Women in Poker Hall of Fame Finalists Announced, Flushdraw’s Haley Hintze Among Honorees
The finalists for this year’s inductee class of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHoF) have been announced. After a two-week long public nomination process and subsequent vetting by the WiPHOF Organization Committee and current Hall of Fame members, the final list of eleven nominees was produced. I will get to all of the deserving women, but for our purposes today, I want to draw your attention to one name on the list: Flushdraw.net Contributing Editor and my colleague, Haley Hintze.
Current Members of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame
Sometimes Haley and I compete for article topics. We’re on a “first dibs” type of system, so there are times I’m disappointed that she nabbed a topic about which I wanted to write. Sometimes, though, she tosses me an article and this was one of those times. Certainly, one of us was going to write about the WiPHoF nominations, but since she is one of the finalists, she felt like it would be a conflict of interest to toot her own horn.
Haley even told me, “If you do do a piece please don’t make it all about me, either.”
Sorry, Haley. This is going to be mostly about you.
When I was invited to write for Flushdraw a few years ago, one of the things that excited me about the opportunity was that I would get to work with Haley. Well, we don’t really work “together” too much – we basically do our own thing – but I very much appreciate the virtual proximity I have to Haley and the ability to shoot her a line when I need to. I’d like to think I’ve absorbed something via same-site osmosis.
Haley is the bulldog of the poker media world. I readily admit that I often write about easy topics or articles like this one where I can just riff, but Haley tackles the tough subjects. She is not afraid to go down the investigative rabbit hole, to go after the deeper details of a story that others can’t get. And if she pisses someone off in the process (always deserving), she doesn’t give a shit.
Haley Hintze is one of the few true investigative journalists we have in this industry, putting the vast majority of affiliate fluff writers to shame. I like to think I’ve done a solid job in my career, but I’m just a poker writer. Haley is a journalist.
Any talk about Haley Hintze and her contributions to the poker world has to center around her expose of the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker “superuser” scandals from a decade ago. The initial revelation that players had somehow been cheated by someone(s) who knew all of their hole cards was made by players using hand tracking software, but it was Haley that spent years tracking the accounts, tracking the money, collecting the evidence, in order to reveal the full extent of the scandal and the names of the people behind it.
Of her nomination, Haley said:
Being selected as a finalist for Women in Poker Hall of Fame consideration is an unexpected and humbling honor. WiPHoF occupies an important and unifying niche in poker and helps bring women into the game, an absolutely vital component for poker’s continued health and growth. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for several prominent sites over the years. including here at Flushdraw. Flushdraw founders Paudie and Ian deserve special recognition and thanks for creating a site where open discourse on many of poker’s and gambling’s trickier targets is brought to the public.
At this point, Haley is probably reading this and wishing I would stop talking about her (I expect an e-mail scolding), so I will move on. There are ten other very deserving candidates to be members of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2018. Here they are:
• Hermance Blum – General Manager WPT Europe, formerly in charge of French markets for both PokerStars and PartyGaming
• Mandy Glogow – Supervising Producer of the World Poker Tour
• Angelica Hael – VP of WPT Enterprises, Inc., in charge of Global Tour Management for WPT, formerly owner of gaming consulting company
• Maria Ho – television personality, professional poker player, poker television host
• Karina Jett – professional poker player for two decades, coordinator of annual Ante Up for Autism charity event
• Terry King – renowned poker dealer (that’s not something you hear every day), former floor manager at The Bike
• Shirley Rosario – accomplished cash game player and prop player at The Bike, one of the first real proponents of women in poker, launched Poker-Babes.com (side note: was really welcoming to me when I covered the WSOP in 2005, just a couple months into my poker writing career)
• Kara Scott – poker player, do-it-all host of many poker television shows including the WSOP, long-time ambassador and proponent for women in poker
• Lupe Soto – created Poker Chix, the first online poker forum for women, founded Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS), founded Women in Poker Hall of Fame, founded Senior Poker Tour, about to launch Women’s Poker Association
• Jennifer Tilly – Academy Award-nominated actress turned poker pro, won the 2005 WSOP Ladies Event and has served as an ambassador for the game, helping poker gain mainstream entertainment acceptance
It is now up to a panel of poker media members and WiPHoF members to cast their votes. Each person has ten votes to distribute as she or he chooses. Haley Hintze and Lupe Soto are both voters, but neither is permitted to cast a ballot this year, as they are finalists. Winners will be inducted at a special luncheon on June 26th at the Orleans casino in Las Vegas.
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