Jason Koon Gets Inducted to Poker Hall of Fame – Seiver and Deeb Miss Out

Images courtesy of WSOP.com

For some years now, the poker community has been whispering about the flaws in the current Poker Hall of Fame system, which only allowed one player to be inducted every year. 

With a growing pool of poker greats turning 40 and becoming eligible for the HOF, the formula seemed obsolete, so the WSOP changed it to allow up to six players to be inducted in a single year, in theory. 

Yet, the changes in the voting process didn’t change the result on the first go-around, as Jason Koon was named the sole new HOF inductee with 23 votes, just one more than the 22 required to guarantee an induction. 

While Koon’s induction into the HOF didn’t quite come as a surprise, the fact that the likes of Shaun Deeb and Scott Seiver were passed over, even in a system that allowed for multiple inductions, strikes as a bit odd. 

For nearly two decades, @JasonKoon has defined excellence on poker’s biggest stage.

At just 40 years old, he is already one of the most accomplished high stakes tournament players in history. His résumé includes more than $14.8 million in WSOP earnings, two WSOP bracelets, and… pic.twitter.com/qcSwSC9BtS

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) August 4, 2026

Koon’s Hall of Fame Induction Is a Testimony to His Poker Greatness

Few people in the poker world have made more friends and fewer enemies over the years than Jason Koon. 

Widely regarded as one of the best tournament and cash game No Limit Hold’em players, Jason Koon has been a champion of the game for years, both on and off the felt. 

At the tables, Jason has won $77 million in tournament prizes, playing against some of the toughest players in the world and continually coming out on top. His illustrious career has seen him win a record 12 Triton Poker Series titles, two WSOP bracelets, and countless other accolades across major poker tours. 

Koon has also been recognized as a cash game crusher, as he’s repeatedly competed in nosebleed stakes cash games with top players and wealthy businessmen alike, coming out with millions in profits and a reputation that precedes him. 

Yesterday I joined the Poker Hall of Fame. A few of the guys on this year’s list are heroes of mine and deserve to be in as much as I do; I’m sure their day is coming soon.

When I found poker, I was immediately and forever in it. It was my path to independence, my teacher in… pic.twitter.com/GTs2WyS3od

— Jason Koon (@JasonKoon) August 4, 2026

Away from the felt, Jason Koon has served as a poker ambassador for major poker brands like partypoker, PokerStars, and GGPoker, always championing responsible gambling and player safety above all else. 

Thanks to all of these feats and his long list of friends in the high-stakes poker circles, Jason was able to acquire 23 of the 33 available HOF votes, securing his place in the elite society in the process. 

The third-placed player on the all-time tournament money list will now become the 34th living member of the HOF, and will get a say in who gets inducted into the group next year, and every year to follow. 

Poker Greats Get Snubbed

Before this year’s HOF rules change, the debate on who the next inductee would be was a raging one. The likes of Shaun Deeb, Scott Seiver, Jason Koon, and Isaac Haxton had all become eligible, while old-school legends like Mike Mattusow and Isai Scheinberg were still looking for their place. 

Yet, when the WSOP changed the rules and allowed every HOF member to cast up to four votes, the odds changed dramatically. Most industry insiders believed a few players would get the necessary 22 votes this time around, and that we could see as many as four or five players inducted in 2026. 

Yet, those predictions didn’t come true, as only Koon was able to pass the threshold, and even he did so by a smidge. 

Next on the list was Scott Seiver, who was also nominated last year, and who only lost thanks to a brilliant WSOP performance by Nick Schulman. 

Seiver received 19 votes, which simply wasn’t enough to get a place in the HOF, regardless of the vocal support by many in the elite poker circles. 

Perhaps even wilder than Seiver’s result was the fact that Shaun Deeb only received 15 votes, which meant that fewer than half of the living HOF members believed he deserved a place among them. 

With two WSOP POY titles and a third possibly coming this year, and a career that has defied all odds in both online poker and live poker, Deeb was likely the most deserving candidate on the list. 

Shaun only turned 40 this year, and he has many years ahead of him to earn an induction, but the fact he was snubbed by so many votes this year simply doesn’t compute. 

In fact, even Isai Scheinberg received more votes than Deeb this time around, as he got the confidence of 17 HOF members, which put him in third place on the list. 

Mike Mattusow with 10 votes, Isaac Haxton with 9, Chris Moorman with 4, and Justin Bonomo with 3 all also failed to get anywhere close to the necessary 22 votes in the final voting process. 

Seiver Praises Koon but Laments the Voting Process

Once the dust settled, it was time for the poker world to respond, and one of the first to do so was Scott Seiver himself, the man who was denied a place in the elite society for the second year in a row. 

To start off, Seiver praised Jason Koon and expressed his joy at the fact a “generational talent” was getting the recognition he deserved. 

Seiver also noted that many notable figures in the poker world, including Daniel Negreanu, Nick Schulman, and Jason Koon, all reached out to him after the votes were in, which helped temper his emotions. 

Yet, Scott raised a few important points regarding the voting process. In particular, he mentioned that a good number of living HOF members were no longer active in the poker world, and didn’t really know who any, or some, of the candidates were. 

I want to start this off by saying how obviously deserving Jason is of the hall of fame, and am deeply touched by the words people have reached out to me last night, specifically Jason himself and Schulman and Negreanu, which has really helped temper my emotions so far. Having…

— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) August 4, 2026

Scott brought up late Doyle Brunson, who played thousands of hours with young Seiver in some of the highest-stakes cash games in the world, who apparently told him that a number of HOF members come to him and ask who to vote for every year. 

Doyle jokingly said that Scott should pray for his good health, as he could well be the deciding factor in when and if Seiver makes it into the HOF. 

Now that the Godfather of Poker is unfortunately no longer with us, it would seem that some HOF members may be looking for their advice in the wrong places, as snubbing players of Seiver’s and Deeb’s caliber simply doesn’t seem reasonable. 

Does the Voting Process Need More Changes?

One notable change that Seiver recommended in his recent X post was that all HOF members should at least be presented with a summary of each candidate’s poker career before casting their vote. 

This may help the members who have distanced themselves from poker make more informed decisions, but it won’t actually ensure that the best candidates are always given their deserved honors. 

WSOP may introduce further changes to the process, such as lowering the number of votes required to make the HOF, but at the end of the day, it may simply take some time for certain players to get there. 

Both Seiver and Deeb will surely be in the Poker Hall of Fame at some point, as the younger inductees like Schulman and Koon are guaranteed to vote for them in the years to come. Patience and time may be the only things that are required. 

Still, looking from the perspective of these players who have given their lives to poker and truly excelled at the highest level, a certain sense of injustice is more than understandable.