2022 Poker Hall of Fame Finalists AnnouncedThe Final Ten Includes Three First-Time Nominees In Kathy Liebert, Brian Rast, and Josh Arieh |
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The World Series of Poker announced the ten nominees for the 2022 class of the Poker Hall of Fame on Wednesday, June 22. The list includes seven previously nominated candidates (including the two-person pairing of longtime WSOP announcers Lon McEachern & Norman Chad). There are also three first-time finalists, noted below with an asterisk.
Here is a look at the nominees:
This list includes three possible inductees being considered for their contributions to the game outside of playing: the aforementioned iconic commentary duo of McEachern and Chad, veteran tournament director Matt Savage, and PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, who was first nominated as a finalist in 2020.
The other seven candidates are all successful players with millions upon millions in tournament earnings and other accolades to their name.
According to the WSOP, the criteria for induction is as follows:
• A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Be a minimum of 40 years old at the time of nomination
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results
The 32 living members of the Poker Hall of Fame will collectively vote on which of these ten finalists will become the 61st inductee. The induction ceremony will be held on Sunday, July 10 in tandem with the final table of the WSOP main event.
All living Poker Hall of Fame members have been invited to play in the second annual WSOP $1,979 Hall of Fame no-limit hold’em bounty event (with the buy-in priced in honor of the Hall of Fame’s founding year of 1979). This open event will see participating Hall of Fame members get a bounty on their heads corresponding to their year of induction. For example, whoever knocks out last year’s inductee, Eli Elezra, will earn $2,021 in bounty prize money.
Below is a look at some of the poker accomplishments of the seven nominees being considered for their play over the decades.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Grospellier is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner, and with wins on the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour, is part of an exclusive club of ‘triple crown winners’.
Brian Rast
Despite placing much of his focus on high-stakes cash games, Rast has accumulated five WSOP gold bracelets over the years, including two wins in the prestigious Poker Players Championship In 2011 and 2016. He also won the first-ever Super High Roller Bowl in 2015, topping a field of 43 entries in the $500,000 buy-in event to earn more than $7.5 million.
Josh Arieh
With more than $10.6 million in career earnings, the 47-year-old joins Rast in making his debut on the finalist’s list.
Kathy Liebert
The 2004 WSOP limit hold’em shootout event winner also holds the distinction of being the first female player to ever win a seven-figure payout in a tournament, which she did as the champion of the 2002 Party Poker Million event. This is the first year that Liebert, 54, has made the list of finalists.
Layne Flack
Flack earned the nickname “Back-to-Back Flack” after winning two tournaments in as many days at the 1999 Legends of Poker series at the Bicycle Casino. Flack also won the WPT Invitational event back in the 2003 season of the then-fledgling tour.
Michael Mizrachi
All told, Mizhrachi is a five-time bracelet winner. He also made the WSOP main event final table in 2010, finishing fifth for more than $2.3 million. The two-time WPT main event champion was made a finalist in his first year of eligibility in 2021.
Mike Matusow
Matusow also won the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship for $750,000 back in 2013.
Here is a look at all current members of the Poker Hall of Fame:
| Name | Year Inducted |
| Johnny Moss | 1979 |
| Nick “The Greek” Dandolos | 1979 |
| Felton “Corky” McCorquodale | 1979 |
| Red Winn | 1979 |
| Sid Wyman | 1979 |
| James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok | 1979 |
| Edmond Hoyle | 1979 |
| Blondie Forbes | 1980 |
| Bill Boyd | 1981 |
| Tom Abdo | 1982 |
| Joe Bernstein | 1983 |
| Murph Harrold | 1984 |
| Red Hodges | 1985 |
| Henry Green | 1986 |
| Walter Clyde “Puggy” Pearson | 1987 |
| Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson | 1988 |
| Jack “Treetop” Straus | 1988 |
| Fred “Sarge” Ferris | 1989 |
| Benny Binion | 1990 |
| David “Chip” Reese | 1991 |
| Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston | 1992 |
| Jack Keller | 1993 |
| Julius Oral Popwell | 1996 |
| Roger Moore | 1997 |
| Stu “The Kid” Ungar | 2001 |
| Lyle Berman | 2002 |
| Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan | 2002 |
| Bobby “The Owl” Baldwin | 2003 |
| Berry Johnston | 2004 |
| Jack Binion | 2005 |
| Crandell Addington | 2005 |
| T.J. Cloutier | 2006 |
| Billy Baxter | 2006 |
| Barbara Enright | 2007 |
| Phil Hellmuth | 2007 |
| Dewey Tomko | 2008 |
| Henry Orenstein | 2008 |
| Mike Sexton | 2009 |
| Dan Harrington | 2010 |
| Erik Seidel | 2010 |
| Linda Johnson | 2011 |
| Barry Greenstein | 2011 |
| Eric Drache | 2012 |
| Brian “Sailor” Roberts | 2012 |
| Scotty Nguyen | 2013 |
| Tom McEvoy | 2013 |
| Daniel Negreanu | 2014 |
| Jack McClelland | 2014 |
| Jennifer Harman | 2015 |
| John Juanda | 2015 |
| Carlos Mortensen | 2016 |
| Todd Brunson | 2016 |
| David “Devilfish” Ulliott | 2017 |
| Phil Ivey | 2017 |
| John Hennigan | 2018 |
| Mori Eskandani | 2018 |
| Chris Moneymaker | 2019 |
| David Oppenheim | 2019 |
| Huck Seed | 2020 |
| Eli Elezra | 2021 |
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