken the experience to finding oneself in a foreign country, far away from family and friends, interacting with a culture much different from the one to which one is accustomed. An utterly social experience, yet one is also always alone, too.

And there’s really no stepping away from it, even just for a moment in the hopes of catching some clarifying glimpse to help determine what it “means” or where it all fits into the “big picture” or the like. That’ll come later, perhaps, after one has returned home and resumed that other life, the so-called “real” one filled with familiar faces, routines, and/or modes of communication.

Was feeling that weird sense of being utterly enveloped in this other, strange world last night as we were off in the Brasilia room covering Day 2 of Event No. 28, the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/rebuys event. The Brasilia room is down the hall and around the corner from the Amazon room where I had been every other day I’d worked thus far. Whereas the Amazon contains something like 165 tables, plus that mini-arena over in the corner (where I’ll be for tonight’s final table), the Brasilia room has perhaps a third of that number. Still a lot of people coming and going -- some asking about satellites and/or napkins -- but relatively speaking yr fairly well tucked away from the main thoroughfare of poker playing and watching.

Had a few exchanges last night with visitors inquiring about the WSOP and what was taking place there in the Brasilia, and I could sense their amazement when I told them who was playing over there in the middle of the room. Yes, that’s right. Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, and David Benyamine are all over there. Yeah, I know it looks like just any other cash game, but that’s them, battling for a bracelet.

We went deep into the night-slash-morning, my first real marathon of a day (ended up working about 14 hours, total). If I were given to hyperbole (which I ain’t), I’d almost describe the scene at 4 a.m. as surreal. Didn’t seem right, somehow, for all of this to be going down so peacefully. Shouldn’t there be music? A laser show? Norman Chad?

The six above-named pros, all regulars on televised poker and unquestioned celebrities in our little poker world, were at that last ten-handed table being dealt the last hands of pot-limit Omaha of the night. Standing around the table were perhaps 20 people total inside the ropes, only a very small handful of whom were charged with the duty of reporting on what was taking place. There were some fans there, too, though not too many. Due to the late hour and the relative obscurity of our location, I’m guessing few had any idea what was happening.

Hellmuth, incessant craver of attention, would occasionally pipe up to remind everyone he was there. He had to, as his short stack of chips didn’t allow him to make any noise otherwise. Negreanu was quick and alert as always, constantly engaging others in strategy talk and post-hand analyses. Benyamine exuded confidence and competence, once defending his play against a half-baked criticism from the Poker Brat, but essentially remaining focused on the cards.

Chan chimed in at one point after dragging a pot with a fairly weak hand. With a king in his hand and one on the board, he’d offered from early position at a small pot and had a couple of takers. All checked the turn, then another king on the river prompted Chan to bet again. All folded, and Chan showed his king (and not much else) as he dragged the pot. Some ribbing about the lucky river ensued, but Chan defended his play through infectious laughter.

Juanda remained silent throughout those final hands, and in fact seemed almost to be hiding behind the dealer over in Seat 1. That’s Juanda’s style, constantly flying under the radar. He’d only appeared in a couple of our posts last night, despite having the chip lead at one point during the night. You just don’t see him over there for some reason, and he certainly does little to draw attention to himself.

I was standing behind Ferguson, and so didn’t see his expressions or reactions during those final hands last night. Didn’t have to, though, as we all know how little he varies his countenance and behavior at the table. After the hand in which he was eliminated, the player who knocked him out, Brian Rast, shook his hand, saying “Sorry, Chris.” Ferguson was utterly gracious, taking a moment to congratulate everyone for having made the final table before sauntering off into the sunrise.

And after spending some time helping chronicle those last moments over at PokerNews, I, too, made my exit. It was daylight again, the only evidence of the evening being the still-turned-on headlights of a few of the vehicles on the road with me as I made my way back to the home-away-from-home.

Another stacked final table tonight. As I said, we’ll be back in the Amazon, over in the staging area, with the cameras and an announcer and fans in the stands. Will seem more like a spectacle today than that quiet, serene scene from early this morning.

Which, in an odd way, may make it all seem a little less strange to yr humble observer.