The 10 Biggest Poker Hall of Fame Oversights (And the 19 People They Ignore)

Caesars Entertainment and the World Series of Poker announced the 10 finalists for the 2025 Poker Hall of Fame in June. One of these players or contributors will be inducted on Friday, just before the start of Event #92, the $1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty Tournament.

The nominees are:

• Jeremy Ausmus
• "Miami" John Cernuto
• Ted Forrest
• Phil Galfond
• Kathy Liebert
• Mike Matusow
• Matt Savage
• Isai Scheinberg
• Nick Schulman
• Scott Seiver

Three of the names -- Galfond, Schulman, and Seiver -- are first-time nominees, having just turned 40 to become eligible this year. Cernuto, who died in April, is also a first-time nominee. The remaining six are familiar names on the ballot, each having been passed over at least once before.

And that’s where the problems begin.

Why the Hall of Fame Keeps Getting It Wrong

One of the problems with the Poker Hall of Fame (and there are several) is that decision-makers seem eager to rush past the game’s rich history in favor of recognizing recent stars -- players today’s fans will know. That tendency undermines the purpose of the Hall. This isn’t just about honoring current pros when they turn 40. It’s about ensuring people who built the game, sustained it, and made it what it is today aren’t forgotten in the process.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until 40 to play against real competition. Live dealer games bring the felt to your screen, with real human dealers and the same tension you’d find at the tables in Vegas or Atlantic City

Whether they’re players, contributors, or poker-adjacent legends, the people listed below deserve induction before the next internet wunderkind who’s banked millions but hasn’t yet stood the test of time. You have to remember the past to fully understand the present -- and honoring these names would go a long way toward correcting the Poker Hall of Fame’s historical blind spots.

What It Takes to Make the Hall

The criteria for induction are straightforward:

• A gambler must have played poker against acknowledged top competition,
• Played for high stakes,
• Played consistently well and earned the respect of peers,
• And stood the test of time.
• For non-players: contributed to the overall growth and success of the game, with indelible positive and lasting results.

There’s also the so-called “Chip Reese Rule,” implemented in 2011 to preserve the Hall’s credibility. Reese, who passed away in 2007 from complications of pneumonia, was inducted in 1991 at the age of 40 -- not because he hit an arbitrary age, but because he was that damn good. When the public started nominating under-40s like Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan, Hall officials introduced the Reese Rule to ensure no one younger than 40 would be considered -- effectively locking the door until a player has earned it over time.

Here, in no particular order, is a list that includes players and contributors etched into the annals of poker history. So why are they still waiting -- some of them literally dying while they wait -- while newcomers who started playing after Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 World Series of Poker win are fast-tracked to the Hall?

Top 10 Poker Hall of Fame Snubs

10. Bruno Fitoussi and Thor Hansen – International Icons

Bruno Fitoussi (left) and Thor Hansen (right) are among the most prominent international players never inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Both are considered the “Godfather of Poker” in their home countries -- Fitoussi in France, Hansen in Norway. Fitoussi, still alive at 66, introduced televised poker to France and helped establish European poker’s credibility. Hansen, who passed away in 2018, was a feared mixed-games player who left his mark worldwide. Inducting these two would be a major step toward international balance in the Hall.

9. 'Miami' John Cernuto – The Every-Game Grinder

'Miami' John Cernuto, who passed away in 2024 at age 81, was one of the most versatile and respected players in poker history -- and still hasn’t been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Cernuto passed away in February after nearly 40 years as one of poker’s most versatile and respected players. He competed in every form of poker and earned the admiration of legends. His omission from the Hall before his death is both baffling and inexcusable.

8. Isai Scheinberg – The Man Behind PokerStars

Isai Scheinberg, founder of PokerStars, helped spark the online poker boom that changed the game forever. (Photo: Danny Maxwell / courtesy of WSOP)

While Scheinberg plays poker, he’s best known for what he did away from the baize. A skilled computer programmer, he left IBM Canada at the dawn of the new century with a radical idea: to build an online poker site. That platform became PokerStars -- the most dominant online poker room in history and the primary engine behind the global poker boom of the 2000s. It gave the world Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and millions of new players who followed in their virtual footsteps. Inducting Scheinberg would be a long-overdue acknowledgment of the online revolution he helped create.

7. Al Alvarez, Anthony Holden, and Andy Glazer – The Chroniclers

Al Alvarez (left), Anthony Holden (center), and Andy Glazer (right) shaped how poker was written about, and elevated the game from smoky back room lore to literary relevance.

These writers brought poker’s mystique to the masses. Alvarez’s The Biggest Game in Town (1983) and Holden’s Big Deal (1990) and Bigger Deal (2007) were literary landmarks, blending academic insight with theatrical storytelling to reveal the game’s characters to a wider audience. Glazer, who died far too young at 49 in 2004, was the voice of live tournament reporting for CardPlayer. He didn’t just track who won; he humanized their stories. Together, these men helped tell the tale of poker before the cameras arrived -- and gave the game a soul before it had a spotlight.

(Honorable mentions: Jim McManus, Nolan Dalla, and the late Lou Krieger, all worthy of eventual induction.)

6. Matt Savage – The Rulemaker

Matt Savage helped standardize tournament poker rules worldwide and has long been one of the game’s most influential tournament directors. (Photo: EIN Presswire)

Tournament poker wouldn’t be what it is without Savage, who co-founded the Tournament Directors Association and shaped event structures across the globe. Formerly the voice of the WSOP and now Executive Tour Director for the World Poker Tour, he’s worked with every major series and helped standardize the game. The Hall has room for one more architect – especially one, who like Savage, has booked 39 cashes, 22 final tables, and six tournament wins.

5. Mike Caro – The Professor of Poker Tells

Mike Caro literally wrote the book on body language at the poker table, and his work has shown itself to hold up over time. (Photo: Courtesy of WSOP)

Dubbed “The Mad Genius of Poker,” Caro revolutionized the game with The Book of Poker Tells (2003), which decoded body language and betting patterns in a way that still makes players freeze up like The Mummy at the table. But Caro wasn’t just a master of psychology -- he was also a mathematician, providing the statistical muscle behind Brunson’s legendary Super/System. For more than 50 years, Caro has been a fixture in poker media and foundational voice in poker theory. He just turned 81 in May. It’s time he got the bouquets he’s more than earned.

4. Barry Shulman, Mason Malmuth, and Avery Cardoza – The Publishers

Barry Shulman (left), Mason Malmuth (center), and Avery Cardoza (right) helped define poker’s modern publishing era, shaping how strategy, theory, and storytelling reached players around the world.

Shulman built CardPlayer Media and won two WSOP bracelets -- 7-stud hi-lo in 2001 and the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2009. Cardoza personally authored dozens of books on casino gambling and poker. He also ran what was for decades the biggest poker book house – the one that published Super/System and Caro’s Book of Tells among others. Malmuth co-founded Two Plus Two, a book publisher and internet forum that served as the original poker think tank. Together, this ink-stained trio created the foundation for modern poker publishing, and they deserve to be alongside the Hall of Famers they helped make famous.

3. Starla Brodie, Alice Ivers, Vanessa Selbst, and Kathy Liebert – Women Who Belong

(Top left, clockwise) Vanessa Selbst, “Poker Alice” Ivers, Kathy Liebert, and Starla Brodie all did more than many other women, and in most cases men.

Of the 61 members of the Poker Hall of Fame, only three are women (Barbara Enright, Linda Johnson, Jennifer Harman). That’s outrageous. Brodie won two WSOP bracelets, including one with Doyle Brunson. “Poker Alice” played (and ran) poker saloons in Deadwood, South Dakota, and across the Old West. Selbst and Liebert shattered ceilings for a generation. It’s time the Hall caught up.

(Honorable mention: Too soon to talk about Annie Duke?)

2. Ted Forrest – The Grinder’s Grinder

Ted Forrest, a six-time WSOP bracelet winner and legendary high-stakes cash game player, remains one of the most accomplished pros not yet in the Poker Hall of Fame.

Six bracelets. A pivotal role in The Corporation’s battle vs. Andy Beal. A feared mixed-games player who has battled the best in the world since the early 1990s and is still competing at the highest levels. Forrest has done it all -- and yet somehow remains on the outside. If this isn’t a Hall of Famer, who is?

1. Liam Flood and Terry Rogers – Founding Fathers of European Poker

Terry Rogers (left) and Liam Flood (right) helped bring poker to Europe. Their Irish Poker Open has been running continuously since 1980.

If you don’t know these names, that’s the Hall of Fame’s failure, not yours. Rogers brought the WSOP ethos to Europe and created the Irish Poker Open (the second longest-lived poker tournament in the world). Flood kept it alive and growing through the modern boom. Without them, poker might never have taken root in the UK and beyond.

Final Thought

Is this the definitive list of all deserving Poker Hall of Fame snubs? Of course not. But it’s a starting point. The fact that so many legendary contributors are still waiting -- and in some cases, dying before they’re honored -- is a clear sign that the Hall needs reform. History matters. And poker’s history deserves better.