Poker Hall of Fame Nominees 2009

This year saw a change to how nominees were selected for the Poker Hall Of Fame whereby the public were able to vote for their top ten choices. This accolade was originally started by Benny Binnion back in 1979 when the organisers were responsible for the decision but with the greater and broader appeal of poker today, the public have become involved in the whole process by accessing the WSOP 2009 homepage and voting.
Harrah’s, who organise the WSOP, annnounced, “After a five week process that saw hundreds of votes cast weekly on WSOP.com, the public has made clear who they think should be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. It will now be up to the current Hall of Famers and a panel of media members to determine who actually does join this exclusive club.”
The requirements for the candidate has always been that the ‘player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition, played for high stakes, played consistently well, gained the respect of peers and stood the test of time. For non-players, they must contribute to the overall growth and success of the game of poker with indelible positive and lasting results.’
Past winners of this title include David “Chip” Reese, 1991, “Amarillo Slim” Preston, 1992,  T.J. Cloutier, 2006, and Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth , 2007. This years nomination were as follows:
– Barry Greenstein
– Dan Harrington
– Phil Ivey
– Tom McEvoy
– Men Nguyen
– Scotty Nguyen
– Daniel Negreanu
– Erik Siedel
– Mike Sexton
– Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan
From the list Phil Ivey is widely considered the best player in the game today,Dan Harrington’s poker literature is considered the blue print to tournament play, Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen has won over 75 tournaments and Barry Greenstein is greatly respected and admired for his charitable work.  
A final list will have to wait until August during which time other people may be considered for the list, with the nominee being choosen in September.