Meet the Eight 2026 Poker Hall of Fame Finalists

The 8 Poker Hall of Fame Finalists of 2026

On June 24, during the 2026 WSOP, the eight finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame were announced.

This year, getting into the Hall of Fame goes like this:

• The public nominates players who are over the age of 40
• The top eight players make the final list
• The 33 Living Hall of Fame members cast up to four votes each

Any players who pick up a 2/3 majority vote are automatically in the Hall of Fame. If there isn’t a majority, the most voted-for player gets in. Up to six players will make it into the HOF in 2026, a huge difference from the one or two per year in every previous year.

Isai Scheinberg

Isai Scheinberg isn’t really a poker player in the community's eyes; he’s more of a poker hero.

• Total tournament earnings: ~$374,000 live (he has a UKIPT title to his name, but this was never the point)
• WSOP bracelets: 0
• Playing poker since: a recreational player since his university days; founded PokerStars in 2001

No WSOP bracelets, and less than a million in live earnings? Yes. Scheinberg has been recommended as a Hall of Famer for a while now, and we’ll all be happy when he finally gets in. Last year, he was nominated. This year, he’ll probably take his well-deserved spot beside the greats.

Scheinberg is a former IBM Canada programmer and Lithuanian-born math prodigy who, with his son Mark, launched PokerStars in 2001 and built the software that nobody else came close to matching at the time. He’s famously known for making almost all employees respond to PokerStars support emails from time to time, to get a dose of reality.

When Chris Moneymaker qualified on a PokerStars satellite and won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, the boom that followed ran through Scheinberg's platform. He hosted the first WCOOP in 2002 and sold PokerStars for $4.9 billion in 2014.

But the “hero” element of Isai came after Black Friday. He made US players whole and repaid Full Tilt's customers when that company collapsed. If it wasn’t for him, plenty of players would have had their money disappear into the abyss. The US government was not about to repay them, and Isai stepped in to do the right thing. When asked in an interview what he wants to be remembered for, Isai said, "that millions of people got their money back because of decisions we made."

He received the WPT Honors Award in 2023. With the new voting rules, 2026 is probably the year that the WSOP pays him his dues.

Shaun Deeb

The most decorated living player not yet in the Hall, and a relentless all-around grinder who never uses punctuation on Twitter/X.

• Total Live Earnings: ~$18 million live
• WSOP Bracelets: 8
• Playing Poker Since: Early 2000s, starting online as a teenager

Deeb came up as one of the most feared online tournament players alive, running 15–20 tables at once under handles like "shaundeeb" and "tedsfishfry," and stacking WCOOP and SCOOP titles before he was a household name on the live felt.

In the world of live poker, he’s picked up a hoard of WSOP jewelry. His eight bracelets span pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud, no-limit hold'em and eight-game mix. He even won a bracelet in 8-game mix from Event #74 at the 2026 WSOP. Typically, he's given away every WSOP bracelet to family members.

Shaun is very active on social media, which shows fans his unfiltered personality. Our only wish is that he would start using periods and commas more.

Interesting detail about Shaun: That old screen name, “tedsfishfry” is not random. The Deeb family started a restaurant called Ted's Fish Fry over 75 years ago, which now has seven different US locations.

Scott Seiver

A two-decade master of every format, a very familiar face to poker players, and much more capable with punctuation than Shaun Deeb.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$27.5 million live
• WSOP Bracelets: 7
• Playing poker Since: 2006, while still at Brown University

Seiver strolled out of a job in the equities department of Lehman Brothers with a week of training left. Why? The World Series of Poker was running and he'd rather play. Sounds like a minus EV move, but it couldn’t have been more plus EV. The Lehman Brothers organization later collapsed, and Seiver became one of the most versatile players of his generation.

His seven WSOP bracelets come across razz, lowball, Omaha Hi-Lo, stud and Hold'em. In 2024 he went on a hot run in Las Vegas and won three bracelets in one summer, plus the Player of the Year title.

Scott was also nominated in 2025, but didn't make it into the Hall of Fame.

Scott is respected as one of the best mixed-game players on the planet. It turns out that he is quite aware of equities, even without that remaining week of training. It might be partially because of Scott’s double focus in Computer Science and Economics from Brown University in 2007.

Jason Koon

One of the top Triton Poker Series earners as of 2026 and, by many estimates, the best tournament player in the world.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$77 million live (3rd on the all-time money list)
• WSOP Bracelets: 2
• Playing Poker Since: 2006, learned in college after a sports injury

Koon grew up without much and was the first in his family to attend college. Then, he found poker by accident when a roommate taught him Hold'em. This was apparently for no reason other than to pass the time after an injury had put his track career on pause.

Clearly, it was the right move, and Koon might be thankful for the injury at this point. 12 Triton Super High Roller titles, over $40 million in winnings from Triton alone. He’s also a Triton ambassador, a spot that he has definitely earned. His biggest win came from the series, at a HK$1,000,000 Short Deck event in Montenegro, where he bagged the first-place prize of about $3,579,836.

Koon is still focused on athleticism, and he approaches poker with the same drive. “Professional” is a fair word to describe his structured poker study and mental preparation for the game. Off the table, Koon is sort of known as a stoic type of person, with a clean reputation and a healthy lifestyle. HOF Induction is probably a matter of when, not if. The same is true for Isai Scheinberg.

Jason is currently part of Team PokerStars.

Isaac Haxton

A chess prodigy that became a familiar face at high-stakes events with a study-heavy approach to poker and an affinity for medical masks.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$65 million live (top 10 all-time)
• WSOP Bracelets: 1 (2023)
• Playing Poker Since: Age 18, around 2003

Issac, or “Ike” as many call him, is the son of a poet and a psychiatrist. Haxton learned chess at four and Magic: The Gathering a little later (just like Bryn Kenney) before moving to poker. He attended Brown University for computer science and eventually finished his philosophy degree.

A runner-up at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Ike left us with a bluff clip that most poker players have seen (and you can watch on YouTube). It was a different Ike, with long flowing hair blowing in the wind by the beach. In this $8,000 buy-in tournament, he won $861,789.

Afterwards, he carried the unwanted label "best player never to win a bracelet," after years of near misses.

He finally broke the curse in 2023, in a major way. A single season gave him his first WSOP bracelet, a second Super High Roller Bowl, more than $16 million in cashes, and PGT Player of the Year.

An interesting note about Ike is that despite being a Triton Poker Series crusher on paper, he’s probably down millions and millions of dollars. His recording winnings hover around $23 million, but his true losses after buy-ins are estimated at $7.7 million as of July 2026.

Ike used to be sponsored by PokerStars and partypoker, but seems to be a free agent these days.

Justin Bonomo

The most controversial player on this Hall of Fame list, a high-earner who admitted to cheating in the past.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$65.6 million live (top five all-time)
• WSOP Bracelets: 3
• Playing poker Since: Early 2000s, as a teenage online prodigy

Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo became the youngest player at a televised final table at 19, back at the 2005 EPT. He also made a historical score in The Big One for One Drop in 2018, taking home $10 million.

Something that we think should be considered for Justin’s HOF nomination is his past. He was banned from two major sites at 20 for multi-accounting. This isn’t just an angle shoot in a live game. This is joining tournaments using multiple player accounts, giving the middle finger to game integrity and fairness.

He later admitted to it, even saying he had played “at the same table” as himself. Justin received constant flak from Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu about this, who said, “Justin Bonomo was and forever will be a man who cheated at this game.”

In our opinion, voting Justin Bonomo into the Hall of Fame clearly says to the poker community, “You can cheat, but as long as you say sorry and are successful afterwards, you can take a seat in the HOF beside the greats.”

Mike Matusow

"The Mouth" is a legendary poker personality and a boom-era star who every player knows, whether they love or hate him.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$10.8 million live
• WSOP Bracelets: 4
• Playing Poker Since: Early 1990s (learned Hold'em in 1989)

Matusow was the loudest character at the poker table, especially during the early days of televised poker. We have numerous highlight outbursts, like his multi-hand WSOP feud with Shawn Sheikhan (that one is worth a watch on YouTube).

The loud stuff always got more attention than Mike’s achievements. He was the first player in WSOP history to win bracelets in four different disciplines (Hold'em, Omaha, deuce-to-seven, and stud) across 1999 to 2013. He’s reached the Main Event final table twice, and most recently, failed to make it into the money in the 2026 WSOP Main Event.

There have also been some low points, like a six-month jail stint and gambling struggles. But out of everyone on the list, Mike is one of the most nominated players for the Hall of Fame. His name has been brought up year after year, and 2026 could be the year.

Chris Moorman

Probably one of the most successful online tournament players in history, with a respectable live record to match.

• Total Tournament Earnings: ~$11.5 million live and roughly $25 million online
• WSOP Bracelets: 2
• Playing Poker Since: 2006, while at the University of Essex

Moorman, who is from England, was a competitive bridge player and national university pool champion. Early on, Chris turned a $70 online freeroll into one of the great grinding careers.

Chris is one of the leaders in online tournament earnings, a multiple-time PocketFives world number one, plus an absolute hoard of 30 PocketFives Triple Crowns.

In the live tournament scene, it took a bit longer for Chris to get his footing. A runner-up finish came at the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event for €800,000, and then a breakthrough WPT LA Poker Classic title in 2014 for over $1 million. His first bracelet came in 2017 ($3,000 NLH 6-Handed) and his second online in 2021.

Moorman’s going for another one in 2026, and came very close in the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em – Freezeout, placing 7th for just over $100,000. Chris has cashed in every WSOP since 2008, and is probably chasing a bracelet harder than ever.

Whether the HOF voters factor in his online poker performance is the only question mark about this nomination.

Chris currently plays for ACR Poker, which suits his appetite for online tournaments because of their huge series like The Venom. In the past, he was also an ambassador for 888poker.

Check out the 2026 World Series of Poker Winners

The 2026 World Series of Poker was scheduled from May 26th to Wednesday, July 15th.

100 bracelets, buy-ins from $300 all the way up to a $250,000 Super High Roller, and weeks of tournament action.

Find out who bagged the coveted WSOP bracelets this year, along with the winning hands, prizes, and the top 10 for each of the 100 events.