World Series of Poker officials announced late last week that nominations have been opened for the poker community to nominate qualified players for election to the Poker Hall of Fame. “This is about six weeks earlier than we normally do it,” noted Seth Palansky, the Vice President of Corporate Communications with Caesars Entertainment, to PokerNews.com. “The goal was to take advantage of the added traffic we get during the WSOP and to have more public awareness of the nomination process so all qualified candidates can be considered.” With this in mind, there has been one campaign that has been quite vociferous in its aim to have the late, David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott nominated.

As the opening of the nomination process began, several British and European players stated that they were fully behind the nomination of the legendary British professional poker player, who passed away in April of this year after a battle with colon cancer. Leading the way has been British pro Simon Trumper, who took to his Facebook page to lobby his followers to use their one nomination (the general public is given one nomination per e-mail address to suggest a nominee) on Ulliott. “Everyone who has played poker since Devilfish won Late Night Poker has benefited by the attention the game we love has achieved and his fame across the world (sic)…please vote and share the link with all your poker playing friends. .”

As a means to promoting Ulliott’s candidacy for the Hall, Trumper and many other British players have taken to wearing a specially prepared tee-shirt that features Ulliott’s visage on the front. While it doesn’t blatantly call for him to be voted into the Hall, the caption under the Ulliott photo and the pertinent information (the dates of his birth and passing) reads “a legendary poker player, unique and irreplaceable.”

Trumper isn’t alone in the professional community suggesting that Ulliott receive a nomination for the Poker Hall of Fame this year. Prior to his passing in April, Doyle Brunson suggested over Twitter that “If Devilfish has bad health problems, maybe we should try to get him in the Poker Hall of Fame now.” Other pros such as Joe Beevers (formerly of the Hendon Mob), Phil Hellmuth, Antanas ‘Tony G’ Guoga and Vicky Coren have also recently sounded off their opinions that Ulliott deserves to enter the Hall on this ballot.

If this sounds familiar, it is because a similar movement occurred last year. In that instance, there were calls from many in the poker community to have the late Chad Brown inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Brown received an honorary WSOP bracelet issued by Caesars and the WSOP before his passing.

There are also rumblings from the British and European contingent that, if Ulliott is unable to get enough votes for induction (two new inductees are put in each year, provided that they both earn more than 50% of the votes available from the voting members) that he should be placed in as an “honorable entry.” Unfortunately, under the guidelines for induction into the Poker Hall of Fame, there is no such thing as an “honorable entry” and, as such, Ulliott would have to earn his way in through the normal process.

It isn’t like Ulliott doesn’t have the credentials to get into the Hall of Fame on his own merits. He was a professional poker player before there was such a thing, making enough through the home games around his native Hull that he eventually had to start traveling to other areas because no one would include him in their games. He eventually worked his way into the tournament poker arena, with his first cash coming in 1993 in London. His first significant tourney score was in 1997, when he won the $2000 Pot Limit Hold’em event at the WSOP.

Ulliott tacked-on to that achievement and became a staple on the seminal British program Late Night Poker, which introduced the character that Ulliott was as well as the card skills he possessed. He would go on to win a championship on the World Poker Tour in 2003 and would come close to winning a second WSOP bracelet on several occasions. All totaled, Ulliott racked up 249 cashes in his tournament poker career and had $6,218,293 in career earnings – according to The Hendon Mob – by far the leader for players from the United Kingdom until Sam Trickett’s runner-up finish in the ‘Big One for One Drop’ in 2012.

Potential roadblocks to Ulliott’s induction aren’t a result of a lack of qualifications, but rather a backlog of qualified nominees. Such international players as Chris Bjorin, Humberto Brenes, Bruno Fitoussi, Marcel Luske, Thor Hansen and Carlos Mortensen (pictured) have been nominated in the past three processes, while U.S. pros Jennifer Harman, Mike Matusow, Huck Seed and Ted Forrest have also been on the lists (this doesn’t count Phil Ivey, who won’t be eligible until 2016). This doesn’t even scratch the surface when such legends of the game as Bob Hooks (nominated in 2014), and the founders and operators of the Irish Poker Open (the second oldest Texas Hold’em tournament in the world behind only the WSOP), Terry Rogers and Liam Flood, have yet to earn entry into the Hall up to this point.

With the nomination process underway until August 15, there is time for members of the poker community to make their voices heard. Whether Ulliott will be on the final ballot of 10 players/contributors for consideration by the Hall hangs in the balance until the nominees are announced.

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