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After tallying the votes, Brian Rast joins the exclusive club of gamblers who have made it into the Poker Hall of Fame, becoming the 62nd member overall.
The announcement was made by the World Series of Poker, with the 41-year-old accepting the honor at the newly designated Hall of Fame Poker Room at the Horseshoe Casino prior to the start of the annual $1,979 buy-in Poker Hall of Fame bounty tournament.
“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,” said 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 certainly has a deserving resume as a longtime high-stakes cash game winner who also has six WSOP bracelets, as well as numerous high roller titles, including the first-ever Super High Roller Bowl, which paid out a massive $7.5 million.
This summer, Rast got everyone’s attention by winning the prestigious $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship for a third time, joining Michael Mizrachi as the only players to do so. Rast has nearly $25 million in career earnings overall, which is good for 30th 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 said. “I am deeply honored to be chosen.”
Rast spoke for ten minutes, thanking his family and friends for their support.
Other Hall of Famers who were 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 considered for the Poker Hall of Fame, a player must be a minimum of 40 years old and must have played high-stakes poker “against acknowledged top competition” while “standing the test of time” by playing consistently well and earning the respect of their peers. Or, for non-players, they must have “contributed to the overall growth of the game with indelible positive and lasting results.”
There are now 32 living members of the hall, which collectively vote each year from the list of nominees.
While Rast is certainly deserving of induction, the WSOP has received criticism in recent years for not increasing the number of inductees, while also eliminating the media vote.
Rast addressed the issue early in his speech, saying that he was going to push the other living voters to acknowledge the dozens of qualified individuals who are currently on the outside looking in.
“Now that I’m in, I have votes,” he said. “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 nine other finalists for the honor, many of whom have been waiting years for induction. The other nominees were 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 follow the 2023 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s series landing page, brought to you by Global Poker. Check out the series schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.
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