After tallying the votes, Brian Rast joins the unique membership of gamblers who’ve made it into the Poker Hall of Fame, changing into the 62nd member general.
The announcement was made by the World Series of Poker, with the 41-year-old accepting the respect contained in the Paris Ballroom earlier than heading to the designated Hall of Fame Poker Room on the Horseshoe Casino for a photograph alternative that preceded the annual $1,979 buy-in Poker Hall of Fame bounty event.
“With a nearly 20-year-long career riddled with record-breaking wins and historic runs, Brian Rast is one of the best poker players we’ve ever seen,” mentioned WSOP Vice President Jack Effel. “With the 2023 WSOP breaking records left and right, it only makes sense to put a record-setter himself amongst some of the greatest of all time. We are honored to induct Brian Rast into the Poker Hall of Fame and look forward to his successes to come.”
The Stanford dropout actually has a deserving resume as a longtime high-stakes money sport winner who additionally has six WSOP bracelets, in addition to quite a few excessive curler titles, together with the first-ever Super High Roller Bowl, which paid out a large $7.5 million.
This summer time, Rast received everybody’s consideration by successful the celebrated $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship for a 3rd time, becoming a member of Michael Mizrachi as the one gamers to take action. Rast has almost $25 million in profession earnings general, which is nice for thirtieth all time.
“I am very pleased to receive this recognition for the work I have put into my craft during my entire adult life,” Rast mentioned. “I am deeply honored to be chosen.”
Rast spoke for ten minutes, thanking his household and buddies for his or her help.
Other Hall of Famers who have been in attendance included Jack McClelland, Scotty Nguyen, Mori Eskandani, Barbara Enright, Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstein, Todd Brunson, Berry Johnston, and Eli Elezra.
In order to be thought-about for the Poker Hall of Fame, a participant should be a minimal of 40 years previous and will need to have performed high-stakes poker “against acknowledged top competition” whereas “standing the test of time” by taking part in constantly effectively and incomes the respect of their friends. Or, for non-players, they will need to have “contributed to the overall growth of the game with indelible positive and lasting results.”
There are actually 32 residing members of the corridor, which collectively vote every year from the record of nominees.
While Rast is actually deserving of induction, the WSOP has obtained criticism in recent times for not growing the variety of inductees, whereas additionally eliminating the media vote.
Rast addressed the problem early in his speech, saying that he was going to push the opposite residing voters to acknowledge the handfuls of certified people who’re presently on the surface trying in.
“Now that I’m in, I have votes,” he mentioned. “I’m going to do my duty to make sure the Hall gets the incoming generation right. There are a lot of amazing players in the poker world who deserve recognition for their careers.”
Rast beat out 9 different finalists for the respect, lots of whom have been ready years for induction. The different nominees have been Josh Arieh, Jeremy Ausmus, Ted Forrest, Kathy Liebert, Mike Matusow, broadcast duo Lon McEachern and Norman Chad, Matt Savage, Isai Scheinberg, and Bill Smith.
The Poker Hall of Fame
Name | Inducted |
Johnny Moss | 1979 |
Nick “The Greek” Dandolos | 1979 |
Felton “Corky” McCorquodale | 1979 |
Red Winn | 1979 |
Sid Wyman | 1979 |
James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok | 1979 |
Edmond Hoyle | 1979 |
Blondie Forbes | 1980 |
Bill Boyd | 1981 |
Tom Abdo | 1982 |
Joe Bernstein | 1983 |
Murph Harrold | 1984 |
Red Hodges | 1985 |
Henry Green | 1986 |
Walter Clyde “Puggy” Pearson | 1987 |
Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson | 1988 |
Jack “Treetop” Straus | 1988 |
Fred “Sarge” Ferris | 1989 |
Benny Binion | 1990 |
David “Chip” Reese | 1991 |
Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston | 1992 |
Jack Keller | 1993 |
Julius Oral Popwell | 1996 |
Roger Moore | 1997 |
Stu “The Kid” Ungar | 2001 |
Lyle Berman | 2002 |
Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan | 2002 |
Bobby “The Owl” Baldwin | 2003 |
Berry Johnston | 2004 |
Jack Binion | 2005 |
Crandell Addington | 2005 |
T.J. Cloutier | 2006 |
Billy Baxter | 2006 |
Barbara Enright | 2007 |
Phil Hellmuth | 2007 |
Dewey Tomko | 2008 |
Henry Orenstein | 2008 |
Mike Sexton | 2009 |
Dan Harrington | 2010 |
Erik Seidel | 2010 |
Linda Johnson | 2011 |
Barry Greenstein | 2011 |
Eric Drache | 2012 |
Bryan “Sailor” Roberts | 2012 |
Scotty Nguyen | 2013 |
Tom McEvoy | 2013 |
Daniel Negreanu | 2014 |
Jack McClelland | 2014 |
Jennifer Harman | 2015 |
John Juanda | 2015 |
Carlos Mortensen | 2016 |
Todd Brunson | 2016 |
David “Devilfish” Ulliott | 2017 |
Phil Ivey | 2017 |
John Hennigan | 2018 |
Mori Eskandani | 2018 |
Chris Moneymaker | 2019 |
David Oppenheim | 2019 |
Huck Seed | 2020 |
Eli Elezra | 2021 |
Layne Flack | 2022 |
Brian Rast | 2023 |
You can observe the 2023 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s collection touchdown web page, dropped at you by Global Poker. Check out the collection schedule, in addition to occasion recaps, information, and participant interviews.