The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has announced the ten finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2024. The leading vote-getter will be the sole person inducted into the Hall this year.
The finalists are as follows (in alphabetical order):
- Patrik Antonius
- Josh Arieh
- Barny Boatman
- “Miami” John Cernuto
- Ted Forrest
- Kathy Liebert
- Mike “The Mouth” Matusow
- Matt Savage
- Isai Scheinberg
- Bill Smith
“Miami” John Cernuto and Barny Boatman are first-time nominees. Patrik Antonius is the only one making a repeat appearance who was not a finalist last year.
The public nomination process ran for two weeks in the first half of June, with anyone permitted to fill out a form on the Poker Hall of Fame’s website to put up a candidate. The top ten vote getters were then reviewed by the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council, likely to verify eligibility. The eligibility criteria to be elected to the Hall are:
- Must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
- Be a minimum of 40-years-old at time of nomination
- Played for high stakes, consistently well, and stood the test of time
- For non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results
Now, the living Poker Hall of Fame members get to allocate ten votes to the finalists in any way they choose. They can give one person all ten votes, give everyone one vote, or divide them up in any number of ways.
a bounty on their heads equal to the year they were inducted into the Hall
All Poker Hall of Famers get to freeroll WSOP Event #95: Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold’em, in which each of them will have a bounty on their heads equal to the year they were inducted into the Hall. It is during this tournament, which begins July 14, that the Poker Hall of Fame inductee will be announced.