Poker Writer
Jason Koon was the lone inductee in the 2026 Poker Hall of Fame class after the change in voting system failed to break up the logjam of people waiting to get in.
Koon got 23 of 33 votes, which put him over the new two-thirds majority, 22-vote threshold needed to get in. Koon was eligible for the first time this year at the age of 40. The announcement cites his impressive resume, which includes $14.8 million in World Series of Poker cashes, his two bracelets, and his third-place standing on poker’s all-time money list.
New Voting Criteria Still Leads to Just One New Poker Hall Member
This was the first year under the new Poker Hall of Fame induction criteria announced in June. In previous years, the hall of fame was limited to adding just one new member each year.
This led to widespread complaints that there were so many people who were bottled up in a backlog and could not get in. That backlog only figured to to get worse when more accomplished players turned 40 years old and became eligible.
But the voting system led to the same outcome, one induction. Others, like Scott Seiver and Shaun Deeb, failed to get 22 votes in their first year of being eligible, while long time logjam member Mike Matusow also fell short again.
The 33 living members of the hall of fame each have four votes in the new system. They can choose up to four players they believe deserve to be in. It is no longer a winner-take-all system. Some worried after the change that this new system would lead to the opposite problem and let too many people get in. As many as six of the eight nominees can now get make it in a single year.
Voting Members Didn’t Use Their Votes
After the vote totals became public for the first time, the issue for this year’s vote seems to be that many of the 33 members did not use all four of their votes. One hundred votes were cast in total, meaning that 32 of the 132 of the potential votes were not used at all. That dealt a major blow to the chances of Seiver, Isai Scheinberg, and Deeb. Each came up a few votes short.
The 32 unused votes could have been due to eight members forgetting to vote. Or, several voters may have used only one or two of their allocated votes.
In a video obtained by PokerOrg, Koon himself said that Phil Ivey told him that he received Ivey’s only vote. Thus, three of Ivey’s votes went unused.
Seiver Suggests Tweaking the Process Again
Former WSOP Player of the Year Seiver, who came up four votes short of induction, congratulated Koon on social media.
He also suggested tweaking the system for the voting members. He said that the legendary Doyle Brunson once told him that there are 8-10 members of the Poker Hall of Fame who no longer follow poker. That would roughly coincide with the amount of unused votes. Seiver then said how difficult it is now for any nominee to get in:
When a full 30% of the electorate has moved on from poker it makes the system they chose without clear personalized explanations and that every ballot had to be filled online and with lots of ambiguity in the instructions, made it nearly impossible for anyone mathematically to even be able to clear the 2/3 vote even if receiving near unanimous support from people that are up to date and knowledgeable.
He also suggested that the nominees should get to write a short blurb about themselves in support of their candidacies. It would be more personal than names on a screen, especially to the older members of the hall of fame who are now distanced from the game.
Kevin Mathers of the WSOP provided the list of the 33 living voting members.
Photo Credit: Tyler Abrams, 2026 WSOP
