The two inductees into the 2011 Poker Hall of Fame class are Linda Johnson and Barry Greenstein. With the induction of these two on Tuesday, it was a great day for poker and a great day for the Poker Hall of Fame. Both are extremely deserving of poker's highest honor.For years, Linda and Barry have been great ambassadors for poker and both are class with a capital “C.” Neither of them blows their own horn, pats themselves on the back, tells the world how great they are, nor brags about all they do to help raise and/or donate money to charities. They just do it - and do it in a big way. They set an example on and off the table we should all try to emulate.
Linda Johnson (pictured) is being inducted for her contributions to poker. In the past 20 years, there's not one person on the planet - not one - who has done more for the poker industry than Linda Johnson. She's known as "The First Lady of Poker," but for the past 20 years, she's been "The First Person of Poker." Linda's done everything in poker. She's been a successful professional player, has a WSOP bracelet, was an inaugural inductee into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, owned Card Player magazine, been a long-time part owner of Card Player Cruises (a company that's brought joy to thousands of poker players over the years), helped create the Tournament Directors Association, put on World Poker Conferences and annual seminars, co-founded PokerGives.org, run card rooms, directed tournaments, hosted charity events, been an announcer, and worked as a writer and teacher.
I've done numerous seminars and WPT Boot Camps over the years, a number of them with Linda, and can honestly say that when it comes to teaching poker, especially those new to the game, I've never seen anybody better than Linda Johnson.
There are two reasons for the growth of poker and the explosion of the popularity of poker: 1) Putting poker on television and 2) Online poker. Linda played a major role in both of those things.
Here's a poker trivia question for you: Who was the first online poker affiliate in history? It was Linda Johnson and Card Player Cruises. They partnered with PartyPoker in hosting the PartyPoker Million, which is how that site was launched. With their help, PartyPoker became the largest online poker site in the world.
In less than four years’ time, Party Gaming went public on the London Stock Exchange for nine billion dollars - the largest float in 30 years! That would have never happened without Linda Johnson. In fact, PartyPoker may have never got off the ground if it weren't for Linda and Card Player Cruises.
When Steve Lipscomb had the vision to put poker on television and create the World Poker Tour, he knew he was trying to do something that had never been done before in history - bringing competing casinos together in a joint project, in this case to form the WPT. To get those casinos to sign up, he summoned the help of the most respected person in poker, Linda Johnson. The WPT, now in its 10th season, changed poker forever. Without Linda's help, the WPT may have never happened.
Barry Greenstein is the epitome of the premier poker player. He's great at all games, has the best composure at the table of anyone you'll ever see, and has been a high-stakes all-star for years. He also authored "Ace on the River," a poker classic.After years of focusing on high-stakes games, Barry decided to turn to tournament poker when the WPT was formed. His results have been amazing. Barry is a two-time WPT champion and a three-time bracelet winner at the WSOP. To those in the know, even much more impressive is Barry's contributions to charities, primarily children's charities and especially Children, Inc.
Inducting Linda and Barry into the Poker Hall of Fame is a great day for poker and a great day for the Poker Hall of Fame.
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