2016 Women in Poker Hall of Fame Nominations Underway

The ‘Women in Poker Hall’ (WIPHOF) of Fame has started its nomination process early this year in order to ensure plenty of time is available for people to name their favorite choices ahead of a decision being taken on July 5th.
Unlike the ‘Poker Hall of Fame’, which inducted its first member, Johnny Moss, in 1979, and is held every year, the Women’s Hall of Fame stared its life in 2008, with the award now having morphed from an annual event to a biennial one. While women can still be voted into the overall ‘Poker Hall of Fame’, just three women have managed that feat, namely Barbara Enright (2007), Linda Johnson (2011), and Jennifer Harman (2015), making the need for the ladies to have their own version of the award all the more important.
Anyone wishing to nominate their candidate for the 2016 WIPHOF can do so by visiting the organization’s website, although three pre-requisites should guide their choices. These include the person being at least 35 years-old; having at least 10 years of experience in the poker industry; and having made a significant impact on the poker world, either by playing poker or working within the industry.
There have been 17 women who have been inducted into the WIPHOF since 2008. Only one, however, has been a non-US citizen, namely Australia’s Marsha Waggoner (Australia), who was the ‘Last Woman Standing’ at both the 1993 and 1997 WSOP Main Events, and is still playing aged 76, with $947,453 in winnings to her name.
This trend is similar to the ‘Poker Hall of Fame’ which has also had just one non-US citizen inductee out of 50 players, in this case English Edmond Hoyle (1979), although the author was inductee posthumously having died in 1769. Of course there have been other examples, such as Nick Dandolos (1979), Johnny Chan (2002), Scotty Nguyen (2013), Daniel Negreanu (2014), and John Juanda (2015), but all these players had already been granted US citizenship.