The late Brian “Sailor” Roberts and the still-live-and-kicking Eric Drache are the next two individuals to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, making them the 43rd and 44th people to join that esteemed group.
Nominated by the public and then voted on by a panel of 36 member of the media and existing Poker Hall of Fame members, the pair includes one successful poker player and one innovative poker administrator.
The posthumous inductee of this year’s pair is Brian “Sailor” Roberts, who died back in 1995. He was the 1975 WSOP champion and a renowned member of the Texas Road Gamblers, which included fellow legends Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson both of whom have already been inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame.
Eric Drache, meanwhile, was tournament director of the World Series of Poker between 1973 and 1988 and is attributed with creating the idea of satellite tournaments, those smaller buy-in events that instead of awarding cash prizes award seats into bigger poker tournament events. Formerly managing land based card rooms at The Mirage, the Golden Nugget and the Silverbird, Drache was a consultant on a number of poker television products and himself an accomplished player of 7-Card Stud, having reached the top 3 in five WSOP 7-Card Stud events. Drache was also the person who came up with the idea of Poker Hall of Fame in the first place. In fact, upon hearing of his selection as an inductee this year he said that when he and Jack Binion came up with the concept of the Poker Hall of Fame he never considered himself a potential candidate.