Chris Moneymaker Backs Scheinberg and Deeb for Poker Hall of Fame
He says one inductee a year is too restrictive, prefers the new voting system, and calls the WSOP’s mid-tournament shot clock a mistake.
In a Card Player interview, Chris Moneymaker said he voted for Isai Scheinberg and Shaun Deeb for the Poker Hall of Fame. He also said the Hall should stop limiting itself to one inductee a year, calling that approach “ridiculous” and saying a better range would be somewhere between two and four.
Moneymaker said Scheinberg was one of his “big picks” because of the impact he had at PokerStars and on online poker’s footprint. He said Scheinberg “revolutionized the game” and that there was no reason he should not be in the Hall.
His vote for Deeb was based on Deeb’s accomplishments and the fact that he has been around for so long. Moneymaker also said the new Hall of Fame scoring system is a lot better than the old one.
The Hall changed its process in June. WSOP officials opened nominations, allowed fans to submit names through the WSOP site, and set up a final list built from the top eight vote getters. The 33 living Hall of Fame members each get four votes, a nominee gets in automatically with 22 votes, and if nobody reaches that bar, the highest vote-getter takes the lone spot.
That new setup can produce as many as six inductees in a year, which was part of the point of the overhaul. Card Player reported that the change came after years of one-player intake starting in 2020, while PokerNews quoted Phil Hellmuth saying six would be too many and that two a year is the right number.
Moneymaker also criticized the WSOP for adding a shot clock mid-tournament. He said the move changes the dynamic, puts extra stress on players who have never used one before, and should be decided before play starts. He added that shot clocks favor online players and pros who are already used to acting faster.
