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This year's Poker Hall of Fame nominees have been announced.
They include three never before nominated individuals: Layne Flack, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grosepellier, and Michael Mizrachi. Flack made news last week after it was confirmed by Gambling911.com that he had passed away two months ago from a Fentanyl overdose.
The rest of the list includes:
- Eli Elezra
- Antonio Esfandiari
- Chris Ferguson
- Layne Flack
- Ted Forrest
- Bertrand ”ElkY” Grospellier
- Mike Matusow
- Michael Mizrachi
- Matt Savage
- Isai Scheinberg
Criteria for being nominated include:
- 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
Isai Scheinberg was indicted in 2011 for his role in founding PokerStars, which the US Government at the time accused of money laundering. He eventually plead guilty nine years later to violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (“UIGEA”) after admitting PokerStars continued to allow customers from the US to play real money poker years after passage of the law prohibiting companies from doing so.
In pleading guilty today, SCHEINBERG admitted that he knew operating a business that offered internet poker to New Yorkers violated state law, and that it was the clear position of the U.S. government that offering online poker in the United States violated federal law. Nonetheless, Scheinberg decided to continue running his multimillion-dollar online poker business in the United States.
The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
